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The Tim Ferriss Show

#133: Edward Norton on Mastery, Must-Read Books, and The Future of CrowdFunding

The Tim Ferriss Show

Tim Ferriss: Bestselling Author, Human Guinea Pig

Lifestyle Design, Business, The 4-hour Workweek, Productivity, Timothy Ferriss Show, Startups, Tim Ferris, Entrepreneurship, Longform Interviews, Tools Of Titans, Timothy Ferriss, The Tim Ferriss Show, Tim Ferriss

4.617.4K Ratings

🗓️ 18 January 2016

⏱️ 87 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This episode, I sit down with Edward Norton (@EdwardNorton). Edward is an actor, filmmaker and activist. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards for his work in Primal Fear, American History X, and Birdman. He has starred in scores of other films, including Fight Club, The Illusionist, and Moonrise Kingdom. Unbeknownst to most people, Edward is also a serial startup founder (e.g. CrowdRise; here’s my current campaign), a UN ambassador for biodiversity, a massively successful investor (e.g. early Uber), a pilot, and deeply involved with wilderness conservation. In this conversation, we cover a lot of ground, including: His beginnings in acting, and what early mentors taught him What separates great actors from mediocre actors, as illustrated through an early Marlon Brando story Edward’s physical preparation for American History X (and camera trickery) The importance of surfing His favorite books, documentaries, underrated films and filmmakers, and essays (The Catastrophe of Success, etc.) His advice to his 20- and 30-year old self And much more... And here’s a bonus, another favorite book he remembered after we stopped recording: Buddhism Without Beliefs. Enjoy! This podcast is brought to you by 99Designs, the world's largest marketplace of graphic designers. I have used them for years to create some amazing designs. When your business needs a logo, website design, business card, or anything you can imagine, check out 99Designs. I used them to rapid prototype the cover for The 4-Hour Body, and I've also had them help with display advertising and illustrations. If you want a more personalized approach, I recommend their 1-on-1 service. You get original designs from designers around the world. The best part? You provide your feedback, and then you end up with a product that you're happy with or your money back. Click this link and get a free $99 upgrade. Give it a test run. This podcast is also brought to you by Wealthfront. Wealthfront is a massively disruptive (in a good way) set-it-and-forget-it investing service, led by technologists from places like Apple and world-famous investors. It has exploded in popularity in the last 2 years and now has more than $2.5B under management. In fact, some of my good investor friends in Silicon Valley have millions of their own money in Wealthfront. Why? Because you can get services previously limited to the ultra-wealthy and only pay pennies on the dollar for them, and it’s all through smarter software instead of retail locations and bloated sales teams. Check out wealthfront.com/tim, take their risk assessment quiz, which only takes 2-5 minutes, and they’ll show you—for free–exactly the portfolio they’d put you in. If you want to just take their advice and do it yourself, you can. Or, as I would, you can set it and forget it. Well worth a few minutes: wealthfront.com/tim. 

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Past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show include Jerry Seinfeld, Hugh Jackman, Dr. Jane Goodall, LeBron James, Kevin Hart, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jamie Foxx, Matthew McConaughey, Esther Perel, Elizabeth Gilbert, Terry Crews, Sia, Yuval Noah Harari, Malcolm Gladwell, Madeleine Albright, Cheryl Strayed, Jim Collins, Mary Karr, Maria Popova, Sam Harris, Michael Phelps, Bob Iger, Edward Norton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Neil Strauss, Ken Burns, Maria Sharapova, Marc Andreessen, Neil Gaiman, Neil de Grasse Tyson, Jocko Willink, Daniel Ek, Kelly Slater, Dr. Peter Attia, Seth Godin, Howard Marks, Dr. Brené Brown, Eric Schmidt, Michael Lewis, Joe Gebbia, Michael Pollan, Dr. Jordan Peterson, Vince Vaughn, Brian Koppelman, Ramit Sethi, Dax Shepard, Tony Robbins, Jim Dethmer, Dan Harris, Ray Dalio, Naval Ravikant, Vitalik Buterin, Elizabeth Lesser, Amanda Palmer, Katie Haun, Sir Richard Branson, Chuck Palahniuk, Arianna Huffington, Reid Hoffman, Bill Burr, Whitney Cummings, Rick Rubin, Dr. Vivek Murthy, Darren Aronofsky, and many more.

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

optimal minerals.

0:02.0

It does out the two, I can run flat out for a half mile before my hands start shaking.

0:06.0

When I ask you a personal question,

0:08.0

now I just sit in the perfect place.

0:10.0

I'm a cybernetic organism living this show,

0:14.0

or never in the sky.

0:16.0

Three, two,

0:18.0

Ferris Show.

0:23.0

This episode is brought to you by Athletic Greens.

0:26.0

I get asked all the time what I would take if I could only take one supplement.

0:30.0

The answer is invariably Athletic Greens.

0:34.0

I view it as all-in-one nutritional insurance.

0:36.0

I recommended it, in fact, in the four-hour body.

0:38.0

This is more than 10 years ago,

0:40.0

and I did not get paid to do so.

0:42.0

With approximately 75 vitamins, minerals,

0:44.0

and whole-food source ingredients,

0:46.0

you'd be very hard-pressed to find a more nutrient dense and comprehensive formula on the market.

0:50.0

It has multi-vitamins,

0:52.0

multi-mineral greens complex,

0:54.0

probiotics, and prebiotics for gut health,

0:56.0

and immunity formula.

...

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