Shane Parrish

• BookRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.

  Clear Thinking

  His 2023 book makes the case that you can out-position people rather than out-think them, and that most poor decisions come from running on autopilot. Automatic rules, he says, are how you turn the behavior you want into your default one.

  Source: fs.blog: Clear Thinking
  Visit fs.blog (opens in a new tab)1/62On record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it
• BookRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.

  How to Read a Book

  On his own site he summarized Adler's four levels of reading and teaches them as the way to match effort to the book in front of you. Most people stop at reading to inform, he says, and most of the value comes at the last two levels.

  Source: fs.blog: the best summary of How to Read a Book
  View item: How to Read a Book1/62On record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it
• BookRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.

  The Great Mental Models

  Sold singly or as a boxed set of four. Volume one lays out nine general thinking concepts, inversion and second-order thinking and first principles among them. The three that follow take their models from physics, chemistry and biology, then systems and mathematics, then economics and art.

  Source: fs.blog: The Great Mental Models
  Visit fs.blog (opens in a new tab)1/62On record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it

• SupplementDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.

  Caffeine

  Coffee comes before food, then a second one with breakfast after the opening block of work. Asked what his most important morning task is, he gave a one-word answer.

  Source: My Morning Routine interview
  View item: Caffeine14/62On record from 14 of 62 tracked people: 10 do it, 1 recommends it, 3 have discussed it

Structured routines and practices with a defined method.

• YogaDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.

  Books a yoga class at lunch rather than training in the morning, which stays reserved for deep work.

  Source: My Morning Routine interview

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• Time blockingDoes itFREE, no cost

  Plans the next day before bed, picking out the two or three projects that matter most and writing the schedule around them. Scheduling is what keeps him deciding where the hours go.

  Source: My Morning Routine interview

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• Deep work blocksDoes itFREE, no cost

  Gives himself 60 to 90 minutes of uninterrupted work first thing, breaks for coffee and breakfast, then runs a second block of the same length. Mornings are when he says he concentrates best.

  Source: My Morning Routine interview

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• Low-cost index fund investingDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.

  Buys into an index fund alongside everything else he does, and describes it as a fail-safe kept separate from his private deals. He also says he hides money from himself so he never starts assuming he is smarter than he is.

  Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #695 transcript

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• Hard thinking before lunchDoes itFREE, no cost

  Keeps the morning for deep work and difficult problems, and pushes phone calls into the afternoon. Focus peaks earlier in the day for most people, he says, before distractions and worn-down willpower arrive.

  Source: My Morning Routine interview

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• Automatic rulesDoes itFREE, no cost

  He credits Daniel Kahneman, who told him he keeps personal rules because people do not argue with rules. His own include stopping drinking at nine when he is out after a talk. The daily training rule exists, he says, because he hates working out.

  Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #695 transcript

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• Blank sheet methodDoes itFREE, no cost

  It took him years to develop, he says, and he still runs it: what he already knows goes on the page first, new material goes on in another color, and the sheets end up in a binder he rereads. He made one while reading Jeff Immelt before interviewing him.

  Source: fs.blog: from passive reading to active learning

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• Decision journalDoes itFREE, no cost

  Before a consequential call he writes down the situation, the alternatives he rejected, what he expects and how confident he is, then reads it back once the outcome is known. He published the template his team uses, with a real decision of his own filled in on it.

  Source: fs.blog: decision journal, template and example

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• Environment designRecommendsFREE, no cost

  Positioning does the work that willpower usually gets credit for, in his account of the book, and the environment you pick is part of it. Good preparation is what puts you there before the moment arrives.

  Source: The Knowledge Project #177: A Glimpse into Clear Thinking

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• Circle of competenceRecommendsFREE, no cost

  Size of the circle matters far less than knowing where its edge is, in his framing: step over it and your advantage passes to other people. Deep skill in one area, he notes, often comes with real weakness elsewhere.

  Source: fs.blog: circle of competence

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• InversionRecommendsFREE, no cost

  Thinking a problem backward is less likely to cause harm than adding another intervention, he argues, which is why he calls it the avoiding stupidity filter. He traces the idea to Jacobi by way of Munger.

  Source: fs.blog: inversion and the power of avoiding stupidity

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• Second-order thinkingRecommendsFREE, no cost

  The prompt he gives is one question, and then what, asked across ten minutes, ten months and ten years. First-order thinking is the failure he points at: it takes whatever settles the immediate problem and leaves the consequences to turn up later.

  Source: fs.blog: second-order thinking

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Recurring behaviors recorded in public statements.

• Daily readingDoes itFREE, no cost

  Twenty-five pages a day is his literal rule, and he says that once he commits to the minimum he almost always goes past it. He worked out that the pace clears roughly ten thousand pages a year, which is how the doorstoppers finally get read.

  Source: fs.blog: just twenty-five pages a day

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• Daily meditationDoes itFREE, no cost

  Meditation sits in his evening, not his morning. It settles his mind after a busy day and helps him sleep, he says.

  Source: My Morning Routine interview

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• Daily walkingDoes itFREE, no cost

  Takes long walks in the afternoon while making phone calls, which is how movement gets into a day handed over to work.

  Source: My Morning Routine interview

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• Daily minimum workoutDoes itFREE, no cost

  Kept losing an internal negotiation about training three times a week, so he changed the rule to every day and gave himself permission to shrink the session instead. The negotiation in his head became what to fit in rather than whether to go. A five-mile walk counts.

  Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #695 transcript

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• Phone-free first hourDoes itFREE, no cost

  Tries to leave the phone alone in the morning, on the grounds that anything genuinely urgent will reach him another way. Email waits until late morning or afternoon.

  Source: My Morning Routine interview

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• AntilibraryDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.

  Built what he calls his antilibrary and keeps adding to it, reckoning he has read about a quarter of what is on the shelves. He wants to own a book rather than borrow it, so he can write in it.

  Source: fs.blog: just twenty-five pages a day

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• No alarm clockDoes itFREE, no cost

  Has not used an alarm clock in years, except when he has an early flight to catch. He wakes somewhere around six.

  Source: My Morning Routine interview

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• Quitting the newsDoes itFREE, no cost

  Reading things that have lasted had one result he calls surprising: he stopped reading the news. He tells readers to read old books and skip most new ones, since news is by definition the part that will not last.

  Source: fs.blog: strategies to retain everything you read

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• Daily writingRecommendsFREE, no cost

  Told his teenage son that writing your thoughts out is one of the ways you learn to think for yourself, after the boy asked to hand the essay to AI instead. Writing, he argues, is the process by which you discover you do not understand something.

  Source: fs.blog: writing to think

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• “The solution I devised for myself is a simple one: 25 pages a day. That’s it. Just commit to that, and then do it.”

  On Daily reading

• “I am going to work out every day. And it doesn’t mean I go to the gym every day and it doesn’t mean I go for 60 minutes. I can reduce the scope or duration of my workout, but I’m going to work out every single day.”

  On Daily minimum workout

• “Automatic rules turn your desired behavior into your default behavior, and they do it when you’re at your best. And so you can pre-decide a lot of things.”

  On Automatic rules

• “I give myself 60-90 minutes of uninterrupted time to focus on deep work and difficult problems.”

  On Deep work blocks

• “Everyone has blindspots; the best way to discover yours is to keep a decision journal.”

  On Decision journal

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