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What I tried to capture in this interview is Tim's belief that you can get 80% results with 5% effort. And that the other 95% effort (or whatever the %) is eith

What I tried to capture in this interview is Tim's belief that you can get 80% results with 5% effort. And that the other 95% effort (or whatever the %) is either the facetime that we feel we must put in to feel we earned our result, or an attempt at perfection. I'm not sure I agree with him completely, but my goal in the interviews is to learn, not to argue for "my side." My other goal here was to find out how he identifies that 5% that gets outsized results. The salient part of his answer was that he find people who achieve freakish results, then he mimics their approach. (If you read those last 2 sentences, you may not have to listen to my hour-long interview, which strengthen's Tim's 80%/5% message.)

noodle 16y ago
as someone who took his advice a few years ago about weightlifting, i can tell you firsthand that what he said then was reasonably accurate. my efforts, by generally doing what he suggested, produced generally similar results.
- AndrewWarner 16y ago
  Now what I need to do in my future interviews is get an understanding of the 5% of my guests' work that produces the big payoff. It can't be the only thing I focus on, or else the interviews won't have depth and integrity. But if I can pull that out, I can give my listeners a payoff for the hour they invest in my interviews.
  - dantheman 16y ago
    You can't get everything, but you can pull out things that you found especially interesting and surprising. The interview is there for anyone who needs an introduction to the subject with everything spelled out, the summary should be for those who are familiar with it.
- danielharan 16y ago
  can you link to the protocol you use, and explain what results you got?
bobf 16y ago
I found that to be true with school. 5% effort usually gets you a B, while the closer you wanted to get to "perfection" (100%/A+), exponentially more effort is required.
- detst 16y ago
  And most people would be quite happy with a "B" body. The most important thing for me, as someone that tends to come up with the "perfect plan" before starting, is that doing a little will get you on the path to improving yourself. But then when I do a little, I realize it's often enough to get me where I wanted.
  - jules 16y ago
    With the right diet and just one hour of exercise per week you can get you an A++ body. Diet: Not too many calories, many vegetables, enough protein. Cook your own meals. Fat is ok, as long as you don't get too many calories. Exercise: Mostly running, and a little bit of strength training. The key is to do what you do to the max. Run 10 minutes but make sure run as fast as possible. Do this two times a week, this will take 40 minutes a week (20 minutes running, 20 minutes preparing & showering). Do 5 minutes of exercise when you get up/go to sleep 4 times a week. If we assume 16 hour days then this will take 1/(7*16) = 0.9% of your time. Just to emphasize, that's less than one hundredth of your awake time. This is what I do and it works very well, it is the best investment of my time I ever make. YMMV
    - steveklabnik 16y ago
      Any tips on how to get a better handle on 'many, enough, and too many' relatively easily? I'd like to do something like this, but it's the paradox of choice with me and health: I know next to nothing, so I just feel confused by everything...
      - jules 16y ago
        Listen to your body. When you're full, stop eating. This feeling lags a bit behind what you eat, so don't eat too quickly. Don't eat things like sweets, chocolate and potato chips when you're hungry, when hungry only eat healthy things. Don't drink too much calorie dense drinks like fruit juice. These drinks won't give you a full feeling even though you've consumed a lot of calories, better eat fresh fruit. When I eat with my friends they sometimes say how come you eat so much but are so lean. They've been drinking fruit juice or soft drinks with the meal whereas I drank water, they're eating less but consuming the same amount of calories. Later the night they'll feel hungry and start eating snacks. For example tonight I ate carrots, pasta with pork and cheese with a sauce based on creme fraiche. This contains a lot of fat but that's not so bad because it also makes you full (I ate it 6 hours ago and have no appetite for e.g. sweets whatsoever). When you're hungry, bake an egg in butter with cheese and eat it with a slice of bread. This will be about 300 calories but you'll be full. Or you can eat one Mars and you'll be hungry again in half an hour (also 300 calories). Or you can drink 3 glasses of coke and be hungry in half an hour. Or you can eat 8 oranges and you won't be hungry (also 300). Or eat 25 big tomatoes. Or 100 grams of bread and you'll be hungry in two hours. The following numbers may be handy: Fat: 9000 kcal/kg (this holds for body fat as well as fat in foods) Alcohol: 7000 kcal/kg Carbohydrates: 4000 kcal/kg Protein: 4000 kcal/kg One thing I've found is that the more you eat the more hungry you get. For example on Christmas you usually eat a lot, yet the next morning I'm always very hungry. Do you have this too? Evolutionarily I think your body thinks "hey we got a lot last night, there is a lot of food available now (perhaps they killed a mammoth?), better stock up". This also works the other way around: if you've been eating too much and then go back to normal you'll be hungry, but that probably goes away in a couple of days (unless you're not eating enough). I think it is futile to try to lose weight or keep weight low trying to be hungry. Your body is much more powerful than your mind and will override your conscious efforts in no time. This is what works for me. The caveat is that I've never had or tried to lose weight, but I started to eat this way because I think it's healthier. When I did so after a while I discovered I had lost 4 kg (which is a lot for me), and had to consciously eat more to gain some of it back. On the other hand I went on a very active sports / camping vacation with friends and we had to buy food a few days ahead, so we all ate the same kind of things. This was a mix between their and my diets (e.g. no coke/fruit juices just water from the lake). My weight went up slightly because I eat more but they each lost 1-2 kg in two weeks. So I think it works, but if you notice gaining weight when applying this, stop and look for something else.

noodle 16y ago

as someone who took his advice a few years ago about weightlifting, i can tell you firsthand that what he said then was reasonably accurate. my efforts, by generally doing what he suggested, produced generally similar results.

AndrewWarner 16y ago
Now what I need to do in my future interviews is get an understanding of the 5% of my guests' work that produces the big payoff. It can't be the only thing I focus on, or else the interviews won't have depth and integrity. But if I can pull that out, I can give my listeners a payoff for the hour they invest in my interviews.
- dantheman 16y ago
  You can't get everything, but you can pull out things that you found especially interesting and surprising. The interview is there for anyone who needs an introduction to the subject with everything spelled out, the summary should be for those who are familiar with it.
danielharan 16y ago
can you link to the protocol you use, and explain what results you got?

bobf 16y ago

I found that to be true with school. 5% effort usually gets you a B, while the closer you wanted to get to "perfection" (100%/A+), exponentially more effort is required.

detst 16y ago
And most people would be quite happy with a "B" body. The most important thing for me, as someone that tends to come up with the "perfect plan" before starting, is that doing a little will get you on the path to improving yourself. But then when I do a little, I realize it's often enough to get me where I wanted.
- jules 16y ago
  With the right diet and just one hour of exercise per week you can get you an A++ body. Diet: Not too many calories, many vegetables, enough protein. Cook your own meals. Fat is ok, as long as you don't get too many calories. Exercise: Mostly running, and a little bit of strength training. The key is to do what you do to the max. Run 10 minutes but make sure run as fast as possible. Do this two times a week, this will take 40 minutes a week (20 minutes running, 20 minutes preparing & showering). Do 5 minutes of exercise when you get up/go to sleep 4 times a week. If we assume 16 hour days then this will take 1/(7*16) = 0.9% of your time. Just to emphasize, that's less than one hundredth of your awake time. This is what I do and it works very well, it is the best investment of my time I ever make. YMMV
  - steveklabnik 16y ago
    Any tips on how to get a better handle on 'many, enough, and too many' relatively easily? I'd like to do something like this, but it's the paradox of choice with me and health: I know next to nothing, so I just feel confused by everything...
    - jules 16y ago
      Listen to your body. When you're full, stop eating. This feeling lags a bit behind what you eat, so don't eat too quickly. Don't eat things like sweets, chocolate and potato chips when you're hungry, when hungry only eat healthy things. Don't drink too much calorie dense drinks like fruit juice. These drinks won't give you a full feeling even though you've consumed a lot of calories, better eat fresh fruit. When I eat with my friends they sometimes say how come you eat so much but are so lean. They've been drinking fruit juice or soft drinks with the meal whereas I drank water, they're eating less but consuming the same amount of calories. Later the night they'll feel hungry and start eating snacks. For example tonight I ate carrots, pasta with pork and cheese with a sauce based on creme fraiche. This contains a lot of fat but that's not so bad because it also makes you full (I ate it 6 hours ago and have no appetite for e.g. sweets whatsoever). When you're hungry, bake an egg in butter with cheese and eat it with a slice of bread. This will be about 300 calories but you'll be full. Or you can eat one Mars and you'll be hungry again in half an hour (also 300 calories). Or you can drink 3 glasses of coke and be hungry in half an hour. Or you can eat 8 oranges and you won't be hungry (also 300). Or eat 25 big tomatoes. Or 100 grams of bread and you'll be hungry in two hours. The following numbers may be handy: Fat: 9000 kcal/kg (this holds for body fat as well as fat in foods) Alcohol: 7000 kcal/kg Carbohydrates: 4000 kcal/kg Protein: 4000 kcal/kg One thing I've found is that the more you eat the more hungry you get. For example on Christmas you usually eat a lot, yet the next morning I'm always very hungry. Do you have this too? Evolutionarily I think your body thinks "hey we got a lot last night, there is a lot of food available now (perhaps they killed a mammoth?), better stock up". This also works the other way around: if you've been eating too much and then go back to normal you'll be hungry, but that probably goes away in a couple of days (unless you're not eating enough). I think it is futile to try to lose weight or keep weight low trying to be hungry. Your body is much more powerful than your mind and will override your conscious efforts in no time. This is what works for me. The caveat is that I've never had or tried to lose weight, but I started to eat this way because I think it's healthier. When I did so after a while I discovered I had lost 4 kg (which is a lot for me), and had to consciously eat more to gain some of it back. On the other hand I went on a very active sports / camping vacation with friends and we had to buy food a few days ahead, so we all ate the same kind of things. This was a mix between their and my diets (e.g. no coke/fruit juices just water from the lake). My weight went up slightly because I eat more but they each lost 1-2 kg in two weeks. So I think it works, but if you notice gaining weight when applying this, stop and look for something else.