#815: Chris Hutchins, Deal Master — Helping Tim Burn 15M+ Miles and Points, Flipping Costco Gold Into Five-Star Trips, Flying to Japan for $222, Tech Tools and Tricks, and Avoiding The Optimizer’s Curse

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

4.6 • 17.4K Ratings

🗓️ 10 June 2025

⏱️ 159 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Chris Hutchins is the creator and host of All the Hacks, a podcast that helps people upgrade their life, money, and travel. He previously founded Grove (acquired by Wealthfront) and Milk (acquired by Google), led New Product Strategy at Wealthfront, and was a Partner at Google Ventures. Most importantly, he is the person Kevin Rose and I call if we want to figure how to get a better deal on just about anything in the world, or if we just want to learn about his latest hijinks doing things like getting $200 flights to Japan, running gold pseudo-arbitrage at retail, or dirt-cheap trips to Bora Bora. We cover all three and more in this conversation.

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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, Margaret Atwood, Mark Zuckerberg, Peter Thiel, Dr. Gabor Maté, Anne Lamott, Sarah Silverman, Dr. Andrew Huberman, and many more.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, boys and girls, ladies and germs. This is Tim Ferriss, and welcome to another germ-ridden episode of the Tim Ferriss show. Actually, I don't know if technically it's germs, but I have COVID for the third time. You know, third time is the charm. I'm having so much fun with it. And I thought I would record this intro late at night, listening to the insects and frogs outside here in Austin,
0:21.7	Texas, because I was completely dead until 2.30 p.m. today. So I am wide awake,
0:28.3	late at night. Now, moving on with the show. My guest today is Chris Hutchins. He is the
0:35.1	creator and host of All the Hacks, a podcast that helps people upgrade their life, money, and travel. I've known Chris for a very long time. He previously founded Grove, which was acquired by Wealthfront, and Milk, which was acquired by Google. He led then new product strategy at Wealthfront and was a partner at Google Ventures.
0:54.3	But most important, most impressive of Ball.
0:58.4	Jesus Christ.
1:00.7	Oh, COVID, I love thee.
1:03.7	I could leave that in, maybe.
1:04.9	Who knows?
1:05.8	Most importantly, let's keep it simple, shall we, Ferris?
1:09.2	He is the person Kevin Rose and I call if we want to figure out how to get a better deal on just about anything in the world. Or if we just want to learn about his latest hijinks doing things like getting $300 flights to Japan, one of my favorite places, or running gold pseudo-arbitraget retail. We talk about that some length in this conversation or
1:29.5	dirt cheap trips to Bora Bora. Actually, I think we talk about all three of these things in this
1:33.5	conversation. Chris always is in search of a better way, a cheaper way, a workaround, a shortcut.
1:42.5	He puts so much time interfering these things out. And there's a lot to
1:47.9	be learned from Chris. Now, there are also certain things that he does with glee that I would pay
1:52.7	not to do. But therein lies the beauty. We are on complementary sides of the spectrum. I took a lot of
1:59.7	notes. I have three pages of notes in front of me
2:01.4	from this conversation with Chris. And I think you will also pick up a lot that you can use and,
2:06.3	you know, discard what you don't need, add what is uniquely your own. Something like that,
2:11.9	Bruce Lee. Thank you for that. Sorry for the butchering. Chris Hutchins, you can find all things,
2:16.0	Chris Hutchins, beyond my fever dream of an introduction
2:19.6	at Chris Hutchins.com.
	...

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