2023 Resolutions and New Tools, Booze and Ethanol Alternatives, The “Yearly Delete,” and Much More

In this booze-fueled holiday Random Show, Tim Ferriss and Kevin Rose run through their New Year's resolutions and the tools, habits, and mindsets behind them. They cover hard ketones as an experimental alcohol replacement, fitness trackers and the Peloton Rower, cardiovascular fitness, and skiing and archery as lifelong skills. The conversation digs into meditation practice, James Clear's 'keep the schedule, reduce the scope' habit advice, and Kevin's 'yearly delete' policy for purging unused physical things. They explore the psychology of buying expensive things to fill emotional gaps, the book Die With Zero, and AI's disruptive effect on artists and writers. The episode closes with a long debrief on Tim's Cockpunch NFT launch, his book royalties, Apple's lockdown mode, and a candid discussion of the durable benefits and serious risks of ayahuasca.

• Tim's pre-podcast ketone supplement is KetoneAid SnakeWater (ketone ester plus electrolytes), while the intoxicating drink he sips is R 1,3 Butanediol hard ketones that actually get you drunk and impair coordination more than equivalent alcohol.
  00:16:18
• Tim reveals he is terrified of heights despite bungee jumping headfirst off a bridge in Taiwan; prolonged exposure has not reduced the fear, and just talking about heights makes his hands sweat.
  00:20:45
• Tim's accelerated-learning hack: hire an Olympic silver or bronze medalist (or college coach) from a non-lucrative sport for around $100 an hour, since you only need someone substantially better than you who can actually teach.
  00:42:48
• Tim recounts having a full psychotic unraveling tied to childhood trauma at an extended Vipassana retreat, a story he told in depth on Dan Harris's 10% Happier podcast.
  00:52:24
• Kevin confesses he bought a Porsche 911 during Digg's decline as an attempt to fill an emotional gap, and saw the same money-as-emotional-crutch pattern among watch collectors when he was CEO of Hodinkee.
  01:14:20
• Tim discloses that his 4-Hour Workweek advance was about $75,000 paid over roughly 18 months, after 27-29 editors rejected the book, some rudely, before Crown took the risk.
  02:16:39
• Tim says his total book royalties run in the hundreds of thousands of dollars per year, and he has poured many hundreds of thousands of dollars into Cockpunch without yet recouping his costs.
  02:27:23
• Tim reveals that two nights of ayahuasca about 1.5-2 years ago triggered a months-long deep depressive episode, leading him to dramatically dial back psychedelic use.
  02:35:32

• The Random Show opens with Kevin drinking The Mascot from the Harlan family's Napa Valley winery, where he sits on the advisory board.
  00:00:34
• Rhino Skin Solutions (rhinoskinsolutions.com) dry spray antiperspirant for hands, recommended to Tim by a professional climber, is the only thing that controls his climbing hand sweat.
  00:22:07
• Kevin recommends the 'Quantified Scientist' on YouTube, who tests consumer wearables against gold-standard lab devices and finds the Apple Watch is now very accurate for heart rate and sleep.
  00:26:23
• The Peloton Rower uses sensors in the seat and pulling mechanism to flash red form-correction cues; rowing reportedly engages about 80% of your muscles.
  00:28:52
• Tim says The 4-Hour Chef is secretly a book about accelerated learning, with a 'meta-learning' section he has used dozens of times to acquire physical skills.
  00:49:42
• James Clear (Atomic Habits, 10M+ copies sold) gave Tim the maxim 'keep the schedule, reduce the scope', even 30 seconds of meditation beats skipping to preserve momentum.
  00:56:20
• Tim's decluttering rule: rate each item 1-10 for joy or use, keep 8s and above, and donate anything lower to someone who would get an 8-10 out of it, especially warm clothing before winter.
  01:11:48
• Tim cites the book Die With Zero by energy trader Bill Perkins as counter-programming for his own difficulty spending money to fix problems.
  01:26:44
• Cockpunch's primary sale raised roughly $1.8 million, all wired within 48-72 hours to the Saisei Foundation funding psychedelic-assisted therapy and other intractable-condition research.
  01:52:06
• Kevin cites Apple's iOS Lockdown Mode, which disables about five common functions to defend against rare, sophisticated state-actor cyberattacks delivered via SMS payloads.
  02:32:51