The guest
Sam Corcos: Co-founder and CEO of Levels (continuous glucose monitoring company); remote-first operator who has worked with the same executive assistant, Lori, for 10 years and now uses four EAs personally.
What this episode covers
Sam Corcos joins Tim Ferriss to build what they frame as one of the most comprehensive tactical guides to delegation. Sam traces his delegation practice back to reading The 4-Hour Workweek a decade ago and hiring his first EA off Craigslist, then walks through how Levels operates as a radically transparent, remote-first company built on 'treat people like adults.' He details concrete systems: recording workflows in Loom, tracking EA tasks in Notion databases, semi-automating social media and email management, and converting to-do lists into calendar blocks. The conversation also covers news sobriety, reducing chronic stress, hosting intellectual salon dinners, memo-over-meeting culture, and user-guide documents that explain how to work with a given person.
Recommended on this episode
BookRecommendedISBN verified
No Rules Rules
Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer
“We have a strongly recommended reading list for a lot of people at the company... Some that really come up a lot are No Rules Rules”
“Some that really come up a lot are No Rules Rules, which is the book on Netflix culture”— Sam Corcos
BookRecommendedISBN verified
The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership
Jim Dethmer, Diana Chapman, Kaley Klemp
“We have a strongly recommended reading list for a lot of people at the company... 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership is another one”
“15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership is another one, which I know you're familiar with.”— Sam Corcos
BookRecommendedISBN verified
Nonviolent Communication
Marshall Rosenberg
“which really should just be required reading for all people — for all humans”
“Another one that I know you're familiar with is Nonviolent Communication, which really should just be required reading for all people”— Sam Corcos
BookRecommendedISBN verified
The Checklist Manifesto
Atul Gawande
“Something like The Checklist Manifesto would be a really good choice for that”
“Something like The Checklist Manifesto would be a really good choice for that, where it's just thinking about process.”— Sam Corcos
ProductRecommended
Loom
Loom
“Loom is probably the most important business-enablement tool of the last five years”
“Loom is probably the most important business-enablement tool of the last five years, certainly in my experience.”— Sam Corcos
ProductRecommended
Notion
Notion
“We also use Notion pretty religiously. Once you learn how to use the Notion database features, they're actually extremely powerful”
“We also use Notion pretty religiously. Once you learn how to use the Notion database features, they're actually extremely powerful in the amount of leverage you can get”— Sam Corcos
ProductRecommended
ChatGPT
OpenAI
“And it nailed it first time. Almost every time it does, it's pretty remarkable.”
“I use ChatGPT for that. So a recent example for the epistemic commons salon, I asked ChatGPT, I need five questions for this topic.”— Sam Corcos
ProductRecommended
Athena
Athena
“I've always found the best way to do it to work with an agency. We work with Athena... They're really the higher end of agencies”
“I've always found the best way to do it to work with an agency. We work with Athena, they're an agency out of the Philippines.”— Sam Corcos
ProductRecommended
Calendly
Calendly
“Calendly, it's an incredible time-saving tool”
“I use Calendly. I think that's something that you can just offload to technology.”— Sam Corcos
BookRecommendedISBN verified
Trust Me, I'm Lying
Ryan Holiday
“That really frightened me about the state of the media and convinced me”
“I read Ryan Holiday's book, Trust Me, I'm Lying. That really frightened me about the state of the media and convinced me”— Sam Corcos
BookRecommendedISBN verified
Factfulness
Hans Rosling
“There's a really good book Factfulness... Yeah, it's a really good book”
“There's a really good book Factfulness, I don't know if you've heard of that one.”— Sam Corcos
BookRecommendedISBN verified
The Lean Startup
Eric Ries
“One of the books that I find myself frequently coming back to is The Lean Startup. It's a classic. I probably reread it every one to two years”
“One of the books that I find myself frequently coming back to is The Lean Startup... It's a classic. I probably reread it every one to two years”— Sam Corcos
ProductRecommended
Superhuman
Superhuman
“I use Superhuman as a tool. Hotkeys are probably the lowest hanging fruit for people to improve their productivity”
“I use Superhuman as a tool. Hotkeys are probably the lowest hanging fruit for people to improve their productivity for almost no cost.”— Sam Corcos
MediaRecommended
Fast.ai course
fast.ai
“a friend recommended the Fast.ai course and it was so easy”
“a friend recommended the Fast.ai course and it was so easy. My goal was to create something that can recognize images of cats.”— Sam Corcos
MediaRecommended
How to Be Ultra Spiritual
JP Sears
“There's a great video. It's an oldie, the one that kicked it all off”
“There's a great video. It's an oldie, the one that kicked it all off, maybe, called How to Be Ultra Spiritual by JP Sears”— Tim Ferriss
ProductRecommended
Brodo bone broth
Brodo
“And you can also get Brodo bone broth, which is spectacular”
“And you can also get Brodo bone broth, which is spectacular, right next door, attached to Hearth.”— Tim Ferriss
ProductRecommended
Calvin Klein modal shirts
Calvin Klein
“These shirts are definitely good. These shirts are definitely quality... They're super breathable. They don't get smelly. Yeah, these are great.”
“These are the Calvin Klein, modal is the material. They're super breathable. They don't get smelly. Yeah, these are great.”— Sam Corcos
The guest's own work
BookBy the guestISBN verified
The 4-Hour Workweek
Tim Ferriss
“it came from reading your book almost exactly 10 years ago. And I posted an ad in Craigslist for an EA. I had nothing for her to do.”— Sam Corcos
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
ProductReferenced
Zoom
Zoom
“there's just a setting on Zoom you can set at the organization level of just default record. And so we have that on”— Sam Corcos
ProductReferenced
Upwork
Upwork
“So Upwork is a place where people often go to find them.”— Sam Corcos
ProductReferenced
Shepherd
Shepherd
“There's also another agency that's on the cheaper side, which is Shepherd. My friend Nick is involved with them.”— Sam Corcos
ProductReferenced
RescueTime
RescueTime
“RescueTime did a study that I think, most tech workers can't go more than six minutes without checking their communication tool.”— Sam Corcos
ProductReferenced
“I used to have a problem with Twitter, and so I created some buffer, which is I don't have access to my own Twitter account.”— Sam Corcos
ProductReferenced
“I don't have any social on my phone right now except for Instagram, because I use it to interact with a handful of my friends.”— Tim Ferriss
ProductReferenced
Waking Up
Sam Harris
“I've tried doing meditation. I did the Sam Harris — Waking Up one. I don't think I'm particularly — I didn't notice any benefit”— Sam Corcos
BookReferencedISBN verified
The Better Angels of Our Nature
Steven Pinker
“So it's a numeracy-enhanced version of Angels of Our Better Nature. Sam Corcos: Yeah, Better Angels of Our Nature.”— Tim Ferriss
ProductReferenced
Audible
Amazon
“that's my hack for getting good book recommendations, and I add them to my wishlist on Audible.”— Sam Corcos
ProductReferenced
Goodreads
Goodreads
“I keep track of all the books that I read on Goodreads.”— Sam Corcos
ProductReferenced
Figma
Figma
“If you're in Figma, learn the hotkeys. If you're in Photoshop, learn the hotkeys.”— Sam Corcos
ProductReferenced
Photoshop
Adobe
“If you're in Figma, learn the hotkeys. If you're in Photoshop, learn the hotkeys.”— Sam Corcos
ProductReferenced
“things like almost nobody I know pays attention to their LinkedIn messages anymore. It's just cesspool.”— Sam Corcos
ProductReferenced
Asana
Asana
“I recently interviewed Dustin Moskovitz, co-founder of Facebook, co-founder of Asana, current CEO of Asana.”— Tim Ferriss
BookReferencedISBN verified
What You Do Is Who You Are
Ben Horowitz
“I think this is Ben Horowitz's book, What You Do Is Who You Are. That is what it is.”— Sam Corcos
MediaReferenced
Founder Dynamics (podcast)
“it was a podcast. Founder Dynamics podcast. And the... synopsis... is that this is an episode that gives a feel for what it's like working with you”— Tim Ferriss
BookReferencedISBN verified
The Varieties of Religious Experience
William James
“that sounds a lot like Varieties of Religious Experience by — who's the author? William James.”— Sam Corcos
MediaReferenced
The Strength of Weak Ties
Mark Granovetter
“There's a famous paper by Granovetter, I think written in the '70s called The Strength of Weak Ties.”— Sam Corcos
Big reveals from this episode
- Sam's entire delegation journey started from reading Tim's book; he posted a Craigslist ad for an EA with nothing for her to do, hired Lori, and she has worked with him for 10 years.
- Levels runs radical organizational-design experiments: all investor updates from day one and all weekly team all-hands are public on their website, and they default-record meetings including one-on-ones to prevent gossip.
- Sam calls Loom the most important business-enablement tool of the last five years, arguing 'content scales, time does not' and that a recorded workflow can be watched by every future employee.
- The core delegation tactic is workflow recording: just turn on Loom and do your normal work; an EA can replicate complex tasks like video editing with ~90 percent accuracy after watching two or three recordings.
- The single most important time-management tactic for Sam is moving from to-do list to calendar: schedule every task into finite calendar time (aiming for ~50 percent open slack) instead of an infinite to-do list.
- Sam has been fully news sober for ~10 years after reading Ryan Holiday's 'Trust Me, I'm Lying,' replacing news with books and reporting lower anxiety and better physical wellbeing.
- 'How you spend your time are your priorities', Sam has EAs categorize every 15-minute block monthly, and finds people's stated values rarely match their actual calendar.
- Despite having four EAs, Sam has never communicated synchronously with his first/longtime Philippines-based EA; all communication has been async via Loom and content.
Worth remembering
- Levels has to rematch roughly 30 percent of its EAs because of poor fit; a legal-background rematch for their head of legal doubled his output.
- Levels runs a monthly team book club; recurring titles include 'No Rules Rules' (Netflix), 'The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership,' and 'Nonviolent Communication.'
- Week three of Levels' one-month onboarding is 'async week' where employees may only communicate via audio and video recordings, no typing or writing allowed.
- Sam records roughly 10 to 20 Looms per day and shares only about half of them, treating recording as costless.
- Sam sources EAs through the Philippines-based agency Athena (around $15 to $20/hour); cheaper direct options include Upwork and the agency Shepherd (around $5/hour).
- Sam built an internal communications tool because he dislikes Slack, calling it a 'slot machine' with the same dopamine loop as Twitter (citing a RescueTime study that workers can't go six minutes without checking comms).
- Sam's EAs hold his Twitter password and post on his behalf; all his Twitter DMs and LinkedIn messages are managed and screenshotted by EAs so he avoids the dopamine loop.
- Mondays are Sam's meeting day, sometimes 14 hours of meetings stacked, leaving Tuesday through Thursday open; he treats Wednesdays as a 'sacrificial anode' for overflow scheduling.
- Sam only buys a book if it's the next one he'll read; his Audible wishlist holds 200 to 300 books, and his salon intros are just 'your name and the last book you read.'
- Levels new hires write their own 'user guide' (temperament, communication preferences, etc.) by end of month one; Sam's notes that he strongly dislikes being interrupted and keeps his phone on do-not-disturb or airplane mode.
More from Tim Ferriss
All 35816 recommended