August 24, 2020

Books I’ve Loved | Whitney Cummings on the Tim Ferriss Show

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Key Takeaways

• The Gift of Fear and Other Survival Signals that Protect Us from Violence by Gavin de Becker
  • “This is a pretty transformative book in terms of learning how to trust your gut and not dismiss red flags or write them off.” – Whitney Cummings
• Two similar books to The Gift of Fear that Whitney recommends as additional reading:
  • Codependent No More: How to Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring for Yourself by Melody Beattie
  • Adult Children of Alcoholics published by ACA WSO INC.
• Getting the Love You Want: A Guide for Couples by Harville Hendrix, PhD, and Helen LaKelly Hunt, PhD
  • “It is such an incredible book” – Whitney Cummings
    • The authors share lessons about: 
      • The role hormones play in love and relationships 
      • How the body can make us believe we’re in love with someone even though we only recently met them 
      • How to empathize with your partner’s point of view

Intro

• Whitney Cummings (@whitneycummings) is a Los Angeles-based comedian, actor, writer, and producer. She has appeared in multiple television shows and films, and has performed in stand-up specials for both HBO and Comedy Central, one of which was nominated for an American Comedy Awar
• Host: Tim Ferriss (@tferriss) 

Whitney Cummings Book Recommendations

• The Gift of Fear and Other Survival Signals that Protect Us from Violence by Gavin de Becker
  • “This is a pretty transformative book in terms of learning how to trust your gut and not dismiss red flags or write them off.” – Whitney Cummings
    • There’s a lot of invaluable advice around:
      • Hiring people and drawing boundaries with people
      • Vetting people who want to have a drama-free workplace
      • Getting over your fear of public speaking
  • Quotes from the book:
    •  “If you tell someone 10 times that you don’t want to talk to him, you are talking to him nine more times than you wanted to. If you call him back after he leaves 20 messages, you simply teach him the cost of getting a call back is 20 messages.”
    • “Do research before you hire people. The same way you would vet someone you date, someone you marry, someone you have in your home, vet people that you work with. It’ll save you a lot of time and emotional energy in the long run and you will be more prolific, productive, and happy.”
• Two similar books to The Gift of Fear that Whitney recommends as additional reading:
  • Codependent No More: How to Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring for Yourself by Melody Beattie
  • Adult Children of Alcoholics published by ACA WSO INC.
• Getting the Love You Want: A Guide for Couples by Harville Hendrix, PhD, and Helen LaKelly Hunt, PhD
  • “It is such an incredible book” – Whitney Cummings
    • The authors share lessons about: 
      • The role hormones play in love and relationships 
      • How the body can make us believe we’re in love with someone even though we only met them recently
      • How to empathize with your partner’s point of view
  • It’s important to know what kind of relationship you want because spending too much time in the dating world can prevent you from achieving your career goals:
    • “I think that we learn something from every relationship we’re in, but I see a lot of people’s careers suffering because they get distracted by relationships that ultimately don’t yield that much and lessons that they quite frankly don’t need to learn.” – Whitney Cummings
• “I think between these two books, it’s a really good way to make emotion-free, clear, logical hiring—and partnering—decisions so that you’re acting from your brain and not your heart and so your inner child is not running the show.” – Whitney Cummings

Tim Ferriss Show : book recommendations, books, books mentioned, comedian
Notes By Alex Wiec