April 28, 2020

Books I’ve Loved | Cindy Eckert and Alexis Ohanian on the Tim Ferriss Show #425

Check out The Tim Ferriss Show Episode Page & Show Notes

Key Takeaways

• Tim Ferriss’ Book Recommendations
  • The Tao of Seneca: Practical Letters from a Stoic Master by Seneca
  • The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman 
  • Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown 
• Cindy Eckert’s Book Recommendations
  • Purple Cow, New Edition: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable by Seth Godin 
  • A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life by Brian Grazer
• Alexis Ohanian’s Book Recommendations
  • Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture by David Kushner 
  • Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker

Intro

• Alexis Ohanian (@alexisohanian) is the co-founder of Reddit and Initialized Capital and the author of Without Their Permission: How the 21st Century Will Be Made, Not Managed
• Cindy Eckert (@cindypinkceo) is an American entrepreneur who built and sold two pharmaceutical companies, notably Sprout Pharmaceuticals
• Host: Tim Ferriss (@tferriss) 

Tim Ferriss’ Book Recommendations

• The Tao of Seneca: Practical Letters from a Stoic Master by Seneca
  • These are his favorite letters and they touch on stoic philosophy
• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman 
  • “Even if you’re a nonfiction purist, this is the book you need to listen to” – Tim Ferriss
• Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown 
  • “This is one of my favorite books over the past few years” – Tim Ferriss

Cindy Eckert’s Book Recommendations

• Purple Cow, New Edition: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable by Seth Godin
  • It’s a marketing book that emphasizes the importance of a unique brand to build a successful business
    • “Love Purple Cow, highly recommend it” – Cindy Eckert
      • Because of this book, Cindy changed her email signature to “Moo”
        • You don’t need to be homogenous to thrive in business, you can be different and succeed 
  • Cindy would look for Purple Cow characteristics while interviewing potential candidates for her company
    • “How did they stand out from everyone else, how are they remarkable in a way that’s going to attract remarkable to them”  
• A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life by Brian Grazer
  • The book talks about the importance of curiosity and how to develop it
    • “[The author] talks about techniques in which you can cultivate your curiosity, he gives very practical tips” – Cindy Eckert
      • Cindy says that all the successful people she’s met were all insatiably curious people
        • “The curiosity factor is the difference between good and great”

Alexis Ohanian’s Book Recommendations

• Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture by David Kushner 
  • The book talks about the founders of id Software, who created two of the most notoriously successful game franchises in history: Doom and Quake
    • Alexis was actually planning to become a lawyer, but he decided to skip the LSATs to a waffle house instead. He started thinking about what he wanted to do in his life and read this book during that time.
      • He read about the video game company’s founders was inspired by what a couple of passionate coders could do
      • “This gave me the confidence to say, you know what, if they could do this, we could definitely do this and I convinced my roommate to start a company with me” – Alexis Ohanian
        • The company they started eventually became Reddit
        • “Reddit would not exist if it weren’t for Masters of Doom”
• Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker
  • The author shares lessons on what sleep does for the body and why it’s so valuable 
    • Since reading this book, Alexis went from sleeping 6 hours a night to sleeping 8-9 hours
    • If you want to do important work, recovery and rest are as important as the work itself. If you talk with any athlete, they will share similar advice. 
    • “It was a humbling thing to be listening to this and realizing just how dumb I’ve been for 15 or so years” – Alexis Ohanian
    • Living on not enough sleep does short-term and long-term harm