Tim Ferriss, best-selling author and mega influencer, enters Web3. Learn more about what he's up to in the world of NFTs.
For full disclosure: I have been following Tim Ferriss for many years, so I consider myself a fan. I have also registered for his latest NFT project and plan on minting the NFT if selected for the allowlist (find more details on this project below).
About Tim Ferriss
If you have been living under a rock and don’t know anything about Tim Ferriss, here is a brief overview:
Tim Ferriss is an entrepreneur, investor, and best-selling author. His first book, The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich, published in 2007, has become a kind of manifesto for a generation of entrepreneurs.
He followed up The 4-Hour Workweek with several additional books (see a list of all his books on the Tim Ferriss blog), covering topics from health and diet to life advice.
But his influence reached epic proportions through his podcast, The Tim Ferriss Show, started in 2014, and now surpassing 800 million downloads.
The podcast covers a wide variety of topics through interviews with experts and "world-class" performers in their respective fields. As Tim puts it in the podcast about page:
Each episode, I deconstruct world-class performers from eclectic areas (investing, sports, business, art, etc.) to extract the tactics, tools, and routines you can use. This includes favorite books, morning routines, exercise habits, time-management tricks, and much more.
Tim Ferriss, from The Tim Ferriss Show about page.
If you have been following Tim for a while (as I have), you find that he has the mindset of a scientist willing to experiment on himself - from long-term fasting to work habits and "hacks" - diligently documenting and reviewing results (hence the "human guinea pig" moniker).
His step-by-step approach makes you believe that you too can achieve extraordinary results through experimentation and diligence - which I think is one of the reasons that makes him so appealing.
And it is this mindset of experimentation combined with his mass appeal that I find most interesting as Tim steps deeper into the world of NFTs … but more on that below …
What Does Tim Ferriss Think About NFTs?
Tim Ferriss' views on NFTs are almost certainly heavily influenced by his long-time friend and regular podcast guest, Kevin Rose.
Kevin Rose was an early Web2 founder (most notably, Digg) and later a notable Silicon Valley investor.
More recently Kevin Rose has dived head-first into Web3 through the Proof Collective and its related PFP project, Moonbirds.
But to get a better understanding of what Tim Ferriss thinks of NFTs himself, I dug into his podcast, blog, as well as his Twitter timeline to see what gems I could suss out.
NFT Insights from the Tim Ferriss Podcast
The very first episode tagged with "NFT" on the Tim Ferriss Show was from February 18, 2021:
In this episode Tim asks his guests some basic questions on NFTs:
Could you just walk us through a use case because even for me, sometimes I have difficulty envisioning this in some concrete respect, right? So what does it look like to give someone an NFT, right? Do you actually see the image it’s associated with…
Tim Ferriss, from The Tim Ferriss Show, Episode #499.
I suspect here that Tim was asking a basic question for the benefit of his audience since just a month or so after this podcast was posted, Tim invested in OpenSea, which has become the largest NFT marketplace by trading volume.
And by August of 2021, in a Random Show episode of his podcast, Tim was asking Kevin Rose for advice on making his own NFT.
I would like your advice here because I’m fascinated by NFTs. I have tracked them very closely, although I stopped following it quite as closely, maybe a month or two ago. I do find the technology very interesting. Conceptually, I think there are many, many, many, many, many applications of NFTs well outside of, say, artwork.
Tim Ferriss, from The Tim Ferriss Show, Episode #527
But by far the most broad range discussion on NFTs on Tim's podcast came out on November 18, 2022, in the episode, The Big Reveal: The Legend of CØCKPUNCH — Kevin Rose and Tim Ferriss on Tim’s New and Extremely Bizarre Art Project (#636)
It is in this episode you can see how Tim wants to personally engage in the NFT world.
In the first several minutes of his conversation with Kevin Rose, Tim describes how he got into NFTs as a collector and how it connected with his love for art (he had been a graphic designer and comic book penciler during his college days).
And, as Tim described his latest project, Cockpunch (a decidedly absurd name, but serious project), you can sense his enthusiasm and desire to explore the more creative side of his personality and skillset.
When Kevin asked Tim why he was launching his NFT project ("what's the game?"), Tim responded:
The game here is giving myself compelling excuses/reasons to engage with creative muscles that I have, but I haven’t exercised in a very long time … and that is visual art.
Tim Ferriss, from The Tim Ferriss Show, Episode #636
NFT Insights from the Tim Ferriss Blog
The most notable mention of NFTs in Tim’s blog is from the post, Why I’m Open-Sourcing an NFT Insider Trading Policy for the Web3 Community, which has a publish date of August 9, 2022.
The post forward has some interesting notes about Tim’s thoughts on NFTs. Here are a couple of interesting tidbits:
It’s the greatest creator, resurrector, and accelerant of artists that I’ve ever seen. Graphic artist and musician friends of mine, jaded after years of barely making ends meet, touring to pay mortgages, etc., are not just excited again (no small thing) but also making good money.
Tim Ferriss, from the Tim Ferriss Blog, Publish Date: August 9, 2022
It is important to consider here that this post was published during a heady time in the NFT market - NFTs were exploding and money was pouring into the space - so, yes, a lot of people were making “good money”.
Bear markets are - well - different. But I think the point still rings true - NFTs have the potential to open new avenues of opportunities for the creative class.
But the next tidbit I think is more important:
Legions of brilliant people are dedicating most of their waking lives to it. This is perhaps the most compelling case for being long web3.
Tim Ferriss, from the Tim Ferriss Blog, Publish Date: August 9, 2022
When I got serious about crypto a few years ago, similar thoughts crossed through my mind - there are people far more intelligent than I that are dedicating their lives to this space - there must be something to this thing.
NFT Insights from the Tim Ferriss Twitter Timeline
Searching Tim's Twitter timeline for "NFT", I did find a handful of tweets, but the most interesting was a reply to Tweet predicting that historical NFTs (from 2015-2017) will be highly prized in the future.
For context, here is the tweet Tim replied to:
@LeonidasNFT's Tweet expressing a view that collectors will value historical NFTs from 2015-2017
And here was Tim's response to that tweet (in 2 parts):
Tim Ferriss's Tweet revealing his throughs on NFTs (part 1)
Tim Ferriss's Tweet revealing his throughs on NFTs (part 2)
I agree with both the original tweet and response - historical NFTs will likely be prized by collectors AND that we are early - which is to say that in 10 or 15 years there may be NFTs from the 2021/2022 cycle that are considered important historical collector items.
Tim Ferriss’s NFT Projects
Tim has been more than a passive observer of NFTs, he has also been working on his own projects.
How to Start a War
Tim's first NFT, How to Start a War, was released in February of 2021 as part of the Proof Collective's "Grail" series (season 1).
The NFT itself is a short story "about mercenaries, modern life, mental gymnastics, and the games we play" artistically laid out in such a way that the NFT could be printed and displayed on a wall.
Tim Ferriss's first NFT Project: How to Start a War
Not only was this the first NFT created by Tim Ferriss, but it was also Tim's first published work of fiction.
To learn more about the NFT and the Grail collection, the YouTube video clip below from the Tim Ferris Show podcast explains it well.
Project 555: The Legend of COCKPUNCH
Formally codenamed "Project 555", Tim announced on November 18, 2022 that his latest project is called "The Legend of Cockpunch".
And yes, the name of the project was designed to elicit, let's say, a certain kind of response.
But in Tim's long conversation with Kevin Rose about Cockpunch, you get the sense that Tim has poured a lot of heart into this project and is taking it quite seriously.
On the project website, the project is described as follows:
"The Legend of CØCKPUNCH is the tale of a fantastical realm, a universe of the bizarre from the mind of Tim Ferriss. Stories are the gateway drug in this Emergent Long Fiction (ELF) project. Characters, maps, artwork, and more will be released over time."
Tim offered his 5-Bullet Friday email subscribers a chance to register (registration now closed) to get randomly selected to get on the allowlist/whitelist.
Here are a few key points:
- Winners (from those who registered) were randomly selected, and they will receive special access to mint an NFT on mint day
- The mint price will be 0.3 ETH
- 100% of primary sale proceeds will go to the Saisei Foundation
- There is no planned utility, roadmap, or Discord "but there might be a few fun surprises"
Tim recently announced the mint date of Cockpunch via an email to his subscribers as well as via a Tweet. The mint date of Cockpunch will be on December 7, 2022 at 10 AM PST with the reveal happening on December 9, 2022.
To keep up with the latest happening of this project, you can follow the Twitter handles: @TimTimNifties as well as @cockpunch.
Please note: I've registered for this project and ,if selected, I plan on minting this NFT.
For a deeper dive into Tim's project as well as some reveals, check out the Bankless Show's latest interview with Tim Ferriss which was posted on November 28, 2022:
Final Thoughts
I don't think it would be unreasonable to suggest that Tim Ferriss could have a large impact on bringing NFTs to the mainstream.
Over the last several years I've seen everything from kettlebell training to low-carb diets (such as slow-carb and Keto) gain in popularity after Tim has brought light to these ideas and methods in his writings and podcast episodes.
And it is not just because he has a large audience - I think it also has to do with how Tim himself experiments, reasons through, and communicates his own experiences with these topics.
Which is why I find his experiments with NFTs so intriguing - how will the "human guinea pig" fare in Web3?
About the Author
Ed is NFTska’s lead Editor and Author based in the Los Angeles area. He fell deep down the crypto rabbit hole starting in 2017. Ed actively participates in and follows the fast changing NFT scene. Learn more about Ed.
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