Technologist, serial entrepreneur, world-class investor, self-experimenter, and all-around wild and crazy guy Kevin Rose (@KevinRose) rejoins me for another episode of “The Random Show.” In this one we discuss Bitcoin, portfolio rebalancing, energy management versus time management, maximizing our enjoyment of nature, lucid dreaming, couples therapy, healthy Hawaiian venison, and more.
Please enjoy!
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, or on your favorite podcast platform.
Brought to you by Magic Spoon delicious low-carb cereal; LinkedIn Sales Navigator, the best version of LinkedIn for sales professionals; and FreshBooks small-business accounting software. More on all three below.
The transcript of this episode can be found here. Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.
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This episode is brought to you by Magic Spoon cereal! Magic Spoon is a low-carb, high-protein, and zero sugar cereal that tastes just like your favorite sugary cereal. Each serving has 13–14g of protein, 4g of net carbs, and 0g of sugar. It’s also gluten free, grain free, soy free, and keto friendly. And it’s delicious! It comes in your favorite, traditional cereal flavors like Cocoa, Frosted, Peanut Butter, and Blueberry.
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This episode is brought to you by FreshBooks. I’ve been talking about FreshBooks—an all-in-one invoicing + payments + accounting solution—for years now. Many entrepreneurs, as well as the contractors and freelancers that I work with, use it all the time.
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What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.
SCROLL BELOW FOR LINKS AND SHOW NOTES…
Want to hear another episode of The Random Show? Check out my last conversation with Kevin, in which we discussed wildlife friends and foes, the folly of facing off against Mike Tyson (even in his 50s), slow donkeys, universal basic income (UBI), breaking the pandemic pajama routine, smoked meats and Wi-Fi grills, Zen and the art of Kevin maintenance, how to hike without being hunted, hoity-toity beer, pandemic investing, and more.
SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE
- Connect with Kevin Rose:
The Kevin Rose Show | Oak Meditation | Zero | Instagram | Twitter
- Past Episodes of the Random Show | The Tim Ferriss Show
- AcroLove Festivals
- Kevin’s Raccoon Toss | YouTube
- Bitcoin’s Price History | Investopedia
- Decide Whether Hedging or Shorting Are for You | Dummies
- A “Grey Hat” Guide | Electronic Frontier Foundation
- Mad Max | Prime Video
- Dutch Tulip Bulb Market Bubble Definition | Investopedia
- How Does Bitcoin Mining Work? | Investopedia
- Bitcoin Goes Mainstream as PayPal and Square Embrace Digital Currencies | Barron’s
- True Ventures
- Why Everyone In Crypto Is Talking About DeFi | Forbes
- What is a Stablecoin? Most Comprehensive Video Guide | Blockgeeks
- Tether (USDT) | Investopedia
- Bitcoin ETF? A Crypto Holy Grail. But Don’t Expect to See One Soon, Say Experts. | MarketWatch
- 2 Overlooked Catalysts for Peloton Stock in 2021 | The Motley Fool
- “Don’t Sell a Share,” Says Billionaire Even as Tesla Stock Dips | Yahoo Finance
- Banking, Automated Investing, & Free Planning | Wealthfront
- Looking For Best E-Commerce Stocks To Buy That Are Not Named Amazon Or Shopify? 3 Names To Know | Nasdaq
- Spotify Made Huge Investments in Podcasts — Here’s How It Plans to Make Them Pay Off | CNBC
- Investing, Trading, & Retirement | E*TRADE Financial
- Quicken | Personal Finance & Money Management Software
- Simplifi by Quicken
- Financial Planning and Wealth Management | Personal Capital
- Cafe De L’ambre: Legendary | Tokyo Coffee
- Plaid
- Of Wolves and Men by Barry Holstun Lopez
- Finding the One Decision That Removes 100 Decisions (or, Why I’m Reading No New Books in 2020) | tim.blog
- “If You Love Chocolate…” | Tim Ferriss, Instagram
- One Platform to Work with Social Media | Onlypult
- The Tail End | Wait But Why
- The Mysterious/Unsolvable Zen Koans | Henry Shukman | The Kevin Rose Show
- What Tree Is That? Tree Identification Guide | Arbor Day Foundation
- Shazam for Birds: Three Apps That Recognize Bird Calls | Lifehacker
- 12 Apps That Will Turn You Into a Nature Expert | Treehugger
- Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming by Stephen LaBerge and Howard Rheingold
- Huperzine A: Health Benefits, Uses, Side Effects, Dosage, & Interactions | RxList
- Enlightenment, Dreams, Lucidity, and False Awakenings in Buddhism | Tricycle
- Frequent Lucid Dreaming Associated with Increased Functional Connectivity Between Frontopolar Cortex and Temporoparietal Association Areas | Scientific Reports
- What Processes in the Brain Allow You to Remember Dreams? | Scientific American
- John Smith | Oklahoma State University Athletics
- Inception | Prime Video
- REM Sleep: Why is It Important? | American Sleep Association
- LSD’s Impact on the Brain Revealed in Groundbreaking Images | The Guardian
- Is Your Family Experiencing Greater Conflict During a Time of Self-Quarantine? | The New York Times
- The Center for Nonviolent Communication
- Imago Relationships
- CBN vs. CBD: What’s the Difference? | Weedmaps
- The Nation’s Leader In Cannabis Edibles | Wyld
- Oura Ring
- Fitbit
- The Truth About Alcohol and Sleep | The Sleep Doctor
- Physiological Effects of Touching Hinoki Cypress (Chamaecyparis Obtusa) | Journal of Wood Science
- Hinoki Lab
- Native American Indian Coyote Legends | Native Languages of the Americas
- Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory | Prime Video
- “The Suspense is Terrible…” | Tim Ferriss, Instagram
- 2021 Storming of the United States Capitol | Wikipedia
- Reality Check: Life Behind Insta-Glam Image of ‘Influencers’ | The Guardian
- Damion Searls: How Does the Rorschach Inkblot Test Work? | TED-Ed
- The Social Dilemma | Netflix
- The Skinner Box or Operant Conditioning Chamber | Verywell Mind
- My Octopus Teacher | Netflix
- The Last Dance | Netflix
- Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution | Netflix
- Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia | Prime Video
- The Fog Of War | Prime Video
- What’s the Difference Between Iboga and Ibogaine? | Psychedelic Times
- Dosed | Prime Video
- Soul | Disney+
- The Mandalorian | Disney+
- Maui Nui Venison
- Axis Deer on the Rise, Experts Say | Maui News
- The 4-Hour Chef: The Simple Path to Cooking Like a Pro, Learning Anything, and Living the Good Life by Timothy Ferriss
- Steven Rinella on Hunting (and Why You Should Care), Reconnecting with Nature, Favorite Trips, and More | The Tim Ferriss Show
- Cricket Protein Bars & Snacks from Cricket Flour | Exo Protein
- High Protein, Low Carb, Healthy, Keto Cereal | Magic Spoon
- Blue Bottle Coffee
- Hu Kitchen
- Mondelez International, Inc.
- FL Studio | Wikipedia
- Froot Loops | Kellogg’s
- Cocoa Puffs | General Mills Cereal
- Benchmark Capital
- Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio
SHOW NOTES
- Reminiscing about the last time we hung out together pre-COVID. [05:26]
- Thoughts on COVID-era cryptomania, how we’ve invested in cryptocurrency in the past and present, where we see it headed, and some of the red flags we might want to keep an eye on. (Reminder: this is not financial advice. This is for informational and entertainment purposes only.) [06:49]
- How we’ve been rebalancing other assets in our portfolios during these especially uncertain times, what the lessons learned in 2020 mean for further decisions — financial and non-financial — and why I think ahead in blocks of three years rather than five or 10. [33:59]
- Kevin shares what he’s learned from spending “a crap ton” of time researching applications for tracking finances: the good, the bad, and the ugly, and we examine the evidence indicating that he may have a legitimate financial dashboard fetish. [56:38]
- Why I’ve been thinking a lot more about energy management than time management. [1:02:50]
- The best nonfiction book I’ve read in the last five years, and revisiting why, in 2020, I chose to read no books that were published in 2020 (and, by extension, be more purposeful about how I spend time in general). [1:06:12]
- Kevin and I talk about how we’re learning to best enjoy the time we spend in nature — whether this involves listening to audiobooks in real-time (or not at all) or identifying the sights and sounds of the wilderness — and why I’m having trouble reacclimating to Austin after a summer spent in the woods among the black bears, coyotes, birds, and trees. [1:15:12]
- Exploring the worlds of lucid dreaming, Zen enlightenment, and reality checks. [1:22:46]
- Ways we’ve found to cope with ourselves and our loved ones (and for them to cope with us) during the extended quarantine. [1:30:44]
- Kevin’s word for 2021, and how he’s applying it to drink less than the power of COVID compels him. [1:44:08]
- As Kevin’s alcohol consumption goes down, does his edible gummies consumption go up? [1:46:50]
- Kevin raves about the benefits of Japanese Hinoki wood and its oil. [1:49:12]
- My word for 2021 as an antidote to the seriousness of 2020 and a reality check against the expectations manufactured by social media. [1:51:27]
- Recommended documentaries, movies, and shows we’ve been watching this year. [1:59:07]
- Thoughts on healthy Hawaiian venison snacks and hunting. [2:04:51]
- Food investment forays and final thoughts. [2:10:42]
PEOPLE MENTIONED
- Paul Tudor Jones
- Joe Rogan
- Barry Holstun Lopez
- Michael Lewis
- John McPhee
- Mary Oliver
- Darya Rose
- Tim Urban
- Henry Shukman
- Stephen LaBerge
- Howard Rheingold
- John Smith
- Marshall Rosenberg
- Toaster
- Gene Wilder
- Hermann Rorschach
- B.F. Skinner
- Michael Jordan
- Hamilton Morris
- Errol Morris
- Jon Favreau
- Jake and Ku?ulani Muise
- Molly
- Steven Rinella
- Andy Rachleff
- Mike Maples
- Ray Dalio
The Tim Ferriss Show is one of the most popular podcasts in the world with more than one billion downloads. It has been selected for "Best of Apple Podcasts" three times, it is often the #1 interview podcast across all of Apple Podcasts, and it's been ranked #1 out of 400,000+ podcasts on many occasions. To listen to any of the past episodes for free, check out this page.
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Tim, I’m a huge fan of your show so I say this out of love not out of hate. The monkey screech at 32:19 was NOT appreciated. Scared the living s**t out of me while I was running. I thought I was being attacked by a bird or a squirrel or something. Please don’t do that again.
I live in Singapore and I listen to Tim’s podcasts on my daily walks which always take me within a couple of feet of dozens of wild macaque monkeys that line up on the pathway each morning. I quite like them but I avoid eye contact because otherwise they bare their teeth which is unnerving. I nearly had a heart attack with the monkey sound. Such a weird sensory experience as I somehow simultaneously ducked and leapt in the air, protecting my head but felt nothing. The monkeys looked bemused.
I was in the shop totally confused 🙂
It was the same for me, i freaked out while i was in a long run. I don’t know if the effect was more pronounced because i used to live next door to a Monkey sanctuary and sometimes they did escape.
That was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed the conversation about investing. Thanks to both of you.
Great episode gentleman! Come to Japan. I’m currently living in Osaka!
Finally, the next Random Show with Kevin Rose! I love the jokes and pranks you pull on each other and the monkey sounds in the middle – were hilarious. There’s no better way to blip something out 🙊 Keep it going Tim!
Great show as always but there were a couple of faux-telligence points made that I’d like to challenge: Kevin’s comment on bitcoins market cap, comparing it to gold is not logical. There is more data showing that the many trillions in golds market cap is moving to Bitcoin, in fact a huge consolidation of commodities into crypto investments could drive an even higher market cap for Bitcoin. Add to that the challenge to the USD as world currency, the “fundamental analysis” to your market cap theory is barely logical, let alone an option that sounded like you were confident making it when you said it. I’m not even factoring in the x-factor of Bitcoin, which challenges our foundations of global finance significantly. Soon noone will care about the USD value of Bitcoin, it’s own sense of value being the point of valuing market cap for everything we hold dear. The second point of very shallow logic is your zoom prediction, that you feel it doesn’t survive the vaccine rule, that everyone is assumed to wander back into office buildings when the coast is clear. You discount the phenomenal direction companies have taken based on productivity to stay remote irrespective of covid. In fact I would say smart intelligence in the context of a Bitcoin discussion, is really the decentralisation of cities, which remote work has proven to be sustainable. What horizon would you put on companies like wework or other collabs that still think everyone will want to drive into the city, for expensive over priced commercial office space that a number of companies have already written out of their 2021 budgets?
I’ve listened to the two of you for a number of years, but today’s show did disappoint a little, you didn’t sound to self convinced on these opinions either, thought if point it out.
Also, Kevin uses what he thinks is the bitcoin market cap (82.49 billion USD) as evidence that it doesn’t have much more room for growth. “Where would we be at if that’s a 10x from now. That’s just insanity. I can’t imagine that happening any time soon” But the market cap on the date that this episode was released was 680 billion!
The rationale for rebalancing out of bitcoin regularly doesn’t make much sense to me either. If bitcoin goes from being a very small percentage of total wealth storage to a much larger percentage, why would you want to maintain your allocation at x% of your portfolio?
After KR gave personal capital the green light because they employ plaid to keep one’s data safe, I investigated. No mention of plaid on PC website. Nor on plaid’s website about PC. I think they moved on. Can KR comment? Thx.
Thanks for all the great investment advice!
Thank you, fellas! For those interested re: couples therapy, a framework that helped me:
1) Becoming aware of the 4 patterns that harm a relationship: 1) escalation (getting angry), 2 withdrawal/avoidance, 3) invalidation (if I feel sad/angry about something and my partner dismisses that feeling), 4) negative interpretation (my perception is x when y was intended)
2) Doing individual Myers-Briggs tests and then running a combined relationship Myer’s Briggs to help bridge understanding and communication.
3) Planning 1 date night and 1 spousal business/budget meeting per week.
4) Creating a relationship vision with 3 columns: 1) personal vision statement (eg we settle disagreements peacefully, decisions are made as a team) 2) any boundaries (cleanliness, in-laws, opposite sex coworkers), 3) items that will make be frustrating if they do not exist (cleanliness, respect, healthy food, access to nature, etc.),
5) Boundaries: your relationship with yourself and your own values. You cannot change the other, only how you deal with them. Do not tolerate bad habits that go against your boundaries. If a boundary is crossed, be clear on why that value is important to you. Boundaries are about honoring your needs, not judging the others’ choices.
6) Conscious communication – the speaker/listen technique – 1) mirror concerns/track emotions (what I’m hearing you say is xyz), 2) validate (it makes sense you feel that way), and 3) connect through empathy (I would feel that way too, I care and want to help you through this). Then express yourself, your needs, and admit any wrongdoing.
7) Understanding needs / using “I” statements – “When you do ___ in situation ___, I feel ___, I need ___. What do you need to make this happen?”
8) Communication filters: 1) misinterpretation (I am angry about a conversation with someone else and storm through the door without saying anything and my wife thinks I am angry at her), 2) inattention (maybe not a great time to do birthday planning during a favorite sports team playing), 3) emotional state (if you are in a bad mood, likely to perceive surroundings negatively), 4) belief & expectation (not saying what you actually want – my spouse says they “don’t care what’s for dinner” when they really want a healthy salad, but desires to please others), 5) differences in style – yelling in one family might be interpreted differently in another, & 6) memory (accept that each may remember an instance differently)
9) Conflict resolution & problem solving – discuss the problem, set an agenda/focus, agree & compromise
10) Caring behaviors – learning your partners love languages and following through (gifts, acts of service, positive affirmations/complements, physical touch, quality time)
11) The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse that result in divorce: 1) criticism, 2) contempt, 3) defensiveness, & 4) stonewalling (refusing to respond).
Podcast gold for me, my word for 2021 is reassessment
Again, a great chat to listen too.. Cheers guys!
Awesome 😎 always love the random show episodes! Can’t wait to dive in the this one! Your podcasts have been great company on my daily walks! Thanks guys!
Agreed completely. The random shows never disappoint.
This was a fun listen. Have Kevin check out Temple Grandin – she’ll help him fee better about not hunting his own beef.
Tim, I can’t get enough of you two and these random shows. You guys are always discussing something I’ve been pondering lately and especially bring up stuff that’s not been on my radar but should be.
The humility and self-effacing nature you both bring to the table on rather heady subjects is a welcomed and appreciated approach.
The bitcoin piece of this episode was particular interesting as I’ve only had a superficial understanding of what bitcoin is all about.
Please keep the random shows as a semi-regular sub-series. They are awesome.
Tim, the brilliant language your partner shared with you to communicate the subjectivity of our own inner narratives — “the story I’m telling myself is…” — comes from Brené Brown.
So many wonderful applications for this nonviolent nugget of communicative prowess!
Walking in Nature.
Just listened to your podcast and I appreciate you discussing the power of re-energizing in Nature. Having facilitated experiences in Nature for hundreds of people over the past decade or so as a bioregional herbalist and forager (including several engagements in the Texas Hill Country), I’d like to extend an invitation to take you out on a walk the next time I’m in the Texas Hill Country (or if you ever find yourself in the Sonoran desert).
Keep up the good work.
John
Hey Tim,
In case this is helpful, a “Shazam for birds” option on iOS that I use is BirdGenie.
Cheers,
Chris