Podcast appearances and mentions of Sebastian Marshall

“Think lightly about yourself and deeply of the world” — one of the precepts of the death-bed testimony of Miyamoto Musashi (1584-1645), one of the greatest swordsmen in Japanese history along with a skilled painter, caligrapher, writer, and philosopher. Ultraworking's CTO Lee Knowlton joins Sebastian Marshall to talk about Miyamoto Musashi, the Dokkodo, “The Way”, and what modern people could learn from this wonderful document. ~~~ Jumping-off point to more study: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dokkōdō

Discomfort can be pushed through, but actual physical pain as a warning signal should not be disregarded. Ultraworking's Head of Teamwork, Andi Banez, joins Sebastian Marshall to explore.

Ultraworking's Chris Natterer and Sebastian Marshall discuss how Chris switched his keyboard layout and typing style from the default “QWERTY” keyboard to the more-efficient “COLEMAK” layout — with some surprisingly informative universal lessons about learning and skill progression. 

Sebastian Marshall brings the mentality of an athlete to knowledge work.He's a cutting edge productivity expert and the CEO of Ultraworking — a company obsessed with making the nature of work better.Topics include:* Why you probably need “weird” practices to live the life you want.* The power of tracking everything you do with your time (and how to do it).* More evidence that everyone needs a gang.* Why religion might be the biggest productivity hack.* Death and its clarifying effects on your to do list.* Sebastian's near death experiences and how they changed his life.* Why consciously designing your environment is mandatory in modernity.* How to improve the yield of philosophy.Resources:* ultraworking.com* On Heroes, Hero-Worship, & the Heroic in History - Thomas Carlyle* Daniel's favourite Ultraworking tool for tracking practices This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themetagame.substack.com

Sensors for personal use, like the Oura Ring and Apple Watch, have gotten way better over the last 10 years. While they're still maybe not "fully ready for primetime" — they can already be used to get interesting information and gains. Chris Natterer and Sebastian Marshall discuss Chris's sensors, metrics, and some science around it.

Chris Natterer and Sebastian Marshall of Ultraworking talk about bringing full focus to planning. A lot of times people do planning somewhat lazily. Which is bad. Discussion of why and cultivating more full focus and intensity.

Topics:   (1:46) - Who are your heroes?   (7:25) - Sebastian's affinity for studying history, sports, art & professional gamers   (11:30) - How do you take lessons learned from these studies and apply them to entrepreneurship?     (13:01) - Why do you approach life and work with a lens of ruthless optimization? (18:12) - Breaking down the concept of ‘productivity'   (26:56) - Non-value producing work   (28:11) - Do you find that you have a higher sense of baseline after experimenting with  optimizing your entire life?   (34:25) - Maximum sustainable pace vs. Maximum possible pace   (39:44) - Optimizing for fun   (44:34) - Can you expand on the growth of Ultraworking?   (50:04) - Improving scope-to-quality of work   (55:36) - Sebastian's period of life attempting to visit every country in the world   (1:00:59) - Sebastian's writing eras and how they changed him   (1:14:40) - Agree or disagree: Self-measurement is self-punishment   (1:19:51) - Monthly themes for life   (1:22:45) - What is the mental model you find yourself implementing in your life the most?     Links:   Ultraworking Sebastian Marshall on Medium   The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt   Scipio Africanus: Greater Than Napoleon by B. H. Lidell Hart   On Heroes, Hero-worship and the Heroic in History by Thomas Carlyle   You and Your Research by Richard Hamming   Stedi Annual Letter - Operational excellence   Gateless by Sebastian Marshall   Extreme Productivity by Robert Pozen   Product Hunt   Clockwork Nutrition   To support the costs of producing this podcast:  >> Buy a copy of the Navalmanak: www.navalmanack.com/  >> Sign up for my online course and community about building your Personal Leverage: https://www.ejorgenson.com/leverage  >> Invest in early-stage companies alongside Eric and his partners at Rolling Fun: https://angel.co/v/back/rolling-fun >> Join the free weekly email list at ejorgenson.com/newsletter >> Text the podcast to a friend >> Give the podcast a positive review to help us reach new listeners  >> Name-your-price subscription monthly, annual, or one-time: https://app.omella.com/o/9Bufa  >> Follow me on Twitter: @ericjorgenson >> Get in touch about sponsoring this podcast by replying to an email or DMing me on Twitter.

Sebastian is co-founder of Ultraworking, a company that runs timed group work sessions on the internet (among other things). We get into the things he’s discovered really help improve productivity as well as the world outside pure ‘productivity’ gains.Follow Sebastian on Twitter here.Learn more about Ultraworking at https://www.ultraworking.com/

Combining timeless storytelling with cutting edge marketing, Kyle Gray created The Story Engine to help brilliant professionals convey their message more effectively. He has helped dozens of startups and small businesses succeed in content marketing.    Kyle says that emotion plays a large role in the decision-making process and stories are the key for connecting through emotions. Listen in as we talk about how to do this without being sleazy or pushy to inform, educate and entertain an audience and ultimately sell through story.  Partner: The Real Estate Syndication Podcast hosted by Whitney Sewell   Key Insights Create and craft your story for where the audience is on their journey The bigger the investment, the more emotional the decision The logical brain is slow, but the emotional brain is fast (gut-feeling) 3 Things to Communicate When Telling a Story: Here’s why I’m just like you, here’s why I’m extraordinary and here’s why I care Stories are not really about you - they are about your customer Through story-telling you can share what you do, results you’ve driven, and programs you offer Realized he had a thyroid problem - Hashimoto Disease and spent years seeking a solution Met a physician who helped him relieve his pain and he helped her get clear on how to present the value of her services Constructing and crafting your story can be authentic and maintain integrity As a professional, you need to serve the people who need your help and charge your fair rate When you are starting out in business, you just need a client   Partner: Download a Free Sample Apartment Deal Package    Bull’s Eye Tips:    Resources: Selling with Story by Kyle Gray   The Story Engine by Kyle Gray Most Recommended Book: Progression by Sebastian Marshall    Most Recommended Digital/Mobile Resource: Bomb Bomb   Daily Habit: Wim Hof Breathing   Apparent Failure: Saw his health issues as a failure, but it provided gratitude and purpose   Wish I Knew When I Was Starting Out Hiring team members would be able to help him elevate faster   Current Curiosity: Connections between what he says in his mind and his physical health   Best Place to Grab a Bite in Salt Lake City: The East Liberty Tap House   Connect with Kyle: Website: thestoryengine.co   Leave us a review and rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Be sure to check out more info at TargetMarketInsights.com.  

É possível viver uma vida plena, longa e feliz quando, segundo os japoneses, você encontra o seu ikigai, que ajuda você a definir e apreciar os prazeres da vida. Ikigai é um termo japonês que faz referência à razão de ser de cada pessoa. O ikigai é o seu propósito de vida que, quando encontrado, faz com que você viva mais, aumente a sua saúde, seja menos estressado e, principalmente, se torne mais realizado com a sua vida. Se você deseja descobrir como encontrar alegria e satisfação em tudo o que fizer, o resumo do livro Ikigai é para você. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Conheça o meu treinamento avançado de desenvolvimento pessoal e evolua 10 anos em 15 horas: https://engrandece.com/semlimites/ Conecte-se através de todas as mídias sociais: Blog: engrandece.com/blog/ Facebook: engrandece.com/facebook/ Instagram: engrandece.com/instagram/ YouTube: engrandece.com/youtube/ Podcast: engrandece.com/podcast/ Contato Oficial: engrandece.com/contato/ Um grande abraço!

What do most people do when something unhappy and unpleasant comes up? They tend to plaster it with feel-good feelings and encouragement.  Here at Ultraworking, we have a reality cop, aka Sebastian Marshall, to stop us from avoiding reality. When something's scary or unfamiliar, we embrace the abyss and work through it. Full show notes: www.ultraworking.com/podcast/reality-cop

How do you start to build the programming thinking model for someone who's lightly technical or non technical? Let's talk programming with the cofounders of Ultraworking, Sebastian Marshall and Kai Zau. Potentially useful for someone's who's lightly technical or non-technical — lots of metaphors to describe the programming thinking model in this episode.  Full show notes with links: www.ultraworking.com/podcast/is-your-programming-project-like-ikea-home-depot-or-an-iron-mine

The co-founders at Ultraworking, Kai Zau and Sebastian Marshall, talk about estimation.  Why is it so hard to know how long things take to complete? So how do we get better at it? How do we simulate and predict the future?  Full show notes with links: www.ultraworking.com/podcast/estimation

Welcome to the very first episode! In this episode, host Sebastian Marshall explores a topic that's been almost an obsession for him. It's something he's searching for, that might be impossible, but he can't stop searching for it — it's the ‘Holy Grail' of peak performance — whether it's possible to get both the benefits of massive almost manic creative runs *and* the benefits of radical consistency. It might be impossible — but that won't stop us from searching for it and profiting for the exploration. Full show notes with links: www.ultraworking.com/podcast/the-holy-grail

Do you feel like you don’t have enough time and you’re constantly in a state of reacting to external stimulus? How do you conduct a powerful monthly review that will unlock opportunities for growth, focus, and improvement? In this episode, we go deep into stacking powerful mental models, harnessing best practices, and optimizing your life with our guest Sebastian Marshall. Sebastian Marshall is an author, entrepreneur, and founder of Ultraworking.com. His blog SebastianMarshall.com has been read by over half a million people from a wide range of industries and walks of life. At Ultraworking, Sebastian helps those who are already tremendously productive take even greater leaps and get more done in record timeHow do you take things apart and learn what makes them tick?What stops people from applying ideas and techniques that they know, understand, and would help them?How do you learn about any topic that is interesting to you?How do you follow the ancient wisdom of “know thyself"The problem of losing weight is not a problem of lack of information - it’s a problem of something else stopping you - this can be applied to anythingThis idea of how to think, how to make decisions - if you want to lose weight - people spend 99% of their time trying to get the perfect bit of information and the perfect strategy, if you just took something that was “Good enough” - you could get 90% of the way there with extremely simple tactics - but I the big barrier to that is that people often don’t know how to THINKWhen you’re trying to create ANY result - you have to begin with studying some of the best practicesWhen you’re trying to learn, beginners want basic rules to follow Very advanced people tend to operate on heuristics instead of rigid rules What are mental models and why are they important? The 3 question weekly review that will revolutionize your time and priorities.Starting with big, aspirational goals can actually be dangerous or problematic If you want to take on any big goal and succeed, you have to start with an analysis of where you are and what’s working. How do you conduct a powerful monthly review that will unlock opportunities for growth, focus, and improvement?Do you feel like you don’t have enough time and you’re constantly in a state of reacting to external stimulus? How do you apply the idea of compounding your own personal development? If there’s a lot of junk in your life, you don’t have space for the good and important things in your life Cut the junk, set a baseline of contemplative routines, and start stacking them up If you stack enough best practices and mental models together, suddenly you start to build rockets. It’s not about being a super disciplined person - it's about creating the conditions that enable you to be successful. A lot of people break down the first time they have a failure, design your protocols and habits to have failure baked into it. Sebastian targets a 70% success rate for his daily habits. The ideal Olympic athlete doesn’t give 110%. Most people only give 40-60% of what they’re capable of, even when they think they are trying hard. Athletes should train at 80% of maximum ability.Why you should establish a “fire break” to clean your mental slate periodically. Homework: If you don’t have a structured introspection time or contemplative routine. Pick a time and do one. Create a calendar appointment to do this.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ben boldly admitted to doing a “weird” thing. He started listening to “us.” Not necessarily for quality control, but to spark his memory about topics Derrick and he talked about in previous AoP episodes. As a result, Ben’s become addicted to listening to people building companies podcasts. Unfortunately, there’s just not that many of them. Derrick also admitted to listening regularly to previous AoP episodes. But more so during the early days of the podcast, when he was apprehensive about his own ability on the microphone and wanted to find ways to improve. Today’s Topics Include: Cool Podcast with Cold Open: Hit “Play” and start talking Autophagy: Putting a twist-tie on snack cabinet sucks, but benefits your body and brain Tuple’s most requested feature: Multi-way calls Successful Meta-habit: Surveys serve as way to get feedback on product features Potential strategies for setting a launch date for Tuple Art of Building a Product and Company: Word-of-mouth, referrals, affiliate programs Derrick’s Level Launch: Warm email reminder to whet people’s appetite Mini-funnel Metrics for Level Launch: 500 given access to Level via email 70% open rate for email 182 created user account 41 created a team Onboarding Process for Level: Step 1: Create user account Step 2: Demo account is activated Fork in the Road: Optimize each phase and equip people to make it through funnel to get feedback on Level Derrick’s Top 2 Priorities for Level: Documentation and more manual outreach Derrick gets Ben “Pricing” Orenstein’s advice on who needs Level the most Derrick’s Plan for Level: Repeat, refine, and resend Links and resources: Art of Product on Twitter (https://twitter.com/artofproductpod) Derrick Reimer (http://www.derrickreimer.com) Website Derrick Reimer on Twitter (https://twitter.com/derrickreimer) Ben Orenstein (http://www.benorenstein.com/) Website Ben Orenstein on Twitter (https://twitter.com/r00k?lang=en) Level (https://level.app/) Tuple (https://tuple.app/) The Art of Product: Episode 78 - Ultraworking with Sebastian Marshall (https://artofproductpodcast.com/episode-78) Tuple’s Pair Programming Guide (https://tuple.app/pair-programming-guide) Derrick’s Level Manifesto (https://level.app/manifesto) Drip (https://www.drip.com/) 113: Justin Jackson - Growing Transistor to $10,000/month (http://www.fullstackradio.com/113) GitHub (https://github.com/) Clearbit (https://clearbit.com/)

Sebastian Marshall joins Charlie on the podcast today to talk about productivity from a different perspective. Sebastian is the co-founder of Ultraworking, a company building technology to help people hit flow states and peak performance more often in their work. He and Charlie talk about peak performance, and how the path to peak performance often requires focus on areas outside your work. Key Takeaways: [1:45] - Sebastian and his co-founder worked together on various nonprofit and education ventures before starting their company. They were both interested in how different companies and people doing the same work performed differently, and how they could measure quality and reliable work. Today, in their business, they focus on three main things: 1) reliable effectiveness 2) frequent flow states and 3) rapid recovery. [6:25] - Having a flexible productivity system helps these three points, especially the rapid recovery. This allows you to continue with productivity, even if something happens that gets you off track. We want to be able to operate even when our context doesn’t match the system we’ve built to do reliable work. [8:40] - People don’t often think about or model statistical base rates out in the world. We don’t typically plan time for things to go wrong. Sebastian shares some research that indicates we should give 80% of our capacity each day. This gives us a reserve that we can use if something comes up and still allows us to get our work done, and also provides some built in slack that we can use if needed. [14:00] - The 80% mark requires that everyone be really good at what they do. This may not be the maximum optimization for new companies; it may be a goal to work towards. [15:30] - Sebastian recommends following up big tasks with an enjoyable project, rather than stacking big projects back to back to back. This helps you use the time you have more effectively, and often people move more quickly through their big projects with the luxury end goal on the horizon. It’s also important to plan time for transitions between projects, so you can unwind and evaluate a project before moving on to the next one. You can also use this transition time to clean, archive, and trash. [22:00] - Taking time to cleanse after a project sets you up for the next project, and also allows you to re-recruit your body and catch up to the process and project you’ve just finished. The recovery process for our minds is similar to our recovery processes for our bodies, and should be treated as such. [26:10] - A lot of the cognitive work that we do is actually done in places outside of our brain. The body is part of a greater matrix of effectiveness and energy that it takes to do our best work. We need times that we’re not at 100% to hit the highest level of output. [27:20] - There are a lot of connections between biochemistry and productivity that can explain how things happening to us outside of our work can affect us while we’re in our work. For an example, this is especially true for caffeine. Making biochemistry changes seem harder in the moment, but if you accept that it doesn’t have to be harder, it can actually make things a lot better. [32:20] - There is a distinction between the meta skill of behavior change, and the particular behavior change you want to implement. For example, when people try to clean up their diet, they often start by trying to cut out what they enjoy most. Instead, Sebastian started slowly eliminating the lowest things on his list that he used to eat. This built up the meta skill of quitting and separated it from actually quitting individual behaviors. You can gradually set up the systems and skills for quitting behaviors, and then use them to tackle the harder things. [37:05] - Everyone has an activity they like to do that’s a waste based upon their preferences and priorities. Eliminating them with the slow-quit method will help you with control and free you up to focus on other things. [40:05] - We can be hardcoreabout one thing at a time. If you want to be super hardcore, you have to be paying a lot of attention to the changes. If you’re regularly having conflict, you probably aren’t going to be able to effectively develop a habit. The same is true for our productivity systems. You can have one or two habits that you’re hardcore about, but everything else needs to be free. [43:55] - To help behavior changes, you can make the cost of not doing something higher than the cost of doing it, or the reverse. When you’re first trying something new, you have to be clear about whether the discomfort you’re feeling is the discomfort of change, or whether it’s discomfort of being out of values or principles. [46:20] - Sebastian combats this discomfort by doing some fairly intense monthly planning. He focuses on one theme or one core idea each month, and can anticipate pressure in this area. The time period of a month is usually a good indication about whether it’s something worth continuing or whether you need to tweak something to make it more effective. [51:50] - If you surround yourself with other people who are committed to getting a lot out of life, they can help hold you accountable for the goals you set for yourself. Other top performers who see you as a top performer will help you get there and stay there, or help you grow in your practices. [55:25] - If you’re looking for other people like this, you may have to get out and put yourself in situations where these people interact. Sebastian gives some tips for people who are looking to surround themselves with other top performers. You can ask for advice, and then follow up after you’ve given it a try. You will build up a reputation as someone who asks smart questions and tries out suggestions. People look out for people who are doing stuff. [1:00:25] - Sebastian’s invitation/ challenge for listeners is to go set a monthly theme for next month. Give it a name, almost like a mantra. Build some supporting policies around your theme, and run hard on it. If you do it, let Sebastian know how it went! Mentioned in This Episode: Productive Flourishing Work at 85% Capacity with 100% Focus, by Charlie Gilkey The Goal, by Eliyahu Goldratt Ultraworking Monthly Planner Email Sebastian Marshall

We all freak out about things from time to time. Ben becomes neurotic about feedback, but fellow Tuple team members have different triggers that put them into a tailspin. Fortunately, Ben has found ways to better handle stress. In this episode, Ben and Derrick are joined by Sebastian Marshall, co-founder of Ultraworking. In previous episodes, Ben has mentioned Ultraworking and how he has benefitted from it. Today’s Topics Include: Using what he learned about monthly planning from Ultraworking, Ben did March for Tuple Ben met meditation goal via Ultraworking’s Lights spreadsheet, accountability partners 10 to 10: Ben’s theme for March; wants to win the night and beginning of the day by going to bed at the right time and developing a morning routine to be more alert and energetic Ben’s doing Tuple demos and getting positive feedback; promising things are happening Derrick decided to move forward with notifications feature for Level; shipping it soon Note about Level’s performance improvement offers positive sentiment and sanity check How much do you trust your own emotional memory, if you feel like you’re making progress or not? Do a data-driven review of week to assess and analyze headway Track where your time is spent using start and end time; only track most important work Defining wasted vs. leisure time; aren’t they the same? Depends on how you feel afterwards? Good or bad? Two categories of “bad” time: Neurotic flow and regret agreeing to something Average day in the life of Sebastian at Ultraworking; what makes or breaks his week Building a company and keeping it alive; Ben’s “duh” moment about delegating Ultraworking’s Work Cycles: Doing work (creative, technical, etc.) in structured way Links and resources: Art of Product on Twitter (https://twitter.com/artofproductpod) Derrick Reimer (http://www.derrickreimer.com) Website Derrick Reimer on Twitter (https://twitter.com/derrickreimer) Ben Orenstein (http://www.benorenstein.com/) Website Ben Orenstein on Twitter (https://twitter.com/r00k?lang=en) Level (https://level.app/) Tuple (https://tuple.app/) Ultraworking (https://www.ultraworking.com/aop) Ultraworking: Monthly Planning (https://www.ultraworking.com/monthly) Ultraworking: Cycles Template (https://www.ultraworking.com/cycles) Ultraworking: Lights Spreadsheet (https://www.ultraworking.com/lights) Roguelike by Sebastian Marshall (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25535056-roguelike) GitLab (https://about.gitlab.com/) Bench (https://bench.co/) Drip (https://www.drip.com/) Extreme Productivity by Robert Pozen (https://www.amazon.com/Extreme-Productivity-Boost-Results-Reduce-ebook/dp/B007HBLNSS)

Sebastian Marshall ~ Ultraworking Founder & Expert ~ Current Series ~ 100 Interviews with 100 Major Influencers   I think most listeners on the show know about my love and mild obsession with being productive. When I get around other productivity lovers it is always fun to jump down the rabbit hole of productivity hacks. Today's show is just that!  Sebastian Marshall, the founder of Ultraworking.com joins us on the podcast and we chat about productivity on both business and personal levels. Sebastian shares in detail on how he sets and achieves goals, how he keeps motivated, and his daily ritual. We also chat about how Sebastian structures his life and business to ensure the most optimal productive result.   02:45: Why to Always Have a Spare Bedroom 04:02: Sebastian Becoming a Productivity Expert 10:37: Sebastian's Rule of Spending Time with People 14:07: Biggest Challenge in the Work Place Today and Recording Your Time 17:52: UltraWorking's Best Practices 24:08: Achieving 10% Growth per Week 32:23: Flow-State and 400% Productivity 40:57: Measuring Neurochemicals in Your Body to Increase Productivity 45:03: Sebastian's Daily Routine Contact Info:   https://www.ultraworking.com/tbm http://sebastianmarshall.com

In this episode, I sit down with writer, speaker, and co-founder and CEO of Ultraworking, Sebastian Marshall. We dive into the concrete steps to building your perfect life and accomplishing any goal you desire.  

When it comes to productivity and efficiency, a lot of guides and books have theories or ideas on how to improve. But what if you want tools that are a bit more concrete? How do you not only improve your business’ results, but also measure those results following clear metrics? Sebastian Marshall, the CEO and co-founder of a company called Ultraworking, tells us how Ultraworking wants to improve the very nature of work.

When it comes to productivity and efficiency, a lot of guides and books have theories or ideas on how to improve. But what if you want tools that are a bit more concrete? How do you not only improve your business’ results, but also measure those results following clear metrics? Sebastian Marshall, the CEO and co-founder of a company called Ultraworking, tells us how Ultraworking wants to improve the very nature of work.

There are 168 hours in a week. How are you spending those? In this episode, you'll learn how to get all your work done quickly and effectively, grow revenues and ship projects, and stay sane in the process while delighting customers. Sebastian Marshall is the cofounder of Ultraworking, a company that's building the future of work itself. Ultraworking's "performance-enhancing software" is being used by fast-growth businesses, programmers, engineers, attorneys, and creatives, including employees at Google and NASA. You'll Learn How do you stay on top of all your habits? How do you ensure you consistently have fantastic months with a lot of business and personal growth? How do you get big projects done quickly? The three questions you should ask yourself every week Tune in for more details! Resources Get Sebastian's curated free resources at https://www.ultraworking.com/unofficial — spreadsheets, templates, guides, etc. https://www.ultraworking.com/pursuit [https://www.ultraworking.com/lights/](Lights Spreadsheet) https://www.boomeranggmail.com/ [http://emailga.me/](The Email Game) Share your thoughts Ask a question in The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group Share this show on Twitter Never miss an episode Subscribe on iTunes Join Kurt's newsletter Help the show Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings & reviews help, and I read each one. Subscribe on iTunes What's Kurt up to? See our recent work at Ethercycle Take a ride with Kurt on YouTube Grow Your Store in 2018 Apply to work with Kurt to grow your store. Prefer to DIY? Read a free sample chapter of Kurt's book Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com Learn what's Shopify Plus got that regular Shopify doesn't?” Sponsors Try Bold Product Upsell free for 90 days Save 20% on Turbo, a blazing fast Shopify theme Improve your shop's search engine ranking with Venntov SEO Meta Manager

In this expert episode, our guest is Sebastian Marshall, founder of Ultraworking.  Sebastian is also an author. You may recall we talked about the Japanese concept of Ikigai in our last episode. Sebastian's first book was called Ikigai.  Here’s what we cover:  -The different online tools and systems that Sebastian uses -- and also that me and Mikael use. And perhaps more important, the thinking that goes behind it.   -You'll learn what a "Keystone" is--and how you can use it to stay on top of your work  -Sebastian talks about the 3 metrics for improving your productivity (to get more important work done each day)  And finally: Why you don't want to have 2 tools competing for the same purpose  There’s lot of ideas for improving your work in this episode. Hope you like it and use it!   GET SEBASTIAN’S FREE TEMPLATES (WORK CYCLES & LIGHT SPREAD SHEETS)  Work Cycles + Light Spread Sheets: https://www.ultraworking.com/future  ================  THE 2 ESSAYS SEBASTIAN RECOMMENDED TO LUDVIG:  George Orwell: Politics and the English Language (for writers)  Peter Norvig of Google: Warning Signs in Experimental Design and Interpretation (accurate thinking)  ================  FUTURE SKILLS:  *Subscribe to Future Skills on: iTunes | Android  *Join our newsletter for weekly summaries of the episodes.  *Apply for the Future Skills Program 

"When I reached thirty I looked back on my past. The previous victories were not due to my having mastered strategy. Perhaps it was natural ability, or the order of heaven, or that other schools’ strategy was inferior. After that I studied morning and evening searching for the principle, and came to realise the Way of strategy when I was fifty." In this episode of Made You Think, Neil and Nat discuss The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi. Musashi was the greatest Samurai ever, famous for winning over 60 samurai duels. In this book he uses the art of sword fighting to develop a set of principles that can guide you through your personal and professional life. Study strategy over the years and achieve the spirit of the warrior. Today is victory over yourself of yesterday; tomorrow is your victory over lesser men. We cover a wide range of topics, including: Strategy in business and in life Lots of Japanese aphorisms Giving excuses when failing The importance of mastering different skills How it’ll look like when we reach 100 podcasts And much more. Please enjoy, and be sure to grab a copy of The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi! The teacher cannot force learning on the student, and the student cannot learn in isolation: "The teacher is as a needle, the disciple is as thread. You must practice constantly."   If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to check out our episode on Way of Zen by Alan Watts, a book that about Buddhism and mastering skills, as well as our episode on Inner Game of Tennis by Timothy Gallwey, another book starts with a specific activity to infer global principles. Be sure to join our mailing list to find out about what books are coming up, giveaways we're running, special events, and more. Links from the Episode Mentioned in the show Kindle [0:49] Quip Toothbrush [11:58] ButcherBox [11:58] Kettle & Fire [11:58] Perfect Keto [11:58] Four Sigmatic Mushroom Coffee [11:58] Cup & Leaf [11:58] Uber [14:42] Black Mirror [15:16] Jocko Podcast [17:46] Virtue Signalling [42:59] Joe Rogan’s Podcast [47:08] Haidong Kumdo [49:10] Tailored Fit [53:48] ModCloth [53:48] Chess [57:11] Go [57:11] StarCraft [58:13] DOTA [58:13] Lyft [59:19] Tesla [1:00:31] Books mentioned The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi (Nat’s notes) Musashi the Novel by Eiji Yoshikawa [1:25] Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand [2:51] Homo Deus by Yuval Harari [2:51] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari [2:51] (Nat’s notes) (book episode part 1 & part 2) Striking Thoughts by Bruce Lee [3:56] (Nat’s notes) Levels of the Game by John McPhee [7:11] The Inner Game of Tennis [7:33] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) Principles [7:52] (Nat’s Notes) (book episode) Mastery by Robert Greene [8:00] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas R. Hofstadter [8:08] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) Letters from a Stoic by Seneca [19:03] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) Way of Zen by Alan Watts [19:39] (Nat’s notes) (Neil’s notes) (book episode) Lanterns on the Levee by William Percy [25:23] Skin in the Game by Nassim Taleb [26:19] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) The Secret by Rhonda Byrne [34:35] Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James [34:57] 12 Rules for Life by Dr. Jordan B. Peterson [35:33] (Nat’s notes) (Neil’s notes) (book episode) The Art of Seduction by Robert Greene [35:38] (Nat’s notes) Tao Te Ching by Laozi [45:27] (Nat’s notes) Finite and Infinite Games [1:08:54] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) Zen and Art of Motorcycle Maintenance [1:12:23] People mentioned Miyamoto Musashi Rumi, Persian Poet [2:21] Bruce Lee [3:56] Lucius Annaeus Seneca [19:03] Robert Greene [36:40] Jocko Podcast [37:42] Nathan Latka [38:58] Elon Musk [1:00:06] (on this podcast) Sebastian Marshall [1:11:15] (on Nat Chat) Jocko’s book on the Tim Ferriss’ blog [1:11:28] Adil Majid [1:15:14] Show Topics 3:14 – Musashi's background and how he became the most famous samurai. In this book he writes about strategy and philosophy through the lens of sword fighting. His writing style starts with examples at micro level and unfolds them into general principles. Development of the Niten Ichi-ryū school, the style of fighting with one short and one long sword. Books that use sports or physical activities as a canvas to explain strategy, psychology, and philosophy. 9:45 – Sponsor time! Scentbird. Online subscription plan to receive at home all perfumes you want to try. Go to Scentbird, build your queue, and get 50% OFF with the coupon mentioned in the episode. They don't take much space in or bag, so very convenient to travel with. Very helpful if you want to go into subscription mode for everything in your life like Nat. 12:40 – Time period where guns were spreading but swords were still popular. 15:26 – Ground. Foundation for the other books and the most applicable to real world problems beyond sword fighting. Four personas: the gentlemen, the farmers, the artisans and the merchants. The teacher can be guidance but one has to move through the process. Symbiotic relationship between teacher and student. 19:16 – “The way of the warrior is resolute acceptance of death”. Does acceptance of death make you a better warrior? "The Dojo" example applied to Marketing. There are so many marketing gurus pushing for their school as it is the only true alternative, while they are truly looking for profit. 23:12 – “This is a truth: when you sacrifice your life, you must make fullest use of your weaponry”. It is false not to do so, and to die with a weapon yet undrawn. You can't allow yourself to fail without trying everything you have at your disposal. Romanticizing failures and not learning from them. The fine line of failure and ego protection. Not going all in gives you an excuse if you fail. 26:23 – “It will seem difficult at first, but everything is difficult at first”. Everything is hard when you start. Having a diversity of abilities. In sports, a winning strategy is to water the opponents favorite strategy. Having a favorite weapon or skill is a weakness. Bruce Lee's fighting against his own Martial Arts school, by following his philosophy of non-philosophy. Coping other does not make sense because what works for others may not work for you. 31:39 – Water. “With water as the basis, the spirit becomes like water. Water adopts the shape of its receptacle, it is sometimes a trickle and sometimes a wild sea”. Being able to break over the rocks and not being stopped by them. Being able to work around an obstacle and being fluid. The difference of learning indoor techniques with learning into the wild. Book summaries visitor stats. 36:56 – Our private behavior and public behavior should be the same at all times. Instagram and social media push us to build a fake personality, and pretend we are a different person from what we really are. Me too stuff. White people trying to win points between minorities. 43:45 – “In strategy it is important to see distant things as if they were close and to take a distanced view of close things”. Japanese aphorisms. Detaching from personal feelings to get the big picture. How Rogan can make so many podcasts. 48:15 – Fire. Here Masashi starts to get very technical on fighting. Training to the point it becomes an innate knowledge. You know when something is natural to you when you have a hard time explaining it. The best mentor is not someone far along and super successful but most of the times, just a few steps ahead from you. 55:12 – Methods to slow down enemies' attacks. Attacking first, counter attacking, and attacking at the same time. Maintain control of your position. It is bad to be led about by the enemy. Taking the initiative may have psychological advantages by not being responsive to the enemy but making him responsive to you. Acting vs reacting. Having the enemy to respond to your moves so they don't have time to develop their strategies. Staying relevant and on the news in order to push the competition to show their cards. 1:01:46 – Wind. “Crossing at a ford”. Knowing when to enter in a negotiation, in a position of strength. Having the discipline to delay to act when it's the right time. Being able to put oneself in the enemy's shoes. Criticizing other schools. 1:08:00 – Void. Conventional and unspoken knowledge. True mastery is something you cannot put into a book, it has no end. Anti dogma. 1:14:08 – Sponsors. If you want to smell lovely and have an easy solution for all your perfumes and colognes needs checkout Scentbird. Use our code to get 50% off your first month subscription. Get your mushroom coffee from Four Sigmatic. They have a new Think blend! Try also the Cordyceps blend, their Reishi blend for sleep. Nat is drinking Lapsang Souchong black tea from Cup & Leaf. It tastes like a brandy, whisky, smokey dark liquor flavor scotch. Try the Earl Grey cream one too! Kettle & Fire has mushroom-chicken bone broth available on their site now! Great flavoring. You may get up to 28% off your first ordering using our code. Nat likes to cook with their beef broth and Neil turns his quinoa in a nutritional powerhouse. Perfect Keto is perfect if you are trying to get into keto. Check out their ketones supplements and their exogenous ketones. They have a mocha flavored MCT oil powder. It’s of the best kind of fats, and you can mix it in your smoothies, have it straight in the morning, or mix it with athletic greens. Use our Amazon link to help support the show. Hit us up on Twitter (Neil, Nat). Join the mailing list to participate of the next Q&A episode and recommend us books to discuss.

Kyle Gray has helped dozens of startups and small businesses succeed in content marketing. He writes content that educates entrepreneurs on how to grow their businesses with content marketing, manage remote teams, and scale up their businesses. Kyle got his start as the content manager for WP Curve. He helped the startup grow to nearly 1 million in annual recurring revenue.   Quotes To Remember: “People aren’t aware that you exist and they need to know that you exist.” “You can’t just create one piece of content that’s going to do all of the jobs.” “We got to understand the different goals at the different stages and be able to create content that is appropriate for all of those goals.” “There is a kind of journey on figuring out who the best customer is.” “Storytelling impacts every level of your life.”   What You’ll Learn: What are the stages associated with the buyer’s journey Creating content based on every stage of the buyer’s journey How to use storytelling in creating content How to attract potential customers into the buyer’s journey   Key Links From The Show: Kyle’s Site AdEspresso Advance Your Reach Self Publishing School WP Curve   Recommended Books: The Story Engine by Kyle Gray The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday Scientific Advertising by Claude C. Hopkins Progression by Sebastian Marshall   Support Breakthrough Success On Patreon Please consider supporting Breakthrough Success on Patreon. I publish five episodes per week which I carefully prepare for, and I choose to not run ads in my podcast to enhance the listener experience. I offer my patrons various perks, and even a donation as small as $1/mo would make a big difference for growing and maintaining Breakthrough Success. You can support Breakthrough Success by going here.

Sebastian Marshall is an entrepreneur, world traveler and founder of ultraworking, a company that he's headquartered in Kuala Lumpur Malysia. Sebastian lived and traveled all over the world and he’s an author that writes 6000 words a week. To reach this level of output he has completely dissected his daily life to get unbelievably efficient. His company now works with entrepreneurs, executives and military officers to increase their efficiency by focusing on what he calls impact areas. I asked him to be on the show and I challenged him with a very real scenario of how he would help someone that wants to make a massive life-changing and life altering decision and he breaks it down simply to 10 minutes a day. If you are someone that wants to start a company, write a book, run a marathon or just get started on something that you’ve been putting off for too long, this is your episode. In this episode we discuss... What 3 questions he asks himself everyday. Eliminating the RUNI work from your day. - Recurring. Urgent. Un-Important work. His advice for that person wanting to get started on a daunting task that they've been putting off. How he continues to write 6,000 words a week. His advice on writing a book versus hiring a company to write it. We discuss the company Book in a Box and the CEO JT McCormick. To learn more about JT's journey from poverty to being CEO, check out podcast episode #50 - One Man's Unstoppable Pursuit of the American Dream ----Show Notes--- Ultraworking.com/GHL for tips on knocking out your daunting task. SebastianMarshall.com Twitter and Facebook @sebastmarsh Extreme Productivity by Bob Poson Zach Obront and JT McCormick at Book in a Box Sponsors PrintDirtCheap.com – Rockstars in printing with over 30 categories of printing products doing it FAST and doing it CHEAP. Use promo code ‘LIFEHUNTER’ for $10 off of your print job or request a free sample of their work. Check out clickplacement.com to design your search engine marketing strategies and launch an epic PPC campaign. Support the Go Hunt Life show by making a donation to help keep the life hunter stories coming at Patreon.com/gohuntlife

If something happened to you today, how long could your business run before things started falling apart? How much time are you actually spending on value (i.e. profit) producing work and how much time is wasted on low-level, time sucking tasks? Get ready to save time, get more done, and be happier with the tips we’re sharing this week.   Productivity superstar Sebastian Marshall is the co-founder of Ultraworking, and writes 6000 words per week for Strategic Review. He shares the top the three things to do to set yourself up for consistent productivity and success, and the single most important question to answer before starting any project that will help you stay on track and achieve your goals. Also, find out what you need to start doing right now that will change the way you work forever (you’ll be surprised how simple it is). Episode Highlights: 7:23 Is this your routine? What the not-so-productive cycle really looks like 12:25 The one question you should ask before every project or task 15:44 The time frame of productivity:  now, tomorrow, the week, the month, the year 17:31 How to estimate your time correctly to increase your productivity 21:00 Why having a monthly “theme” will help you become more consistent week to week 23:50 Working into the future: How working ahead just 1x can make you more productive   25:32 Fine tuning the process: why you should be making your weekly work easier 29:30 How the #1 car company (Toyota) categorizes their work output and how you can too 33:25 Why handing off a project actually reduces productivity 36:30 How tracking the time of the work you do on your most important tasks may surprise you and how it can help you refocus 40:00 Here’s how Sebastian defines and then prioritizes his most important tasks 48:30 Asking yourself this one powerful question will help you define what you want to happen and what you need to do to get there 49:30 Describing what a work cycle is and how it can help you if you don’t know where to start your work 55:00 More about Sebastian’s Pentathlon and how you can join in the fun Links and Resources: Ultraworking.com/ecommerce The Strategic Review Ultraworking Pentathlon Peter Drucker - The Effective Executive Sebastian@ultraworking.com

Principles are fundamental truths that serve as the foundations for behavior that gets you what you want out of life. In this episode of Made You Think, Neil and I discuss the book Principles by Ray Dalio. We’ve been fans of Dalio’s work since it was just a PDF floating around the Internet, and this massive tome delivers so many useful guidelines for how to live and work. We covered a wide range of topics, including: Using meditation to improve your clarity with decision-making Developing machines and software for tasks likely to be repeated Seeking out and accepting constructive criticism without your ego getting in the way Improving your life by being more radically honest and expressive Reflecting more upon pain to promote growth The two five-step processes for confronting your own weaknesses and for getting what you want out of life Improving your ability to effectively make decisions And much more. Please enjoy, and be sure to grab a copy of Principles here and to check out Nat’s Notes on the book! If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to check out our episode on How to Think Like Elon Musk, to emulate Musk’s way of thinking for huge advantages in both work and life, and our episode on Antifragile by Nassim Taleb, to learn how to profit from chaos. Be sure to join our mailing list to find out about what books are coming up, giveaways we're running, special events, and more. Mentioned in the show: Bridgewater [1:44] Futures [4:08] Morgan Stanley [5:20] Tim Ferriss’ interview with Dalio [9:23] Theranos fraud [11:56] Made You Think episode 13 - How to Think Like Elon Musk [14:27] Nat Chat podcast episode with Sebastian Marshall [16:59] The Lindy effect [22:16] The Daily Show [24:10] Growth Machine [26:35] Bookinabox [29:22] Dogfish [29:39] Carnegie Mellon [29:44] Biblical Series Podcast [31:36] Evernote [33:25] Calendly [38:24] Estee Lauder [40:19] Theory of Constraints [57:06] Neil’s article on the Lindy effect [59:49] Myers Briggs [1:10:42] Article on China rating citizens [1:12:06] Black Mirror [1:12:10] Chris Sparks article on Medium about rating life goals [1:18:12] Nat Chat podcast episode with Justin Mares [1:19:46] Article on Nat’s daily/weekly/quarterly review [1:23:07] Crypto Made You Think episode [1:26:50] Tucker Max’s article on paying celebrities to tweet about his book [1:29:17] Books mentioned: Principles (Nat’s Notes) The Way of Zen [13:04] (Nat’s Notes) (Neil’s Notes) (Made You Think episode) Godel Escher Bach [14:14] (Nat’s Notes) (Made You Think episode) What I Learned Losing a Million Dollars [15:48] (Nat’s Notes) Letters From a Stoic [21:58] (Nat’s Notes) (Made You Think episode) Antifragile [22:32] (Nat’s Notes) (Made You Think episode) Amusing Ourselves to Death [24:08] (Nat’s Notes) (Made You Think episode) Finite and Infinite Games [26:08] (Nat’s Notes) (Made You Think episode) The Goal [27:04] (Nat’s Notes) (Made You Think episode) The E-Myth Revisited [27:05] (Nat’s Notes) Hero With a Thousand Faces [34:54] Lessons of History [34:55] (Nat’s Notes) The Power of Myth [35:02] (Nat’s Notes) (Made You Think episode) Spiritual Brain [35:30] Steve Jobs Autobiography [37:45] The 50th Law [45:46] (Nat’s Notes) Mastery [46:17] (Nat’s Notes) (Made You Think episode) The 48 Laws of Power [46:22] (Nat’s Notes) Extreme Ownership [54:50] (Nat’s Notes) People mentioned: Ray Dalio Adil Majid [1:18] Tim Ferriss [9:23] Elon Musk [14:25] (How To Think Like Elon Musk episode) Sebastian Marshall [16:59] Adam Smith [22:28] Colbert [24:11] Tucker Max [29:19] Dr. Jordan Peterson [31:37] Carl Jung [34:32] Joseph Campbell [34:36] (The Power of Myth episode) Will Durant [35:20] Dalai Lama [35:39] Steve Jobs [37:45] Robert Greene [45:59] (Mastery episode) Nassim Nicholas Taleb [1:00:41] (Antifragile episode) Euthyphro [1:14:31] Socrates [1:14:32] Chris Sparks [1:18:11] Justin Mares [1:19:46] Clay Matthews [1:22:47] Jocko [1:26:27] Taylor Pearson [1:26:57] Anna Kendrick [1:30:10] Chrissy Teigen [1:30:12] The Rock [1:30:28] Gary Vaynerchuk [1:30:38] 0:00 - Introductory quote and some information on the book and on the author Ray Dalio. Also, some of Dalio’s achievements and a bit on how he began with investing. 9:07 - Dalio leaving this company, some discussion on his meditation practice, meditation being a big factor in his success, and the emotional ups and downs that come with startups. 12:46 - Some more discussion on meditation drastically improving your decision-making skills and being more level-headed. 14:45 - Meditation on helping you systemize your thinking and some thoughts on the creation of these principles in the book. “It’s a very useful tool to have these decision-making criteria set-in-stone so that you know what you’re going to do and not let your emotions override you.” 17:34 - Journaling and writing out exactly why you’re doing things, then reflecting back on that later. Narrative fallacy with reflection, as well. 19:57 - Giving more attention to the history of what’s been happening instead of only what you notice in the current time period. Also, a bit on the persistence of certain problems throughout the time. 22:46 - Dalio beginning to improve his systems, develop understanding and principles, improve his reasoning, and more. Tangent at 23:36 on seeking out the smartest people to learn from them and how the opposite largely happens today. “Your arguments can’t improve if they’re only up against people who agree with you already or the weakest version of the other person’s argument.” 24:41 - The underappreciated aspect of constructive criticism, and how the ego can negatively impact this. How having someone much more skilled than you rip apart your work and give you blunt feedback on it can help you grow tremendously if you don’t let your ego get in the way. 25:48 - The destructive nature of college forcing you to put so much ego into your work and to not show your work until it’s perfect. How this negatively impacts the way that you handle feedback. 27:12 - Spending more time now to optimize and spend less time on things in the future. Building machines for tasks that will most likely have to be repeated in the future. Also, putting the machine first and yourself/ego second. 31:15 - Giving yourself the same advice that you would give to someone else in your position. Also, treating yourself the same way that you would treat someone else that you care about, which rarely happens. 34:16 - Some of Dalio’s influences, Nat and Neil’s favorite book recommendations from Dalio, and some discussion on his book recommendations in general. 36:09 - Delving into some of the principles from the book and how they develop. How a majority are simple rules for engagement in everyday encounters. Also, a bit on saving mental energy by making systems for daily activities and creating software for decisions where ever you can. 39:52 - Optimizing certain aspects of businesses, the importance of speaking up in a business if there’s something to optimize upon, memory and past decisions, and some discussion on improving upon group decision-making. 43:51 - The advantages of lowering your verbal filter and being radically honest with improving life, business, and relationships. “There are things that just go unsaid for so long, but everyone’s thinking them, and then they just blow-up at a certain point.” 45:11 - The first principle and a bit on taking action on problems now, and not waiting for them to improve. “Embrace reality and deal with it.”. Developing a reflexive action towards pain that causes you to reflect upon it, rather than avoid it. “Pain plus reflection equals progress.” 50:15 - The five-step process for confronting your own weaknesses. (#1 - 50:20) (#2 - 50:26) (#3 - 50:39) (#4 - 53:53) (#5 - 54:46) 54:53 - Taking ownership of things, even when they’re not your fault. There is usually always some way that you played into it (hiring the wrong person, training them wrong, a faulty machine you designed, etc). Also, how management can cause issues down the line, with the issues listed earlier. 56:55 - The five-step process for getting what you want out of life. (#1 - 57:31) (#2 - 58:26) (#3 - 59:03) (#4 - 1:02:46) (#5 - 1:02:55) 1:03:45 - How the principles are outlined and organized. Also, the third principle, to be radically open-minded and the two impediments to this. 1:06:45 - The two-step process for decision making. A bit on avoiding the first solution that you find which confirms your already held beliefs, as well. The confirmation bias. 1:10:35 - The fourth major principle on understanding that people are wired very differently and a bit on challenging other people’s perspectives to get to know certain aspects of them. Also, bringing up controversial topics to test them. 1:14:54 - The last major principle on learning how to make decisions effectively and some discussion on creating a decision plan, then reaching out to others in a field related to that decision and getting feedback from them. “The biggest threat to good decision making is harmful emotions and if you can systematize as much as possible, then emotions won’t get in the way.” 1:18:03 - Using the expected value calculation and using this with deciding which goals to currently go after. Also, making goals much larger and trying to reach for the inflated goal, eventually reaching beyond the original goal or at the original goal easier. 1:21:49 - The first work principle and how the life principles somewhat form the work principles in the book. Also, how you should go about reading the book and what may be of the most help to you. 1:23:52 - The last section on creating your own principles. Wrap-up and a bit of information on the newsletter and the episode outlines. 1:26:28 - Some fun closing thoughts and stories. (Tangents starting at 1:22:47 on Clay Matthews from the GB Packers and on other goodies.) If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe at https://madeyouthinkpodcast.com

If you’re spending less than an hour a day on whatever’s most important to you, that’s something you can pretty easily take up to ninety or a hundred and twenty minutes and get more than fifty to a hundred percent more on results. In this episode of Nat Chat, I’m joined by Sebastian Marshall. Sebastian and I delved into a lot about productivity, life and habit tracking, and developing really good systems for achieving your highest output. He’s been writing on his blog for eight years and runs a company now called Ultra Working, where he helps individuals and companies get the most out of their day-to-day systems. Sebastian’s a great person to learn from for those wanting to optimize their systems for high output and productivity, and to become more disciplined with their habits. We do get a bit in the weeds about time tracking in the beginning, so if that’s not as interesting to you feel free to skip ahead. There’s a TON here and we share a lot of interests, so we dove deep on the finer points of productivity. We covered a ton, including: The huge advantages of tracking your life, habits, and work Hacking your productivity and achieving more in less time Developing high-output systems and outlining templates for those systems Getting started with pursuing projects that you’re interested in How Sebastian and I began hacking productivity and more Minimizing boredom and benefiting from failure And much more. Please enjoy, and reach out to Sebastian on Twitter! If you enjoyed this episode and our discussion on productivity and time management, be sure to check out my episode with Chris Sparks, where we discuss tons of great productivity advice and more. Also, if you want to hear more about using failure to grow, check out my episode with Matthew Barby, where we discuss this and more. Find Sebastian online: Blog Ultra Working Twitter Mentioned in the show: Ultra Working [1:34] Rescue Time [2:46] Lights Spreadsheet [4:59] Sebastian’s resources [9:17], [25:46], and [59:24] The Strategic Review [18:10] Getting Stuff Done Like a Boss [29:50] Things app for Mac [30:19] Growth Machine [45:02] Posttraumatic growth [56:15] Key Decision Analysis [59:51] Ivan Mazour’s website [1:02:02] M/M/1 Queuing Theory [1:02:35] Ambition Life Calendar [1:05:25] Give Get Win [1:09:28] Books mentioned: Gateless [20:58] Sebastian’s books [29:20] The Power of Habit [39:29] (Nat’s Notes) The Willpower Instinct [39:30] (Nat’s Notes) Principles [56:35] (Nat’s Notes) People mentioned: Peter Drucker [20:23] “What gets measured, gets managed.” Kai Zau [20:58] Tiago Forte [29:49] Justin Mares [44:15] (Nat Chat episode with Justin) Tasha Meys [50:23] (Nat Chat episode with Tasha) Charlie Hoehn [51:28] (Nat Chat episode with Charlie) Toyotomi Hideyoshi [53:18] Ray Dalio [56:35] Ivan Mazour [59:29] 1:15 - Introduction to Sebastian and some major problems today with people not tracking their time properly or investing their time as wisely as they should.4:21 - What Sebastian’s current tracking system looks like after seven years of refining it, how to follow it on your own, and some advice for others looking to successfully adhere to their own system. 13:09 - Why this tracking system works very well and some discussion on why you may feel like you’re doing well, but if you take a closer look, you’re not. A bit on your emotions fooling you. 17:33 - Sebastian on what he tracks, how he tracks it, and what everyone else should be doing if they’re starting to track things. (You don’t have to track everything) “For a lot of juice out of life, pick the one or two activities that are really the most important to you and just track those.” 20:30 - Some of the things that led to Sebastian and Kaizo starting Ultra Working. Also, a bit on what Ultra Working does and what their goals are. 22:50 - How the program developed, some results that the company has had with people, and some more on what they do at Ultra Working. 25:26 - The work cycle system, how you can benefit from it, and a bit on both how and why it works. 29:35 - Nat’s personal system for getting things done and the ranking aspect of it. Also, a bit on how Sebastian ranks his system and some discussion on the importance of pre-estimating how long things are going to take. 34:44 - Thoughts on overestimating how much you actually work, scheduling more in less time, and the negative impact of bragging about working hard if there’s not much to show for it. “Don’t tell me how hard you’ve worked, tell me what you’ve got to show for it.” 38:22 - How Nat got into productivity hacking and how accelerating productivity has helped him in various ways. 42:01 - Nat on minimizing boredom and some tactics everyone can use for minimizing boredom. 46:47 - Discussion on the pleasure of succeeding, taking control of things, and making progress on things. Also, how someone can get into the habit of being analytical and productive, and finding that first thing that gets you on the track towards that. “You need some big thing to happen, probably a bad thing, to motivate you to action.” 52:12 - How finding mastery in one thing, transfers well to mastering other things and a bit on the benefits of hitting rock bottom as a way to become better (post-traumatic growth). 56:34 - Tracking the things that you do wrong, asking yourself what you could have done differently, being open to failure, and learning from these failures. 59:18 - Another method that you can try for improving your decision making, especially with difficult decisions. 1:03:25 - Sebastian’s current long-term goals and projects. Also, some of Ultra Working’s recent projects. 1:07:22 - Some discussion on how useful being proficient with math can be and working more with numbers. Also, some closing thoughts and where you can reach out to Sebastian at. If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe at https://nateliason.com/podcast “Most people are very subjectively analyzing how their life is going, and with most people, their emotions are lying to them.” “Failure’s more demoralizing to people than success is pleasing and exciting.”

Every time that you’re putting a label on something, you are abstracting away from what it truly means. Meditation has taken western interest by storm… but what is Buddhism, anyway? We try to figure that out in this exploration of The Way of Zen, which lays out the different forms of Buddhism and how they differ. Neither of us knew much about the subtleties, nor how much it’s misrepresented in western marketing. We covered a wide range of topics, including: Differences in Eastern and Western wisdom The origins of Buddhism and Zen Buddhism The negative effects of putting labels on things Reducing attachment to things and becoming more open-minded Non-conscious and indescribable knowledge Meditation and mindfulness Finding joy in the journey, not the destination And much more. Please enjoy, and be sure to grab a copy of The Way of Zen and to check out Nat and Neil’s notes on the book! If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to check out our episode on Letters From a Stoic, to learn ancient wisdom for a better life and our episode on In Praise of Idleness, to reduce the guilt from overworking and to improve your leisurely time. Mentioned in the show: Uber [6:25] The Socratic method [22:40] Jordan Peterson’s Biblical Series [24:07] DMT (N,N-Dimethyltryptamine) [26:10] Inuit [28:06] Aristotelian Ethics [43:40] Jung’s Collective Consciousness [44:49] Simulation that is Reality [44:59] Reddit [45:46] Jocko’s Podcast [57:47] The Blind Mountainbike Rider [1:02:25] The Switch from Search to Social [1:09:38] Headspace [1:13:58] Books mentioned: The Way of Zen (Nat’s Notes) (Neil’s Notes) Finite and Infinite Games [0:53] (Made You Think episode) (Nat’s Notes) Antifragile [1:02] (Made You Think episode) (Nat’s Notes) Letters From a Stoic [3:39] (Made You Think episode) (Nat’s Notes) Meditations [3:45] (Nat’s Notes) Enchiridion [3:48] (Nat’s Notes) Discourses [3:49] (Nat’s Notes) Astrophysics For People in a Hurry [29:27] Mastery [33:52] (Made You Think episode) (Nat’s Notes) Benazir Bhutto’s book mentioned [38:29] The Power of Myth [41:44] (Made You Think episode) (Nat’s Notes) In Praise of Idleness [1:09:26] (Made You Think episode) (Nat’s Notes) Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance [1:14:28] Bhagavad Ghita [1:16:08] Godel, Escher, Bach [1:20:55] (Episode coming soon) (Nat’s Notes) People mentioned: Alan Watts Seneca [3:39] Marcus Aurelius [3:45] Epictetus [3:48] Daniel Kahneman [9:23] Nassim Nicholas Taleb [10:47] Euthyphro [22:42] Chief Justice Roberts [23:08] Jordan Peterson [24:07] Sam Harris [25:35] Neil Degrasse Tyson [29:27] Benazir Bhutto [38:29] Aristotle [43:40] Carl Jung [44:49] Elon Musk [44:59] Nick Bostrom [45:08] Descartes [45:15] Jocko [57:47] Sebastian Marshall [1:12:48] 0:00 - Introduction, a powerful quote from the book, and some thoughts on why you may want to re-read books intermittently. 1:56 - A bit of background on the author Alan Watts, some information on the book, and discussion on the similarity between Zen Buddhism and Stoicism. 3:52 - Discussion on the first section in the book and some comparisons between Western and Eastern types of knowledge. Also, some interesting differences in Western and Eastern language. 6:07 - (Tangent #1) Successful startup and company names being both nouns and verbs, such as Google and Uber. Also, thoughts on nouns, verbs, and labels. 7:03 - How when things aren’t labeled in the west, things can get confusing. Thoughts on freeing yourself from these “boxes” of labels and restricting labels, as well. 9:54 - The spoken, explained, and labeled things, versus unspoken, unexplained, and unlabeled things. Some more thoughts on labeling things and putting them in the box of that label. Also, thoughts on labeling ourselves and defining ourselves by our past actions. 11:28 - Discussion on the illusion of reality and our reality shifting based on our goals and actions. 12:47 - Further discussion on the narrative fallacy of putting a label on something. Also, the differences in the meaning of words between different people, and the communicative problems that arise due to those. 14:38 - Thoughts on the categories of things and changing your perspective on how you view them. Also, changing your interpretation of reality, to reduce attachment in general and attachment to these categories that things have been labeled under. Seeing the true nature rather than the label and being open to new ideas. 15:37 - The word complexity and how our attempts to understand things with categories is obsolete and overly complex. 17:05 - The example of learning music in the West compared to the East. Also, the comparison of learning language in an immersive and challenging way versus than the traditional approach found in schools. 19:08 - (Tangent #2) Some thoughts on the similarity between the books on the podcast so far and some thoughts on why Zen is not considered a philosophy. 21:39 - Being open to new ideas and ways of thought, and some thoughts on non-conscious and indescribable knowledge. 23:40 - Requiring an indescribable experience to both experience and understand some of the aspects of Zen and non-conscious knowledge. Some talk on where our thoughts come from and asking ourselves the question of where they come from. 26:33 - (Tangent #3) How much of our reality we don’t experience because there are no words to describe it. Discussion on our past visual spectrum and not being able to see certain colors in the past, compared to now, where we can see more colors. 30:57 - Neil’s personal experiences and life changes after meditating. Becoming more mindful and aware of things that we may normally be mindless to. Also, thoughts on the metaphysical aspect of our reality. 34:08 - The next chapter, discussion on the origins of Buddhism, and comparison between other religions. Also, how Buddhism may be considered a school of thought rather than a religion and some thought on religion in general. 40:09 - Some discussion on the history of Buddhism as well as a bit on other religions. 46:19 - Watt’s on Buddhism coming from Hinduism and Buddhism sharing ideas. Also, thoughts on ego, our desires to be in control, and Nirvana. 49:18 - Discussion on brief moments of clarity, being in the zone, and the flow state. 50:56 - The book’s section on Mahayana Buddhism and some talk about Bodhisattvas. Shortly after, discussion on Zen awakening and achieving Sattori. 55:32 - Sitting meditation versus bringing meditation into everything that you do. Also, some more discussion on enlightenment and zen versus other Buddhist traditions. 1:00:20 - The principles and practices of Zen Buddhism. Some more on giving up control and some thoughts on control in general. 1:04:49 - (Tangent #4) Thoughts on emotion as a heuristic and Watt’s thermostat analogy in regards to human happiness. 1:08:17 - Discussion on Zazen meditation and Watt’s views on seated meditation. Also, some talk about our attention spans, the constant entertainment we get, and comparing that to sitting quietly where we don’t get that stimulation. Also, discussion on the moments of clarity and mindfulness we get throughout the day. 1:12:26 - Thoughts about whether Zen meditation is getting more popular and discussion on just doing meditation for no purpose, instead of doing it to gain something. 1:15:16 - The last section on Zen and the arts. How the practice of Zen influences art and makes it so much more beautiful. “So much of it was built, for the sake of just building.” “The process is the reward”. The joy is more in the journey, rather than the destination. 1:21:04 - Wrap-up and a powerful quotation to ponder on. If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe at https://madeyouthinkpodcast.com It’s a very limiting view to believe that everything needs to be really clearly defined to be true.

I think the eventual target you want to hit is at least 2 hours of most important maker work. Everybody I know who does 4 hours of whatever's most important every single day is very successful. Sometimes your wrong, you go down a rabbit hole, and it doesn't work. That's fine. It's part of the game. As long you as do 10 minutes, you've got a placeholder in your life, and things keep moving forward. It's when you take 2 weeks off, suddenly things get dusty, you don't remember what you're going to do. People get busy, forget what's important and then don't get what they want. – Sebastian Marshall Sebastian Marshall is an avid student of history and strategy, and digs into historical eras from Sengoku Japan to the Renaissance, the Napoleonic Wars and the Pax Brittanica, the Rise of House Rothschild and John Rockefeller, Bismarck and Moltke's Unification of Germany, the Roman Republic and its various conflicts and shifting alliances, the Great Dynasties and Inventions of China, through to modern-day information economies, publishers, and pioneers. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

[Libro] Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products de Nir Eyal con Ryan Hoover. El libro de "Hooked" que hemos citado hoy lo comentamos en el Delicatessen del... [Episodio] Infoxicación, adicción al móvil y “Enganchado” de Nir Eyal (ZT 09) [Vídeo] The Tim Ferriss Experiment: Starting a Business | Trailer | Tim Ferriss https://youtu.be/dr-ZDfB6Tb0 [Libro] La magnitud de la tragedia de Quim Monzó [Artículo] Why are podcasts still so hard to make? — Ian Miles [Web] The Strategic Review, de Sebastian Marshall. [Artículo] Las malas presentaciones también son instructivas - Carles Caño (Presentástico) # Delicatessen [Libro Delicatessen] The Inevitable de Kevin Kelly Os recordamos que podréis encontrar todos los libros Delicatessen que hemos comentado hasta la fecha en http://zetatesters.com/recomendamos/ (con enlaces de afiliados). The Strategic Review, de Sebastian Marshall. Turno de acciones El reto para esta semana es que nos respondáis a esta pregunta: ¿Cómo la tecnología ha cambiado vuestra vida? (para bien o para mal) [Libro] The Hidden Tools of Comedy: The Serious Business of Being Funny de Steve Kaplan.

How do you create a new life when your authentic self makes work that sucks? All this, and more, with Sebastian Marshall - famous blogger and bestselling author - as we talk about what it really means to be authentic.

In this episode of You University, I interview Sebastian Marshall. A couple years ago, Sebastian Marshall limited his commercial work to only 20 hours per week and began spending his time on the type of nonprofit, education, science, and writing projects he wanted to do. He's Executive Director of GiveGetWin; you can check out tour.givegetwin.com for free skills training throughout North America this Autumn. Recent author of Gateless with Kai Zau, on how to manage intangible skills in the modern world, and Roguelike, behavioral and mathematical models from the world's hardest video games. Ready to build your brand? Get your 15 Free Videos RIGHT NOW http://goo.gl/oDCqdL

Sebastian Marshall, one of the best thinkers online in my opinion comes on the show to talk about a sleiu of mindsets that can dramatically benefit your life. We talk about everything from the intersection of biochemistry and performance to practicing directive thinking and impulse control, but I can pretty much guarantee you'll leave this conversation with some new ideas to chew on and strategies to implement.

Sebastian Marshall joins Lee Schneider on the TechSmart Podcast. Sebastian Marshall is Executive Director of Children's Plaza Nonprofit Corp, which runs GiveGetWin -- a new approach to fundraising. Sebastian and Lee discuss online trends.

This week’s episode features a very special guest: Sebastian Marshall. Dan, Ian and Sebastian talk about how to hack performance and get more shit done. Topics discussed include Time tracking and how it works. Diet optimisation. Neural enhancer supplements. Putting a dolar value on your time. The equal odds theory (or: why Einstein was more successful than the average scientist) In the quick-tips section, Dan and Ian talk about caffeine and an excellent productivity blog. Do you want to take your business to the next level? Learn from other successful entrepreneurs and check out DynamiteCircle, our community for entrepreneurs. Have fun. Leave a comment. Give us a ring. 888-554-8428. Go make it happen! :)