Ep. 230: R.P. Eddy – HOW TO DISCOVER THE SECRETS IN LIFE

The best things in life are born from coincidence. I am a firm believer in this.

A year ago I was flying back from California. I started talking to the guy sitting next to me. Turns out he had  worked in almost every branch of government related to intelligence and diplomacy.

Now he runs his own private intelligence company. He has information about every government in the world. He is paid a lot of money to reveal and analyze that information.

But when we were on the plane, for basically four or five hours I asked him everything I could and got the most incredible detail about the state of affairs in the world. I’m almost afraid to reveal what we spoke about on the plane.

Everything from “how to catch a liar” to “What is the Nigerian government specifically doing about oil prices” to “Will Trump win?” (and his answer turned out to be stunningly accurate).

Then…a lost touch with him. He  was just a guy I sat next to on the plane for a few hours. We got off and went to live our separate lives.

Until now.

His new book is out: “Warnings” written with uber-diplomat Richard Clarke.

What is he warning about? Everything.

Where are the hidden potential catastrophes around the world. And how can we live with them. And how can we avoid them. And how can we figure out the warnings after these?

He answers, he analyzes, he proves, and he does it from his 30 years of experience uncovering these things for the US government and now, through his company, for other governments and large institutions  that can afford him.

The key is: “that  can afford him”. Because now he comes on the podcast and just like the coincidence of meeting  him a year ago, he answers all of my questions again about his book. About the “Warnings”.

I love  when coincidence intersects real life. I saw his book, remembered him from our interaction, and we had the best time on the podcast. Read the book, listen to the podcast, and don’t ignore the coincidences in your life.

(But he is.)

R.P. Eddy is the CEO or Ergo, one of the greatest super intelligent firms in the world. Governments hire him and his firm to spy on other governments.

“Hopefully, I wasn’t too indiscreet,” he said, referring to the time on his plane.

I told him not to worry. “If you’re not arrested by the end of this podcast, then you’re okay.”

In his book, “Warnings: Finding Cassandras to Stop Catastrophes,” R.P. covers all the major world catastrophes that could’ve been predicted and prevented: 9/11, Madoff, Fukushima, the financial crisis, AIDS, climate change.

If we can learn to predict these, or at least learn how to figure out  how the correct experts are, then a lot of pain can be avoided.

Experts warned us. But no one listened to them. R.P. calls these people “Cassandras.” The name comes from greek mythology. Apollo (a god) wanted to sleep with Cassandra. She refused. So Apollo cursed her.

“She could foretell any future disaster. She could see it in vivid color,” R.P said. But the curse was that no one believed her. So she burned to death in a terrible attack. (An attack she knew was coming…)

These people exist in real life.

And R.P. wants us to notice them. So R.P, and his coauthor, Richard Clarke, started “The Annual Cassandra Award.”

They’re giving away cash prizes (up to $10,000) to motivate people to find and nominate a true “Cassandras.”

This is the formula for spotting a “Cassandra…”

 

How to detect a truth-teller (listen at [55:25])

The “Cassandras” featured in R.P’s book are experts in their field. They have been for years. He told me about Laurie Garrett, the head of global health for the Council of Foreign Relations. She’s the first person to ever win the Polk, the Pulitzer and the Peabody.

“She foresaw the rise of HIV/AIDS when she was a radio reporter in San Francisco,” R.P. said. “She saw these men dying of a disease called ‘gay related immune deficiency,’ ‘GRID,’ or ‘gay cancer.’ They didn’t know what it was. Gay men didn’t think they had a transmissible disease. They thought they were sharing a cancer somehow, but just by looking at them and seeing the hypocrisy sarcoma on their face, Laurie Garrett knew this was a contagious illness and started getting the media to pay attention.”

This was during the time of Ryan White. He was a young, poor high school student dying of HIV caused by a blood transfusion.

He was banned from school. People shot at his house. “Noted politicians called for gay people to be put in camps,” R.P. said.

But Laurie could see how the pandemic was unfolding. And she came up with a plan for health care and surveillance networks to prevent the disease’s spread.

The issue is that a lot of “Cassandras” are ignored. Because sometimes warnings are wrong… so how do you tell the difference between a “chicken little” and a “Cassandra.”

1. “Cassandras” are data driven. “Everybody in our book who was right was a proven, technical expert on the topic they were speaking about,” R.P. said.
2. “They are questioners by personality.” They ask hard questions and doubt what most believe.
3. They have an off-putting personality (not always, but it’s common).
4. They have a sense of personal responsibility. “When they walk into a restaurant and the fire alarm goes off, they’re the one who says to everybody, ‘Let’s get out of here,” R.P. Said. “These guys think of themselves as sheepdogs. Some people think of themselves as sheep (they probably don’t realize they’re sheep) and then we all know there are wolves out there. Sheepdogs, to some extent, think it’s their job to protect us.”
5. They have high anxiety. “Let’s go back to our fire alarm example. These are the guys who look for the fire exits when they walk in. They’re the people who pull the fire alarm when they smell smoke. And when you think about personalities, a lot of people don’t do that.”

 

Why we continue to let real threats slip by us:

I asked R.P. why these people, “the Cassandras,” are ignored. Why aren’t we trying harder to prevent terrible things from happening?

“It comes down to our human biases,” he said.

We pick sides.

If we think someone is off-putting, we doubt them. If they confuse us (meaning they’re data goes over our head), we move on. And miss the warning.

The same is true for our ideologies and belief systems. We’re quick to deny people who think differently. Madoff’s ponzi scheme is a perfect example.

R.P. interviewed Harry Markopolos, a financial fraud investigator. “He knew within 45 seconds of understanding Madoff’s “hedge-fund” that it was a ponzi scheme,” R.P said.

But the SCC didn’t listen to Harry’s warning because of his personality. They thought he was obnoxious.

Even though he had hard evidence:

Madoff claimed to trade 60 billion dollars worth of options. But that many options didn’t even exist in market. The math proves Harry right.

Humans fail by emotions.

I don’t know if there’s a solution. Maybe we have to unlearn. Maybe we have to judge our judgements.

And ask more questions.

Curiosity is a new world. And isn’t that what we want after all?

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Links and Resources:

• Read “Warnings: Finding Cassandras to Stop Catastrophes” by Richard A. Clarke and R.P. Eddy
• R.P Eddy is CEO of Ergo, a leading intelligence and analysis firm.

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How 40 Years Of Star Wars Has Saved My Life

Today is Star Wars 40th Birthday.

40 years since my life changed because of it.

I saw it over 30 times that first year.

I cried when the next movie, Empire Strikes Back, came out because it was a cliffhanger and I hated that I had to wait three years.

When “Return of the Jedi” came out, my friends and I convinced our parents to let us take a day off from school.

We got to the theater six hours early and were already about 100th in line. People had waited on line all night.

We snuck down in our seats and watched it three times in a row. I was in a glow when I left. I felt like a Jedi.

I don’t care if people hate, like, love, or are indifferent to the prequels or the sequel. I love them all. I love the books.

How did it change my life?

One word: SURRENDER.

I can put my best effort into something. And that’s all I can do.

Then I surrender the results.

THEN I SURRENDER THE RESULTS.

Two steps to anything in life:

1) put in the best effort
2) surrender to the results.

Then repeat.

This has saved my businesses countless times. This has saved me so much anguish in relationships.

If someone leaves me when I put in my best effort, I just have to move on.

If someone abuses me when I put in my best effort, then I have to leave.

This has helped me prepare for speaking appearances where I was scared to death. This has helped me with deals, with negotiating, with skills I wanted to develop.

This has helped me meet new people I wanted to meet. It’s helped me every time in my life I have felt fear.

Best Effort + Surrender = The Force.

How do you put in the best effort?

a. PLUS, MINUS, EQUAL

i. find a mentor, real or virtual to model yourself after

ii. find equals to challenge you. On Steve Martin’s master class on standup comedy he says as the very first thing to do if you want to do standup comedy:

find other funny people and talk to them. Not for a few minutes or a few hours. But CONSTANTLY. Pitching ideas to each other, challenging each other, helping each other improve.

iii. find your minus.

I always make sure I lecture and teach whenever possible. I regularly give talks at Columbia or NYU, for instance, and other local conferences.

Why? Because it helps me solidify things I learn, it puts me in “beginner’s mind” so I can learn more from the point of view of someone just starting, and it helps me improve my own public speaking and teaching skills.

And then repeat “a” as much as possible.

b. READ

I read everything I can about what I am interested in.

Even when I started at a job, I read everything I could about the history of the industry, the biographies of the executives, the history of the competitors, the science of the technology, etc.

When I was a kid and wanted to get better at chess, I studied every game I could get my hands on.

I skipped school and would read books on chess all day long. I don’t know if this was a better use of my time but I did get better.

Every time I get interested in something new, something that sets my chest on fire, I read everything I can about it. And if there’s nothing written on it, I write the book.

c. DO

Much more important than “READ”.

Too many people write or read and don’t do.

You can’t get BETTER until you DO.

When I started my first business, it wasn’t enough to know how to program and solve a hard problem.

I had to learn to do something I had never done before: sell.

To sell, you have to understand personalities, you have to learn what excites people, you have to over deliver, you have to understand competitors, etc.

Without DO-ing I would never have learned the critical parts of business. Business is at least 60% psychological (or 90%). I would never have known that.

I wanted to learn how to write better. I can read every book. I can read every book on writing.

I didn’t get better until I started to write. Until I told stories. Every single day.

d. FEEDBACK

I wrote a novel when I was 21. I got feedback from a professional novelist (“uhh….it has potential but write your NEXT book”).

When I played chess in tournaments I would take each loss and bring it to my instructor and he would break down each move where I went wrong. He’d set up similar positions and I would have to solve them over and over.

When Luke tried to lift his ship out of the water in “Empire”, he failed. He got immediate feedback from his instructor, Yoda.

The one advice every standup comic gives me: record each performance. Amy Schumer has said in an interview, she listens to her performances to find out if she should even pause 1/4 a second more at the end of a joke.

e. REPEAT

You can’t get better until you do something A LOT. There are shortcuts. But everyone good already knows the shortcuts.

There’s no hack to hack the hacks.

Talent is 5%. It’s the ignition that starts the car. But then you have to drive.

---

SURRENDER

Star Wars is about surrender.

The hero, Luke, is reluctant.

But he surrenders to the fate around him.

Fate is about a future that is outside of your control.

Best Effort + Surrender = DESTINY

Star Wars concludes with Luke trusting everything he’s learned. His best effort. And having faith in it. Finally, not having faith in a system, or a teacher, or a fad, but HIMSELF.

It’s ONLY when he finally does that that he is able to save the Universe. He’s able to find his destiny.

---

That’s why I say Happy Birthday to Star Wars.

Because I learned how to put in my best effort.

I finally learned to surrender and trust myself. I have to re-learn this every day. Because I fail a lot when I don’t do this.

Destiny is more powerful than fate. Because you can’t control it, but you can surrender to it, and then it actually happens, whether you like it or not.

Star Wars gave me destiny. That sounds stupid. Like I’m a four year old.

I don’t care.

Happy 40th Birthday, Star Wars.

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See Also:

– “How to Become a Jedi Knight”
– “The Force Will Awaken in 2016”
– My podcast with Cass Sunstein titled “The World According to Star Wars” (and my article that introduces it).
– My podcast with Jim Luceno who has written many Star Wars novels. (the blog, “The Waiter’s Pad” has a good summary).

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Ep. 229: Brandon Webb – Becoming The Master Of Your Own Fate

His platoon was counting on him. He couldn’t come back a failure.

Brandon Webb had been deployed to the Middle East four times. He’d seen war’s ugliness and destruction. And now he was being sent to sniper school. He’d have to learn how to make quick decisions.

Hard decisions.

“The only easy day was yesterday. That’s our motto,” he said.

Brandon is one of the most accomplished teachers in the military’s sniper school. He changed the system by focusing on positive reinforcement instead of scare tactics, which allowed him to see firsthand how having a good “mental mindset” propels people into success.

I really wanted to learn about this “mental management.” That’s what Brandon teaches these guys as they go through their brutal training.

In his “New York Times” bestselling memoir, “The Red Circle” and his newest book, a “The Killing School: Inside the World’s Deadliest Sniper Program,” Brandon shows you exactly how to become a master of your own fate… (what skills and tricks he teaches snipers and practices himself: visualization, positive self-talk, solution-based thinking and so on.)

“I wanted to give people the uncomfortable look behind the curtain on what it’s really like to take another person’s life,” he said. “…what war is like and what it’s like when my friend, Alex, in the book, shoots a bad guy in Afghanistan and watches as the man’s 13-year-old son walks out to save his dad. And then Alex comes back home. He has his own son who is 13… He broke down after the mission.”

 

I asked Brandon about the ups and downs of going to war, coming home, and going back again. And how he stayed healthy enough to start his own business, fail and start over again.

I wanted to know how he became a master of his own fate. And how I can be too… That’s what this podcast is about.

I don’t normally do this. But this time I gave away the “table of contents” of what I wanted to discuss:

• I wanted to cover Brandon’s ideas on war
• Discuss the issue of teaching people to kill people (to me, this is the elephant in the room)
• Brandon was one of the first deployed to Iraq. So I wanted to ask about his ups and downs going to war, coming back and going to war again

“Obviously, I don’t want to learn how to be a sniper” I said, “but what I really want to talk about is peak performance.” Both of Brandon’s books to talk about this, especially his section on “mental management.” I wanted to learn what tools and habits I need to do today to make myself a master of my own fate. That’s essentially what this show is about… becoming the master of your own fate. “Choosing yourself.”

Here’s what I learned from Brandon (and some shortcuts from the show):

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BUILD A SOLUTION MINDSET (listen at [59:03])

It wasn’t just target practice. Brandon was training snipers. He needed his students to perform at peak performance in incredibly high stakes situations. So they started with self-talk.

It starts by changing “can’t” to “can.” But you’ve heard this before. (I did). And I tried it before. It didn’t stick. But if it works for A-class snipers it should work for me.

Brandon told me the formula: visualization + hard work

Everyday, he starts with visualizing what he wants to achieve. He focuses on the success. Then he puts in the work.

Road blocks will come up. It will be difficult. He said that’s where the “solution-mind” comes in. You have to combat every issue with new ideas. Exercise your idea muscle. Be creative.

 

POSITIVE HABITS (listen at [1:02:30])

“I’ve seen it,” Brandon says, “I’ve seen it while on the firing line. They think about it and then it transfers to behavior.” If someone says don’t flinch, they’re going to flinch. Brandon made up the ranks. His job was to train snipers. And he wanted to start by programming his students with good habits. So instead of focusing on the negative (don’t flinch), he focused on the positive (keep your eyes on the target.)

“Do it over and over again to create a habit,” he said.

 

YOU CAN QUIT WITHOUT FAILING (listen at [1:07:26])

Brandon left the Navy. And started his own company. But he didn’t know when to let go. Nothing was working out. He lost everything: his business, friends, family… A month later his wife was asking for a divorce. And the kids went with her. “I had to have the conversation with all his neighbors: “Where’d your family go?” It was embarrassing. He said it was the first time he felt like he really failed in life. I asked how he bounced back. He told me this: “Failure is necessary to being successful in life. There’s a big difference between quitting and failure.”

 

HARD WORK = CONFIDENCE (listen at [1:17:14])

We were talking about gold medalists.They have a different mindset. Brandon calls it “the mind of a champion.” That’s what he tries to build in his students. Brandon says the formula is hard work and confidence.

“But how do you get the confidence part?” I said.

“It comes from hard work…”

 

BELONGING (listen at [31:16])

I needed to know. Islam itself. What is the fight? Is this really a fight of religions? Why radicalism has spread so quickly in the Middle East?

Brandon explained the economics. There’s a big gap between rich and poor. “The social and political situation is not very good,” he said. “Saudi Arabia, for example, has a very elite royal ruling class but the working population is very poor.”

He said people join the fight because they need a cause. They need to belong to something. A military is a tribe. I get this question all the time. “How do I find my purpose?” Some people find their purpose in a fight. In a mission. In a cause… Brandon explained that the people who join these radical groups, or any group, were probably suffering in life. And they wanted to fill a gaping hole in their life. They wanted what any human wants: a feeling of belonging. That’s the powerful force pulling them in.

When Brandon was 16, his dad threw him off a boat in Tahiti. And Brandon had to find his way back. Eventually, he joined the military, became a Navy SEAL and then became a special ops sniper. There were 23 of them, 220 tried out.

The question he gets most often is one of ignorance, “How many people did you kill?” But that’s not what it’s about for Brandon. And maybe that’s what separates good from evil. He continued to tell me how radical governments incentives people to join “the cause.” He said they pay people to become martyrs.

I couldn’t believe it.

“Is that true?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he said, “As a state sponsor of terror, Iran is funding and fueling the conflict in the Middle East, especially with Israel.” And the Internet makes it worse, too. Because it connects us. “The internet is a beautiful thing,” he said. But it also gives terrorists the ability to radicalize someone here or there.

I don’t know what the big takeaway here is. Maybe information is enough… I don’t read the newspaper on a daily basis. I view the news as the first draft of history. But I feel books like Brandon’s become the second and third drafts. And that’s where I get my knowledge.

Maybe this podcast is the fourth draft.

 

Links and Resources:

• Read Brandon’s newest book “The Killing School: Inside the World’s Deadliest Sniper Program“
• Read New York Times bestseller “The Red Circle: My Life in the Navy SEAL Sniper Corps and How I Trained America’s Deadliest Marksmen” by Brandon Webb and John David Mann
• Read “The Power of Thought: Core Principles to Overcome Adversity and Achieve Success” by Brandon Webb
• Read “The Red Circle: My Life in the Navy SEAL Sniper Corps and How I Trained America’s Deadliest Marksmen” by Brandon Webb
• Read “Navy SEAL Sniper: An Intimate Look at the Sniper of the 21st Century” by Brandon Webb
• Visit Brandon’s website and sign up for his free newsletter
• Sign up for Brandon’s SOFREP book club 
• Visit Hurricane Media for more from Brandon
• Follow Brandon on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram

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I Want To Get Better So This Is What I Did

I woke up three in the morning thinking about all of my sexual problems.

I started laughing. I thought it was funny. I then had an argument with myself.

Side one: “I should write it down RIGHT NOW”.

Side two: “UGH! I’m too tired. I’ll remember it all in the morning and write it down then.”

Someone once said, “if you wake up at 3 in the morning with an idea you HAVE to write it. You won’t remember.”

So I got up and wrote it down. About 1000 words. Then I went back to bed. Then I thought of something else that I thought was funny. I got up and wrote it down.

Then when I woke up a few hours later I had no idea what I had written. I had forgotten everything.

---

I don’t want to be a comedian. I just want to learn a new skill.

I figure it will help me be a better public speaker. A better podcaster. A better thinker about what is “weird” in the world.

In other words, I want to learn a new skill. But it’s a skill that I think will provide deeper meaning to other areas of my life.

Learning + Meaning = Persistence = Skills = Pleasure.

Is it too late to get better at something? I don’t know. But it excites me.

I don’t want to ever fall into routines.

I think that’s when people say, “I can’t believe this year went so fast.” Because their mind just skips right through the things that are routine.

I want things to go slowly. Every day to sloooow down.

---

Here’s what I did Saturday to get better.

A) WROTE

At 3 in the morning I wrote down what made me laugh. I have no clue what makes other people laugh. I only want to make myself laugh.

This made me laugh and I didn’t want to forget it so I wrote it down.

B) RE-WRITE

In the morning I went over what I wrote at 3 in the morning. It was ok. I rewrote and then rewrote again. I crossed some things out that I no longer thought was funny.

C) WATCHED

I watched a video of Bo Burnham, Garry Shandling, Judd Apatow, Ray Romano, and Marc Maron talking about comedy.

I watch videos every day of the greats.

I watched a video breaking down Bo Burnham’s latest special.

I watched more standup from Louis CK. I watched a video of Judah Friedlander doing crowd work. I watched videos of Gary Gulman and Marina Franklin.

D) READ

I am re-reading for the third time Judd Apatow’s “Sick in the Head” where he interviews comedians.

He’s been directing and producing and writing movies for 30 years. But he’s a pure fanboy.

Since he was 14 years old he’s been interviewing his favorite comedians and he compiles them all in “Sick in the Head”.

In the past few days I re-watched “Knocked Up”, “The 40 Year Old Virgin”, and “This Is 40” by him. As well as watched episodes of “The Larry Sanders Show” that he wrote when he was younger.

[ RELATED: 40 Books That Saved My Life ]

E) PODCAST

I had a podcast scheduled.

A podcast is not about “how do I get information out of my guest”.

It’s about: “How can I set this up so that my guest and I are as entertaining as possible.”

My guest was great and we had fun. And I learned. If I had fun and learned then I think my listeners will.

That’s what turns a boring podcast into a good one.

One quote from the podcast (with the genius Naval Ravikant): “I hope whatever happens is interesting enough that I can’t predict it.”

F) TEST

I didn’t know if what I wrote at 3am was good enough for an audience or not. Once a week I’ve been trying out material on a real audience.

But I wanted to test it out this new material before then.

So I found a list of open mics that I could just go to. The only people at open mic are the other people who want to go up to the mic. So supposedly no pressure.

I found one to go to at 4 in the afternoon. I went.

Right before I was going to go up to the mic I had a bit of a panic attack. I was shaking and having trouble breathing.

I’ve given hundreds of talks, been on TV hundreds of times, done thousands of podcasts and other things. But to try out new material in a room full of 15 other scared people scared me.

I tried out some new material and tried out some old material. I wanted to do the older material to improve my delivery.

I’m trying to decide how much of comedy is: the joke (story/ setup / punchline), the delivery (when to pause, when to change my voice, when to move), and playing with the audience.

I also hate jokes that are JUST about being funny. I want each thing to be something personal to me. I hate comedy that is meaningless.

I tested out a bit of all three at the open mic. It was fun and mostly everything worked.

One bit that was older I decided to drop. Two jokes I decided to add. And one bit I did that would only work if nobody knew me.

F) RECORD AND ANALYZE

When I went up I recorded myself. I listened later.

Where should I have paused more? How should I have segued differently? What words were people laughing at that I could have stretched out or said louder? Where did I pause too much?

G) TALK IT OUT

I wish I had someone to talk to about it right afterwards to analyze what worked and didn’t. But I didn’t have that yesterday. Sometimes I do.

H) REPEAT: WATCH AND READ

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For everything there is a learning curve.

There’s beginning the curve. There’s the steep part. There’s the part that flattens out towards mastery.

Being honest with myself: I like being on the steep end of a learning curve. Just being flooded with new things every day.

Every day is key.

Some people like being on the part of the learning curve that flattens out. This the part right before true mastery.

Where every improvement is hard work and you learn to appreciate the subtleties that much more.

I’m afraid I like that part but not as much as the steep part. I like that feeling of non-stop improvement.

Just watching and thinking is the lowest part of the learning curve. You appreciate something and you think about it and you recognize quality but you aren’t really getting better.

You have to DO to get better. DO-ing (with feedback and analysis) moves you from the bottom of the learning curve to the steep part.

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That was my Saturday. The body and mind always want to explore a frontier.

It cost me nothing to explore.

I was happy when I went to sleep. All of my problems postponed for another day.

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A List Of 30 Day Challenges You Can Start Today

I had a friend who did 30 day challenges. And then the murders began.

There’s this theory that no matter what you are writing, if you write, “And then the murders began” on the second sentence, it becomes better. Did it?

Why ask if someone likes 30 day challenges. Let’s just make it fun instead. Let’s make a list of 30 day challenges I think are interesting. Most of these I have tried. In fact, maybe all of them.

A) HUG one stranger a day. Not as easy as you think, despite the many benefits.

B) NEGOTIATE once a day. At a Starbucks? Ask for 10% off, for instance.

C) DO STANDUP COMEDY once a week for a month.

E) LIVE ONLY IN AIRBNBs for 30 days. I’m on my 21st month and it’s been great.

F) RETURN AN EMAIL to someone from 10 years ago that you’ve never returned. Do this every day for 30 days. You’ll be amazed how grateful and happy you make people. One time someone bought me “jamesaltucher.com” for my birthday. I didn’t respond to his email for four or five years. Finally I wrote back, “ok, I’ll take it”. We’re good friends now. AND I am the proud owner of “jamesaltucher.com”

G) PLAY every day. In last few days I’ve played basketball, ping pong, poker, virtual reality games, etc.

H) GIVE AWAY 10% of your income this month. But not to charities. Just to random homeless people or as extra-large tips, etc. You will have at last 30–50 individual moments of charity you are not used to.

I) PUT YOUR SHOWER ON EXTREME COLD for at least 4 seconds at the end of the shower. This is supposed to be very healthy. But for the first few days until you are used to it, VERY hard to do.

J) TAKE A PHOTOGRAPH A DAY and put it on Instagram. I did this for a month about a year ago. I’d try to find the most interesting person I could find, photo them and interview them. It’s hard to go up to people!

K) WRITE every day. I’ve been writing every day since 2002. The great thing is, if you write 1000 words a day you have enough material for about 6–8 books a year. Because of this “challenge” I started so long ago I’ve written 18 books (13 bad books, one ok book, 4 good books).

L) THE NO COMPLAINTS CHALLENGE. Probably the hardest challenge on this list. Simply don’t complain for 30 days in a row.

M) COME UP WITH ONE APP IDEA A DAY. Then spec it out, put it on Freelancer – Hire & Find Jobs and see if people bid to do it. Yesterday I spec-ed out an app for people who are “Going Steady” (the app deletes all the dating apps on your phone). I put it on Freelancer – Hire & Find Jobs and then wrote about what happened next (on my FB page).

N) WRITE A BOOK IN A MONTH. Think of something you love, write about it every day for 30 days, then upload the result to Amazon and self-publish it as a book. It doesn’t matter how long it is. For instance, if you love TV, write about a different favorite TV show every day and what you learned from it, then title the book, “Everything I Know about Love I Learned from TV”.

O) EXERCISE EVERY DAY. 30 minutes at least. See how you feel after 30 days.

Ok, this is a good number of challenges to start with. If you can even do one of these I guarantee your life will change.

At the very least do this:

P) WRITE DOWN TEN IDEAS A DAY FOR 30 DAYS.

Your idea muscle needs to be exercised, like any other muscle. Do this for a month and you will become an idea machine.

Even further, write down ten ideas to help others and send the ideas to them.

This will make you an idea machine and a networking machine. You will meet people and create opportunities.

Don’t think of these thing as challenges. Think of them as beginnings.

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When The Going Gets Weird, The Weird Gets Going

The worst you can do is try to compete with the other seven billion people on this planet.

Most of them are better than me at just about everything. There is nothing in this world I can say, “See! I’m the best!”

We live in a standardized world filled with people who are trained to be carbon copies of each other.

We go to the same schools, have, for the most part, the same sorts of dreams, take the same jobs, live in similar houses, have the same goals, strive for similar achievements.

This is not necessarily a bad thing. When I was a kid I wanted to be accepted. I wanted to not have acne or braces or glasses or wild hair or be so clumsy I was never picked for “the team”.

I wanted to fit in. I wanted my parents to be proud of me, girls to like me, and my friends to think I was a leader.

I tried very hard to be a good student ( I was thrown out), then to get a good job (I was fired), a pretty wife (I got divorced), make a lot of money (I lost it all the first several times I made some).

I tried to be normal and I failed. Believe me, I wish I could succeed at being normal.

Research shows that “average looking people” attract more women. I want to be average.

[ REALTED READING: 10 THINGS YOU HAVE TO DO IF YOU WERE FIRED YESTERDAY ]

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Steve Jobs was weird. He made a phone with one button.

Mark Zuckerberg was weird. He made the first social network where you were forced to reveal your identity.

Sara Blakely was weird. She made the fist new kind of underwear in over 100 years.

Tony Robbins very weird. Just watch my podcast with him.

Louis CK is weird. He asks, “What is the worst thing I can say on national TV?” and then he says worst than that.

JK Rowling is weird. She was divorced and broke and started a book about a boy who lived in a closet rather than get a job.

Mike Massimino is weird. In order to become an astronaut he became one of the first people in history to spend two years figuring out how to correct his vision without devices.

Brian Koppelman is werd. He doesn’t “write what he knows”. He only writes “what fascinates me”. So he wrote “Rounders”, “Billions: and many more.

Elon Musk is pretty weird. He gets an idea (“let’s put a chip in the brain that can connect to the internet”) and then starts a company (Neuralink).

Isaac Newton was weird (“the rate of change of her love for me seems to be decreasing even if our love is going up” = the beginnings of calculus).

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At one point, like it often does, it all falls apart and you are faced with the fact (the reality) that the tribe might abandon you.

I was on a first name basis with my IRS agent. She was beautiful and I asked her to the movies when I was in big trouble. but like the whore the government is, she just wanted money from me.

After thirty years of trying to fit in, I was now on the outside of the tribe.

When you are the Omega male there is no more use for you. You lie on the fringe of the tribe.

The lion will eat you first.

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I was once the #1 Google search result for “I Want to Die”.

Serious suicide people complained.

For the first time ever Google manually changed their algorithm so that “the National Suicide Hotline” would come ahead of me.

But I wasn’t going to kill myself anyway. There was no “safe” way to kill myself.

If you shoot yourself in the head, there’s a good chance you might blow out both your eyes, half your face, and still live.

If you take pills, you might have a stroke and wake up “locked in” with severe brain damage.

If you jump off a bridge, you might break all your bones and remain paralyzed for life.

I tried meditation, it didn’t help. I tried medication, it made me gain weight and I stopped having sex for a year. I tried AA, DA groups, BoDA groups, SLAA, GA groups, and none of them helped.

I tried throwing a coconut on an empty street at midnight at the suggestion of a psychic.

I tried falling in love with someone else so perhaps she could have the burden of falling in love with me when I couldn’t love myself.

You can’t love yourself before you DO things worth loving.

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This is when the weird get going.

I needed a reason to get out of bed that had nothing to do with me. Because my own reasons for getting out of bed were now hopeless and useless.

Every day I asked the question: how can I be useful to at least one other person besides me?

HOW CAN I BE USEFUL?

I’d list people I wanted to help. Even if they didn’t know me. Then I’d list ideas that could help them.

I did it 15 years ago. I did it this morning. I’ll do it tomorrow. I don’t break the chain.

Here sir, try these ideas please!? You don’t need to call me.

Sometimes it was another business. Here…here are ideas for how your business can be better. You can thank me later…or perhaps never.

Here sir, here are ten ideas for articles you can write, or ideas for how your business can thrive, or how you can make more money.

I went to a charity once a week and I volunteered. It made me forget myself.

I started a book that would help people. I never finished it but at least I worked on it a little bit every day. The book was, “How to beat your friends at every game in the universe”.

For instance, in Scrabble, know the “Q” without “U” words. In Monopoly, understand why the Orange properties are the best to own.

I wrote software to model the stock markets and handed the software to other people to trade with.

I had ideas for books I could write and one of them was eventually published. Then another. Then another. My first ten books were bad. Then I started to get good.

But I celebrated the small successes along the way.

You have to be stupid enough to celebrate the times when you DID, even if you did not do the best.

If you aren’t weird enough to find a way to celebrate today, then it will be harder for you to celebrate tomorrow.

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I am not good enough to compete with 7 billion other people on the planet.

If you think of a new way to help people, you no longer have to compete with 7 billion other people.

The weird get going. The weird DO things because they are too stupid to realize that most things end in disaster.

Today I have an idea for my podcast. It’s probably stupid. It’s weird.

I have an idea for another book. I have another idea for the businesses I’m involved in. Or online courses I can make that I hope can help people.

I have an idea for new jokes because for some reason I’m stupid enough to get on stage once a week and try to do standup comedy.

I’m terrified each time right before. I’m exhilarated each time right after.

I have an idea for a friend of where I can make a book out on an online course he did. I hope he lets me do it.

Again, most ideas are bad ideas. Most DO-ings are bad things to DO. Most weird things are just weird.

How can A, B, or C be done different? What new skill can I get better at?

How can I play today? And who will I play with?

It starts with the question, “How can I help?” And then, “Have they thought about this before?”

And then, “Will this be fun to do?” Because otherwise you waste another day not having fun.

And then I try to list the things nobody has ever done before.

And maybe today I will get out of bed. Please god, let me today get out of bed and be excited about what comes next.

Please.

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[painting is via Charlie Hoehn. Painting is done by Elise Andréa.]

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Ep. 228: Matt Barrie – CEO of Freelancer.com on How to Make Extra Income NOW

I almost changed forever the entire way people define relationships. The word “commitment” would have a new meaning. More babies would be born.

I’m thinking BIG.

Sometimes you want to try an idea and you don’t let yourself think about money.

If an idea is good, money is a side effect. Ideas are the real currency.

I met a brand new couple for breakfast. J and K. They told me they just had the “going steady” conversation.

“How’d you guys meet?”

“J-Swipe”. Or something like that. I forget. It was an online dating app.

“What does ‘going steady’ mean when you are both in your 40s?” I asked.

J was in his 40s. K wasn’t. I wondered if ‘going steady’ meant that he gave her a ring or something. There’s only so many more ‘going steady’s you have left in you at that age.

They both pulled out their phones. They were looking at each other’s phone and then showing me.

“We deleted all of the dating apps on our phone,” she said. But they were both peering at each other’s firm.

They needed confirmation.

Hmmmm!

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Idea:

The “Going Steady” App

Both sides of the couple sign in to the app. Then they select the other person. Then when both sides select each other, the app deletes all the dating apps on their phone.

If they ever download a dating app again, the other side gets notified by email. Or if they “de-select” each other from “Going Steady” then both sides get notified by email.

Simple!

Extras:

– Notify FB and Twitter that they are “Going Steady”
– Keep track of anniversaries, gifts, places they go, significant memories, etc.
– Notify friends of anniversaries, etc.

BOOM!

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The next day I wrote up the “spec”, which was actually just similar to what I wrote above.

I logged into freelancer.com. I opened a new project and cut and pasted my Spec in there.

It was weird to read prior chats I had had on the site. Since the last time I had uploaded a project in there was in 2006.

A customer service representative popped up a window and asked if I need help. I said, “Sure, why not?”

Meanwhile, within ten minutes I had about ten people bid to do my project.

I included in the Spec that they had to not only complete the app in 30 days but upload to the Apple store, the Google Play store, and do basic marketing for me.

People were bidding from China, India, and Kenya.

The average bid was $1000. I chatted with each one of them to make sure they understood what I was asking.

My basic test was this question: can an app on Android and Apple detect and delete other apps on Android and Apple?

The customer service representative recommended a developer as well. This developer cost more than $1000. More like $3500. That’s ok. I just wanted a good job done.

A small price to pay to change the future of evolution.

I asked this developer the same question.

Some of the developers would not upload to the stores or do any marketing. I crossed them off.

Others didn’t seem to understand my question about detecting other apps on the phone. I crossed them out. I didn’t want any communication problems with people from the opposite side of the world.

Finally, the recommended developer said, “I know you can do this on Android but not sure on Apple. Let me research.”

Five minutes later he came back. “It’s impossible to do this on Apple.”

We tried to figure out a work-around. Like if the device owner gave permissions, etc.

But there was no work-around.

“Ok,” I said, “thanks for your help.”

End of idea. End of project.

Total time it cost me: 45 minutes, from writing the spec, logging into the site, creating the project, talking to the developers.

Total money: I paid $29 to have a customer service representative help me.

Success? Failure? Neither.

It was an idea. I did the execution basics to see if I should pursue further. It didn’t. But I learned a lot. What it would cost to make an app, I learned a bit more about the Apple store, and I went through the process of trying to find a developer.

Do one “execution step” each day and it compounds into success.

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I wrote J. “Remember that idea we spoke about? Here’s what I did.” And I described.

He wrote back.

“That’s the difference between you and me. We had an idea I was a lazy sack of s**t and you went ahead and tried do it.”

Meanwhile, he’s produced some of the best TV shows of all time.

But I almost changed the worldwide definition of “Going steady”. I almost increased the world population.

Some people say, “Almost doesn’t count”.

But I say, ” ‘Almost’ is is better than nothing. And ‘Almost’ every day eventually turns into Everything.”

Links and Resources 

• Visit his website freelancer.com
• Follow Matt on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
• Follow Freelancer on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
• Download the Freelancer app here

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Everything I Learned About Success I Learned From These Ten Sitcoms

Sitcoms have saved my life. They turn my world from gray to color.

They are static electricity that shock and waken the boring parts of my brain.

And the lessons from them have helped me achieve every success I’ve ever had.

Many people are snobbish and down on TV. Even worse, they get down on comedies, even if they stick to good dramas.

But comedies are what bring me alive. They help me in business, in relationships, in life, in all communication.

I will tell you why here and more below:

– They often reveal hidden truths that would be hard to express in any other medium. When Seinfeld brings a date to “Schindler’s List” and makes out with her, this can’t be done in just about any other setting except a neo-Nazi propaganda film and yet Jerry Seinfeld can do it and it’s funny. When Louis CK talks to another comedian about suicide in an episode of “Louie” it’s a way to capture the inherent difficulties in building a career but, again, in the safer context of a comedy.

– They make me laugh. The body is meant to laugh, to climb, to jump, to relax. Note: the body is not meant (from an evolutionary perspective) to have a career or make money. But laughter is proven to have so many benefits it’s amazing we don’t spend more of our day actively trying to laugh.

– A good comedy allows the mind to “practice” a difficult situation and see that there is humor in it.

This is important. The brain CAN’T distinguish between what is on TV and what is happening in real life.

It knows it’s not AS real but that’s about it. A good comedy will end up in some dark or awkward place and use comedy to fight its way back. Or not. This is a good practice for the brain.

These are my favorite ten comedies. The are mostly based on white men.

Why? Because I’m a white man and I probably relate most to these. Also, most shows made over the past 50 years have been about white men.

I am happy to watch others (“Veep” could easily be on my list) and I’m open to suggestions.

I’ve watched each of these series, in their entirety, at least twice. Sometimes (“Louie” and “Freaks and Geeks”) over five times for the entire series.

I have never done that with any other series (oh, except for “Lost”, which I’ve now watched 4 times from beginning to end).

TV is the best vehicle right now for storytelling.

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MY TEN FAVORITE SITCOMS OF ALL TIME

“CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM”

Larry David is the godfather of the modern sitcom.

Larry David has said that the “Larry David” he plays on “Curb” is not really him. It’s what he’d LIKE to be.

But the lesson from Curb is that comedy is often about subtraction.

You take the real Larry David and you subtract all sense of etiquette and “following the rules” and an ability to hold himself back from what he’s really thinking and you get Curb.

Steve Kaplan in “The Hidden Tools of Comedy” says that comedy is often about subtraction.

Another thing about Curb. Almost every scene is improvised. Instead of a 20 page outline, Larry David will often only write a 3-4 page outline and let people improvise.

So when you see the actors laughing, they are REALLY laughing, not just acting like someone laughing. There’s a big difference and the viewer can feel it.

Also, almost all the actors are professional comedians (JB Smoove is unbelievable in the show) or improv actors or (in the case of Ted Danson and the one season with Michael J. Fox) comedic actors.

I like the fact that such an accomplished scriptwriter can improve on the form to create a better show.

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“ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT”

David Cross, Michael Cera, Jason Bateman, Jeffrey Tambor, and everyone else in the show – you can’t go wrong with that cast.

In 1997 I was once interviewing David Cross and Bob Odenkirk (who also appears in “Arrested” but is better known for “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul”).

They made me laugh so hard my stomach was hurting and I had to leave the room. They were just riffing back and forth but it was incredible. I had never laughed so hard.

Additionally Arrested Development is narrated by Ron Howard and has regular cameos from Henry Winkler and Scott Baio.

In other words, it’s a callback to my favorite show when I was growing up – “Happy Days”.

There’s even a “breaking the fourth wall” moment when Scott Baio replaced Henry Winkler as the family’s lawyer and they specifically say “we need to appeal to a younger demographic” which is exactly the reason the young Chachi came on “Happy Days” alongside “The Fonz” (played respectively, by the younger Scott Baio and Henry Winkler).

Why would Ron Howard, one of the most successful directors of our time, narrate a sitcom?

Because it’s that good.

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“SEINFELD”

What is nothing?

It’s really the added up inconveniences and hardships and pains and awkwardness of daily living.

There’s no murder. There’s no heartbreaking romance. There’s no drug deals. And there’s specifically “no learning”.

But that’s what daily life is about.

Combine that with four actors, each with their own complete story line that HAS to intersect at the end of a 22 minute show, and you get the most successful sitcom of all time.

One interesting thing: Larry David was so worried about running out of New York stories that he’d roll over the writing staff every season with other writers from New York so he’d get those stories.

One of those writers, Alec Berg, became a producer, then a producer on “Curb”, and now the Executive Producer of “Silicon Valley”.

Another writer, Fred Stoller, one of my favorites, has written a great book titled “My Seinfeld Year” and is coming on my podcast this week.

Another writer, Carol Leifer, has been on my podcast.

And Marc Hirschfeld, the casting director of the original season, used to complain to me when my parties were too loud (but that’s another story). Hopefully he will come on my podcast.

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“FREAKS AND GEEKS”

Canceled after less than one season. But I could watch this series over and over again.

I also recommend Judd Apatow’s description of the failure of this show.

It was Judd Apatow’s first attempt at producing for TV. He hadn’t yet done: “The 40 Year old Virgin”, “Knocked Up”, my all time favorite comedy “Superbad”, “Funny People”, and other series like “Girls”, and “Crashing”.

Imagine creating a high school show without pretty people.

He wanted to create the opposite of “Beverly Hills 902010”. A bunch of geeky kids combined with a bunch of burnout kids and everyone’s awkward attempt to fit in.

Growing up is awkward and painful and there’s no guidebook.

But this is what’s amazing:

Imagine a show with the first appearances of unknown actors such as James Franco, Seth Rogen, Jason Siegel, Martin Starr (“Silicon Valley” much later, as well as others), Linda Cardellini (“Mad Men” much later), and also the comedic writing talents of Paul Feig (I recommend his book, “Superstud”, he wrote and directed “Spy”, he directed a lot of “The Office” and “Arrested Development”).

How did he find all these future mega-stars? Judd Apatow did it and they show their future skills in this show.

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“PEEP SHOW”

I didn’t want to watch it. It was made by the BBC. It’s very British. It’s hard enough for me to like something made in America. I didn’t think I would like it.

It might be actually #1 on this list, it’s that funny.

Everything on this list is really too close to call. Which is why I’m not putting numbers here.

Imagine two great improv comedians, with cameras right on their eyes (the innovation in the show is how they do the camera work).

They are roommates but like an extreme “Odd Couple” and they both hate and love each other (like many roommates).

And they go through what I’ve gone through in career, relationships, awkwardness, friendship. etc.

It’s the ultimate bromance. And, I hate to use the phrase, it is “laugh out loud funny”.

I have never seen another British show before or since. But this one is it. David Mitchell, one of the actors, then did a very funny book about the experience.

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“LOUIE”

Andy Samberg made a joke during the Golden Globes. He said, “There has been several reclassifications this year: ‘Orange is the New Black’ has gone from comedy to drama’ and ‘Louie’ has been reclassified as ‘Jazz’. “

Which is funny because Louie is obviously a comedy simply because it’s written, directed, produced and starring Louis CK, a comedian.

And it’s about a comedian named “Louis CK” (in the genre of comedians shows about comedians (Seinfeld, Louie, Jim Gaffigan Show, Maron, Crashing, and probably others I’m not thinking of).

But there is something jazz-like about the show, beginning with its opening theme.

There’s an improv to it that just barely stretches reality enough that you still believe what’s happening even though you are accepting of the stretches of reality.

And it’s DARK.

My favorite scene is when Louie is lonely for the holidays in the season finale of season 3. He runs into my all-time favorite actress, Parker Posey, on a bus and…something happens. You have to see it.

Every episode contains darkness. But the wisdom that drives Louis CK’s comedy drives this.

And Louie is the master of his craft. He took the umbrella of comedy 30 years ago decided to master all the sub-skills:

Standup, writing for a show, writing for a talk show, making a movie, making a TV series (“Lucky Louie” which was cancelled after one season on HBO), and then negotiating to become the first TV producer to completely create a TV show on his own terms without any notes from the executives.

Perhaps the first time that’s happened on a major network.

The result is a sitcom that completely plays with the form. For example, almost every other sitcom has a main storyline told in three acts.

Often Louie doesn’t do this. There are many episodes with two complete stories without the requisite breakdown into acts.

Plus, if you watch the compilation of just his standup-bits in the show, they are FUNNY. Unlike other shows about funny people (“30 Rock”, “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” – a great drama), the “Louie” bits are incredibly funny.

But isn’t this just like Seinfeld, a show about a comedian with the same name as the show who is up and coming in the comedy world?

Yes, but this isn’t a show about nothing. Louie is darker in every way than Seinfeld and I found myself both laughing and crying often within the same episode.

Louie says he could’ve made many of these storylines into a movie. Instead he fit them tightly into an episode on this show.

The show is really like 50 quality movies.

Oh, my other favorite episode is also with Parker Posey. When they are on their first date and she sits on the edge of the roof and gives a beautiful monologue.

Please, Parker, come on my podcast.

(Parker talking to Louie)

Louie has turned his talents towards producing several other sitcoms (one with Zach Galifiniokis, another with Pamela Adlon, and another with himself and Steve Buscemi). All good.

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“THE JIM GAFFIGAN SHOW”

AGAIN! A show about an up and coming comedian named after the creator of the show.

This is like a cleaner “Louie” although just describing it that way doesn’t do it justice.

Clean comedy is probably more difficult than crude comedy.

AJ Jacobs told me an experiment he did with Jim Gaffigan. He found out that the first joke ever recorded in history was a “fart joke” and he had Jim Gaffigan go on stage to see if people would still laugh.

Incidentally, AJ is working on a sitcom now about his experiences making the book “The Year of Living Biblically”. I hope it succeeds.

“Jim Gaffigan did his own version of the oldest joke ever,” AJ told me, “and people laughed”.

It’s easier to get people to laugh when you are crude. It’s harder to tell a joke about Cinabbons and get people to laugh.

Jim’s story is also different than many other comedians. He’s got five kids. His wife is involved in all of his material. He is probably compared to Louis CK all of the time (and at least one of the shows is about that).

Michael Ian Black, one of my favorite comedians, is also a regular on the show. Michael, come on my podcast! And Marc Hirschfeld (see “Seinfeld” above, plus my unknown story of him being my neighbor) is casting director.

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“IT’S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA”

This should be #1 if I were ranking by “Choose Yourself”- style stories.

A bunch of unknown aspiring actors shot a video in a dumpy bar in an obscure corner of Philadelphia, turned it into a sitcom, and pitched it to FOX.

FOX took it. The creators are now worth over $20 million each nine seasons later.

Fox brought on Danny Devito to provide some experienced comedic talent to the show but the show was already off to the races.

Unlike most of the shows above there aren’t many inter season arcs but they still exist. And each show holds up on its own and is hilarious.

This show is again an example of – take a regular group of people trying to find success and happiness and SUBTRACT some basic skills of being a responsible human and this EQUALS hilarious comedy.

The actors / creators were unknown before this show started. Now they’ve been in tons of other shows, movies, etc.

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“THE LARRY SANDERS SHOW”

Like Seinfeld, The Larry Sanders Show is almost the grandfather of every other sitcom that came after it.

I can’t make a list about sitcoms without one of the most creative of all time.

A show about the inner workings of a talk show called “The Larry Sanders Show”.

Garry Shandling, one of the best comics of all time, stars in it, and the guest includes well known comedians such as Bob Odenkirk (him again! By the way, best sketch show of all-time is “Mr. Show” starring Odenirk and David Cross (“Arrested Development”) which also appeared on HBO, and also great actors such as Rip Torn and Larry Sanders and tons of guest appearances (David Letterman, etc).

Even more revealing is the amazing staff of writers who worked on that show including a young Judd Apatow who says Garry mentored him to success via this show.

I once wrote a spec script for this show that I was very proud of. It was about how Larry Sanders wanted to get respect and write a memoir.

I was about to send it in to the staff of the show when the very next episode was about this exact topic. So I missed my chance.

As Garry Shandling put it, “The show is about people who love each other but show business gets in the way”.

Garry wouldn’t do a joke simply because it was funny. It had to move the story forward. The jokes had to be about something.

Writers like Judd Apatow never forgot that (and 10 monster box office hits later, it’s clearly good advice that Judd used).

And, culturally significant. Even though it was fiction, whenever “Larry Sanders” went on vacation, his guest host on the fictional show was often a young comedian named “Jon Stewart”.

When the Larry Sanders Show finished its fun, even though the show was fiction and not real, Jon Stewart was finally given a chance to host his own talk show: The Daily Show.

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“THE LEAGUE”

Even though this list is not in any order, I had a hard time coming up with the tenth to put on this list.

Many other shows can fit in this spot: “Silicon Valley”, “Veep”, “Party Down”, “Undeclared” (another Judd Apatow show), “Entourage”, “The Brink”, “Taxi” (maybe one of the greatest shows of all time, introducing Danny Devitor, Judd Hirsch, Andy Kaufman, Christopher Lloyd, Tony Danza, Marilu Henner, etc), “Mary Tyler Moore”, etc.

I also leave out the animated sitcoms: “The Simpsons”, “South Park”, etc.

But, for me, “The League” was must-see TV and I’ve seen the entire series at least twice.

It’s about a topic totally uninteresting to me: a fantasy sports league.

First, the creator: Jeff Schaeffer, worked on Seinfeld.

In many industries, the creators of quality got their start with a strong team of up and coming talented people on an earlier classic. How many actors got their start on Saturday Night Live, for instance?

How many great network executives (executives at Showtime, Viacom, Universal, Starz, Amazon, Netflix) for their start at HBO?

And many great writers got their start at Seinfeld, being trained by Larry David.

How many great Silicon Valley companies were started by people who worked at PayPal (Tesla, LinkedIn, YouTube, Palantir, are just a few).

Jeff Schaeffer worked side by side on Seinfeld with Alec Berg (“Curb” and “Silicon Valley”) and David Mandel (“Veep”).

And then the cast: Mark Duplass (who in addition to making movies with his brother, also stars in “Togetherness” on HBO and several seasons of “The Mindy Project” with Mindy Kaling) super comedian, Nick Kroll, (who also hosted “The Kroll Show” on Comedy Central), etc.

The League provides a missing hole in my life.

I never had a group of guys that I hung out with where we all made fun of each other.

Perhaps this is traditional male bonding (a great example of this art form is in “Knocked Up” with Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, Jonah Hill, Martin Starr, and Jason Siegel, constantly making fun of each other.)

Most of my friends are women. Perhaps this is why I’ve “missed out” on this traditional male experience. I miss it and wish I had it.

The League is my favorite example of this. I would even join a fantasy sports league if I thought guys like this would be in my league.

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I’ve left out a lot of great shows. And again, all of the shows are above are about white men.

But: Veep, The Mindy Project, The Office, Silicon Valley, Entourage, The Brink, Undeclared, Party Down, Taxi, MASH, Roseanne (which Judd Apatow also wrote for), Ellen, Night Court, Girls, Cheers, Friends, Crashing, Maron, and probably a hundred other shows that are making their breakouts now, deserve special mention.

Oh, I also wanted to include “Episodes” and “The Comeback”, two Friends spin-offs.

“The Office” deserves special mention as not only a showcase of Steve Carrell’s amazing acting and comedic (Mindy Kaling says in her second book that her eight seasons with “The Office” was like going to an acting school taught by Steve Carrell) skills but the talent of its writer/performers like Mindy Kaling and BJ Novak, as well as how the comedy translates well from Ricky Gervais British version. (Oh, which reminds me: I forgot to include “Extras” with Ricky Gervais).

And maybe “Taxi” most of all in terms of the quality of the cast and the influence that had on later sitcoms.

It was also the first sitcom that had a particularly dark and grimy quality to it, (starting with the beautifully sad, minor-chord driven theme song) that turned sadness into humor every week with the most incredible cast, writers, and creators (Andy Kaufman!)

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Why write a list of the best sitcoms ever?

What value does it have for life, business, etc.

Answer: Everything. EVERYTHING!

– The body needs to laugh. For both mental and physical health reasons.

– Humor is a way to reveal hidden truths. We all live with boundaries made by the rules of society. Comedy is a way to look beyond those rules and determine which ones are worth bending.

– The story-telling is basic but super tight. Not a single extra word else you lose the humor.

And all communication is about story-telling. Too many people forget this. Whether you are writing a memo to your boss, or a tweet -you have to tell a story.

– The actors are not just actors, they are comedians with their own perspectives they’ve developed from years developing their comedic skills.

– Life is difficult. These sitcoms are like guides to navigating those difficult moments.

– Public speaking. The best public speakers realize they are not in the information business, they are in the entertainment business, and often that is done via humor.

Jerry Seinfeld (or someone, I forget) says it best:

Every situation a comedian is in, he looks for what is wrong. For most people, they only look for what is right.

This is closely related to the underlying philosophy of Stoicism.

Sometimes looking for what is wrong is the best way to see a reality in a situation. And then make it right.

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Finally, why watch TV?

When I was younger, many people were snobs about TV. They would say, “Oh, we don’t even own a TV.”

I feel sorry for them. They are stuck in only their single lives, living them day in and day out. The same routines without deeper analysis (I am being harsh on purpose).

A sitcom is a way in 22 minutes to relive the awkwardness and horror of someone else’s worst moments. And to survive. Because we all are in this together. We simply want to survive.

Why not take every opportunity to learn how to do that?

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Any suggestions are welcome. I realize the limitations of my particular point of view and I’m open to suggestions, both from the classics and maybe brand new sitcoms that I’m missing, or simply sitcoms that I’ve forgotten to include.

Also, if you like this style of “Top 10” please mention it in comments.

I have many other “Top 10s” that I LOVE. I would never do a list about something I am not passionate about. I am passionate about the best sitcoms.

Since I was a kid, they have been my parents and mentors and friends. I’d come home from school and watch sitcom after sitcom all day and night.

For better or worse, they raised me. And still do.

The post Everything I Learned About Success I Learned From These Ten Sitcoms appeared first on Altucher Confidential.

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Six Ideas From Islam I Use To Find Success

Religion is despicable. And then murders happen.

I don’t believe any “science fiction” from 2000 years ago. Astrology is science fiction. A burning bush is science fiction. Prophecies from an invisible voice is science fiction.

I don’t believe in any set of rules made thousands of years ago that dictate clothes to wear or punishments for random crimes.

And you know what: most people don’t believe in those things either.

But I also don’t like when media takes a billion people and just blindly calls them terrorists for the sake of selling as many commercials as possible.

And every academic can quote passages from every religion about violence and horror.

The Bhavagad Gita, for instance, is Krishna’s argument about why Arjuna needs to go into war with, and potentially kill, his own cousins.

Should a modern person take this seriously? Of course not!

Islam is similar. Do I listen to everything a mysterious voice said to a man in the desert over a thousand years ago? Of course not!

I don’t believe in “Star Wars” either. Why would a “force” want Luke to kill perhaps millions of people on The Death Star.

And why is nobody ever reading a book in Star Wars? Don’t they read?

But I love thinking of the idea of “surrendering to The Force” and how that idea has often helped me through dark moments.

In ANY iconic story that has withstood the test of time for thousands of years I want to figure out why that story has survived.

And, of course, how I can benefit!

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This is what I take from Islam. In my worst moments, these six things have helped me.

Not in the name of any religion. But totally selfishly.

A) SURRENDER

“Islam” means “surrender”.

I think it is beautiful an entire religion is named after “surrender”.

Surrender to what?

That’s already thinking too much. I am a small tiny being with a gigantic star 96 million miles away keeping me alive.

And a billion years of DNA carving me into a biological tool that could survive for 100 years, give or take, on this planet.

We are surrounded only by stories, then skin, then cells and blood and air. And 97% of the matter in the universe is a total mystery to scientists and philosophers.

Surrender allows the unknown to happen as humbly as possible. Success is when we are ok with the unknown we invite in.

Islam provides guidance about surrender in its “five pillars”: faith, prayer, fasting, charity, pilgrimage.

B) FAITH

I don’t have faith in science fiction or miracles. My brain isn’t smart enough.

But I do have faith in myself. I have faith in my own personal practice that I do every day which consists of just four items.

Do I think everyone should have a personal practice? I do. But that is my own opinion and is not advice.

This is the personal practice I have faith in. And that if I do this practice, I can surrender to the outcome.

Every day I check the box on:

Physical health – Sleep Move Eat. Did I do the best I could on each of those.

Emotional health – Am I spending time with people I love and who love me.

Creative health – Am I creative every day. At a bare minimum, did I take out my waiter’s pad and write down ten ideas? About what? Doesn’t matter. Just write.

Spiritual health – Do I appreciate for just a moment the beauty of things around me, even when things feel they are at their worst?

[ Related: How To Be The LUCKIEST GUY ON THE PLANET in 4 Easy Steps ]

C) PRAYER

I don’t pray.

But when I pass people in the street I always think, “this person might die tomorrow” and I wish them the best. Or I think, “this could be my daughter” and I wish them the best.

This is my form of prayer.

Someone once told me the latter prayer feels fake to them. Fine. It doesn’t feel fake to me.

And it’s a way for me to get out of my own head and think about the needs and dreams and wants of others for even a moment.

Prayer is my way out of the head else I am trapped inside.

Islam suggests do “prayer” five times a day. I think it can be done all day long.

D) FASTING

Every religion has some idea of fasting. And like all good science fiction, the truths inside the story were only realized much later.

With modern science we now know the benefits of fasting to clean out the system, keep weight in control, avoid diseases like diabetes, and avoid inflammation in various organs, including the brain.

I try to do intermittent fasting a few times a week. Meaning: A 16 hour fast so all my food for the day is consumed during just an eight hour period.

Sometimes this just means, “skip breakfast”.

E) CHARITY

I don’t believe in writing checks to big organizations where I have no idea how the money will be used. So I don’t like traditional charities.

But I do set aside money each month to give as much as I can in completely random situations: to homeless people who ask. As a ridiculously large tip, since often this is the only way that low-wage workers get paid more.

Or in other situations where I can help or do things anonymously.

In Judaism, to give anonymously is considered the highest good. In Islam, it is one of the main pillars of their religion.

For me, it’s a way to reduce my attachments and worries about money while helping someone. This helps me in the process of “surrender”.

F) PILGRIMAGE

In Islam, this means: pilgrimage to Mecca.

I will never do this.

But I try to go on a pilgrimage every day. To spend some time exploring what I love instead of just following the directions someone else tells me to do.

Every day I try to have the heart of a pilgrim. In Zen this is called “beginner’s mind”.

Arrogance is the opposite of pilgrimage.

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I don’t watch the people arguing on TV about who killed who under what god’s name. All of that is BS and fiction.

“Follow the money” is how you get all the answers to those questions. This has nothing to do with “Surrender” for me.

But when I look at my own definitions of these five pillars: “faith”, “prayer”, “fasting”, “charity”, “pilgrimage”, I find these are guideposts in the direction of “surrender”.

And surrender has often been a great source of success and creativity for me.

It’s not about god. It’s not about a book. Or a history. Or a war.

It’s about how I can live today the best possible life. And the only possible way to predict a good tomorrow is if I live a good life today.

The post Six Ideas From Islam I Use To Find Success appeared first on Altucher Confidential.

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Ep. 227: Garry Kasparov –

I can die now.

But first I want to explain why. It’s not a suicide note. It’s a love note.

In 1984 I became obsessed with chess. It was basically a replacement for the fact that no girl would go out with me. I had braces, acne, wild hair, and did I mention more acne?

At the time there was a young contender for the world chess championship, Garry Kasparov. He was up against the older, more “Soviet” champion, Anatoly Karpov.

I followed every game. I played through them after each one, studying all the nuances as I began my own rise through the chess ranks.

Years later, because I was ranked a US master, I got accepted to graduate school (I am convinced chess is the only reason) and my office mate were the creators of a little computer called “Chiptest”, which at the time was the best chess computer in the world.

My job: play Chiptest all day long every day. Eventually they renamed “Chiptest”, “Deep Thought”, after the famous most powerful computer in the universe featured in “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”. And then IBM “bought them” – hired my officemates and “Deep Thought” became “Deep Blue”.

They offered me a job as well. I went as far as taking the urine test for drugs and then I turned down the job. Because I had a girlfriend who I would have missed. And because I was so insecure, I actually turned down what would then have been the opportunity of a lifetime.

A month later she broke up with me.

Six years later, I was in the audience in New York City when Deep Blue beat the World Chess Champion, Garry Kasparov in a historic match. For the first time, a computer has enough “intelligence” to beat the greatest player who ever lived.

Again, I studied every move. I’ve probably played over every game Garry Kasparov has played in his career. But this match was an important milestone in both computer and human history.

But that’s not why I would kill myself.

My lifelong dream – play one game against Garry Kasparov, has been fulfilled.

Here’s the video of the game: http://ift.tt/2pwWVJk

For those a little deeper into it: here are the moves.

Altucher (W) – Kasparov (B)

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Nge2 a6 6. Ng3 h5 7. h4 Nc6 8. d5 Ne5 9. f4 Neg4 10. Be2 c6 11. Qc2 cxd5 12. exd5 b5 13. cxb5 Qb6 14. Rf1 O-O 15. Bd2 axb5 16. Bxb5 Nxd5 17. Nxd5 Qxb5 18. Nc3 Qb7 19. Bc1 f5 20. Qd2 Be6 21. Nh1 Bc4 22. Rf3 Rf6 23. Nf2 Re6+ 24. Kd1 Bxc3 25. bxc3 Bb3+ 26. axb3 Rxa1 27. Kc2 Qa8 28. Bb2 Rae1 (white resigns)

I played an opening I’ve been playing for 32 years (nge2 variation of the King’s Indian Defense). I first studied this opening with Michael Wilder, who was the US champion at the time.

After 32 years playing this opening perhaps thousands of times, I was stumped. Garry Kasparov made a move I had never seen before (7…Nc6). Then he slowly crushed me. I don’t think I can play this opening ever again. (Greg Shahade…should I use the Classical b4 you played against me in DC 1997?)

A couple of small things I noticed. I noticed (see the video) how he was constantly adjusting my pieces. I think he instinctively tries to dominate the board in every way including physically intruding into his opponent’s space to say “I control all of the pieces on the board”.

This is a small thing but I also like how he pounds his piece into the board on a move, as if to say, “this piece is going in exactly the PERFECT spot. Don’t mess with it!”

That said, he obviously did not need psychology to beat me.

So, one of my  final bucket list items achieved, I feel good about where my life has taken me. Thank you podcast.

It’s rare to speak to someone who has achieved the #1 peak status of an area of life that I, and millions and millions of  others, look up to.

How do you do it?

Get a teacher!

Garry Kasparov studied under the former world champion Mikhail Botvinnik, who was the world chess champion from the mid-1940s until the mid-1960s.

And then Magnus Carlsen, the current World Chess Champion, also studied under a World Chess Champion – Garry Kasparov!

Study the History

Garry’s written many books on chess. But by far his best are his series, “My Famous Predecessors” where he studies and breaks apart the games of every world chess champion before him.

Study Your Failures

In his first match for the World Chess Championship, Kasparov was down 5 games to 0. If he lost one more game the match would be over.

He studied all his failures. What was he doing wrong? And then he began the meta-game. Instead of playing for  a win, he played for a draw in each game. After 40+ draws, his opponent, Karpov, started to collapse  under the pressure. Eventually the match was cancelled and re-started, giving Kasparov more of a chance to study where he had gone wrong. He won  the rematch and became world champion.

Study Your Opponents

Although Kasparov was talented and a superior player, he was also the first to use computers to study his opponents. Ever since the 80s he put together databases of all the games his opponents ever played and he studied each one to learn their styles, stuidy their moves, and figure out the secret surprises he can use to beat them in tournaments and matches.

Anticipate Your Weaknesses

Garry Kasparov’s teacher, Mikhail Botvinnik, was very sensitive to smoke, during a period when chessplayers would regularly smoke at the table during games.

So he would practice while having someone blow smoke straight into his face!

Magnus Carlsen (who Kasparov coached) was recently in NYC to play for the most recent World Championship. I was at the matches, watching. He kept getting into winning positions and failing to “close the deal” and win (although he eventually won the match in the tie-breakers).

The commentator, Judit Polgar, said, “his coach is going to have to set up position after position where he is slightly winning so he can learn how to win these”.

He had to “learn” even though he is now the best. “Beginner’s Mind” never stops.

Reinvention

Nobody, not even a world champion, can do one thing his whole life. Kasparov has been a frequent commentator on Russian politics and his Anti-Putin politics has even brought him to the candidacy for President of Russia at one point (probably why he lives in America now!).  He is also a frequent commentator on the topic of artifiical intelligence, hence his most recent book and the subject of this podcast. The book, is “Deep Thinking”.

Artificial Intelligence

Since the 1940s, computer scientists have wondered if artificial intelligence would be achieved if a computer could beat the best chessplayer in the world.

Kasparov has gone to great depths to studying what “artifiical intelligence” actually means. The answer is that as computers get faster, they get better at calculating and mimicking much of human behavior. But this is not the same as intelligence or consciousness. We still have a long way before that happens.

I can tell you, having built chess programs and having seen the inner workings of what  became “Deep Blue” the comptuer that beat Garry, nothing close to artificial intelligence was achieved.

In fact, intelligence was stripped out of the software so that the hardware could go as fast as possible. It was speed and simplicity that created the best chess computer. Not any insight into how the biology of the brain can be replicated by a computer.

Having now  read all the academic papers on the topic, I am a lot more impressed by the techniques used the computer software built by Google to beat the best Go player in the world (Go is an Asian game that has been much more difficult for comptuers to conquer). But even then I see it using simply a combination of speech recognition techniques, chess program techniques and a technique called Monte Carlo analysis often used by software the models the stock markets.

In any case, what does it matter?

Do we say Ursain Bolt is not a peak performer simply because a car can beat him in a race?

Garry Kasparov is probably the best chessplayer in world history.

I’m not sure he wanted to play me in chess at the end of the podcast. But I asked and he said “yes”.

I got to play Garry Kasparov!

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Links and Resources:

• Read “How Life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves, from the Board to the Boardroom” by Garry Kasparov
• Read “Winter Is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped” by Garry Kasparov
• Read “Checkmate!: My First Chess Book (Everyman Chess)” by Garry Kasparov
• Check out Garry’s website
• Follow Garry on Facebook and Twitter

The post Ep. 227: Garry Kasparov – appeared first on Altucher Confidential.

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