This is a simple and amazing bar trick that allows you to balance a fork and spoon on a toothpick. Two forks also works well.

It will turn any dull conversation into a “WTF?!” moment where people start pulling out cameras. No training or special items required — you can learn it in about 30 seconds.

It might be as inane as my video on how to peel hard-boiled eggs without peeling them. Then again, that video got more than 2 million views, so at least a few of you seem to enjoy sleight-of-hand and general tomfoolery as much as I do.

Be careful with the glasses!

Elsewhere on the Interwebs:

Tim Ferriss – 3 Tips for Would-Be Dancers: From 1st Class to World-Class in 6 Months

The post How to Balance a Fork and Spoon on a Toothpick appeared first on The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss.

Who’s ready for the “most dangerous Bond ever filmed”? I’ve been waiting and waiting for this one.

Casino Royale was released on November 17, 2006. Nearly two years ago. For me, that’s when Bond was resurrected.

I’ve seen Casino Royale about 50 times. Yes, a wee bit crazy. I’m so psyched to see the new Bond movie, Quantum of Solace, that I’ve partnered with my friends at American Apparel to get a theater for all you readers and Bond fans out there…

I know not everyone will be able to make it, but please consider this a small Thanksgiving gesture to you all for being such awesome readers and making the last year one of the best of my life.

Here are the details and steps to take:

1) There are only 250 tickets available, one per person (bring photo ID)

2) The theater is in San Francisco

3) The password is “vesper” and you need to reserve your ticket here.

4) Read the event details carefully to make sure you get your ticket.

5) Rock hard at the Bond premiere this Friday with like-minded friends and go nuts.

Hope to see you there! Man, I’m not going to get much done this week…

P.S. I announced this in a tweet before the post went up. If these sell out and there are any extras (probably will be), I will also announce it on Twitter here.

Test driving the Tesla (more on that soon) and wearing my Happy Cat t-shirt on American Apparel. This Friday will be worthy of more happy cat.

The post Quantum of Solace 007 – Free James Bond Tickets from Me and American Apparel! appeared first on The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss.

Ah, lawyers. It’s a love-hate relationship.

Just this week alone, I’m working with a literary attorney (publishing), an entertainment attorney (TV), and a corporate financing attorney (angel investments).  All three are great.

Yesterday, though, I received the threatening letter below from Protocol Integrated Direct Marketing, whose call centers I recommend in the 4HWW. WTF?

Click to enlarge…

But what did I say about Protocol specifically? Here it is, after an group intro where I indicate providers can also be compensated per-minute:

“Protocol Marketing: One of classic sales-oriented call centers. I’ve used them for years.”

I used them as a start-up CEO and felt the recommendation was valuable to readers. Blasphemer! Even if a correction were needed somewhere, the legal bitch slap isn’t needed.

My response was simple: I called the lawyer and told him I would both have the mention removed and also announce the correction to readers (that’s this blog post).

I suspect the CEO, Don Norsworthy, is not aware of this letter, as he would have no doubt approached it differently. He would recognize a few things:

[Postscript: Don got in touch within 24 hours after this post and here’s the scoop: the entire management team had been on an offsite while this transpired. When Don tracked down the e-mail thread resulting in this letter, none of the proper channels had been CC’d. He was a polite gentleman and even declined when I offered to publish a response on the blog, stating that he was calling to apologize, not to have anything published. It was precisely the best response from someone heading a $100-million+ per year operation.]

1. How you say something IS what you say.

Ever heard “it’s not just what you say, it’s how you say it”? I would go further: how you say something is what you say. A simple call or e-mail to Random House with “we’re getting too many calls for the wrong services; would you mind changing it to the following?” would have sufficed. Have a normal human conversation and don’t come off sounding like Robocop (video above).

But what if you need to be forceful? If someone’s motives are clearly bad? I’ve dealt with this as well. First of all, if their actions are done with obvious malevolent-intent or law-breaking, you can be more forceful. Second, for those cases that fall in the middle, it’s possible to be forceful and clear without being rude. For example:

“It’s come to our attention that [action your want them to cease in neutral terms]. I’m sure you are unaware, but this causes [negative consequences for you], which results in [other problems]. We thank you in advance for removing/stopping/correcting X as soon as possible [notice how less abrasive this is than ‘immediately’, but it achieves the same effect] and confirming when this has been done. Legal action is always a last resort, but if we do not receive confirmation within one business week, we’ll be compelled to take appropriate next steps. Your fastest correction and confirmation is both important and appreciated.”

2. It’s counterproductive to threaten someone until you determine their incentives to refuse compliance.

In other words, what do I gain by refusing to remove them? Nothing. In fact, it’s in my readers’ best interest to make it accurate or remove it. Threatening me with Darth Vader-speak like “compel compliance with [our] demand” just pisses people off, and I could have still been a strong proponent of theirs. Too bad, so sad.

3. It’s better to steer the golden goose rather than kill it.

If I’m sending them enough calls to “inundate” their phone lines (ironic in itself, since they’re offering call center services), it would be in their best interest to just make the description more accurate, no? It’s free advertising in a #1 NY Times bestseller to be published in 33 languages. How much advertising cost — or cost-per-acquisition (CPA) — does that save them if it’s accurate? Knowing the revenue model and having worked with call centers, I’d guess hundreds of thousands of dollars at a minimum. To save what? A few thousand dollars in filtering out mom-and-pop callers at $.90 per minute? That’s just penny-wise and pound-foolish.

4. Don’t mistake symptoms with root problems, or confuse correlation with causation.

There are no “income investment requirements” that I can find listed anywhere on their call center site. It strikes me that their main problem could relate to a system-wide issue with pre-qualification. The blurb in the 4HWW is just a symptom — any successful PR or marketing that brings people to them will produce the same filtering bottleneck. Fixing the root cause is better than threatening the person who makes the root cause come to the surface.

If they have a problem with “closer”, Protocol might also consider removing the following from the second paragraph of their main call center page:

Whether you need a salesperson to close deals or specialized technical support services, Protocol’s contact center services can help.

Confused? Me too.

5. If you threaten someone in a digital world, it might become what your prospective customers see first.

Principle one: Better not to threaten people whenever possible. Principle two: Google someone before you threaten them. If their PageRank and SEO beats yours, recognize that the public will see what they say first and foremost. Principle three: if someone is sending you business, and you threaten them because of a positive description (even containing inaccuracies), you are disincentivizing all partners, journalists, and customers from evangelizing for you if it becomes public. Given the new dynamics of personal branding in a digital age, being nice should be company policy, if not for cheap Google insurance.

Oh, and being rude sucks.

Be firm when necessary, but be nice whenever possible. Long-term, it doesn’t pay to do otherwise.

In conclusion: Protocol, I’m sorry for endorsing you and reflecting my experience in a positive description. I was wrong and you are right. Readers, please pull out your Sharpie and strike Protocol from pg. 201.

Ah, lawyers. Use them wisely or the problem you create could be bigger than the one you solve.

Anyone have suggestions for good call centers that won’t threaten me for recommending them?

To lighten the mood, a photo from the American Apparel factory, which I visited last Saturday. More pics here.

The post How Not to Use a Lawyer – A Personal Case Study (Plus: Protocol Marketing correction) appeared first on The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss.

I get a lot of flack for uploading too few photos to Flickr. Perhaps a professional can help.

One of my favorite photographers is Corey Arnold, an all-around bad-ass who can often be seen on Deadliest Catch aboard the F/V Rollo in the Bering Sea. He recently sent me these shots from a series he dubbed “A Day in the Life of Tim Ferriss,” which captured us roaming through SF messing around and getting in trouble.

Beginning tomorrow, I’ll be taking a road trip with my brother along the Pacific coast through Portland, Eugene, Seattle, and Vancouver at a minimum. For those interested, I’ll be posting my most interesting findings and disasters (we’re winging the entire trip) here on Twitter.

Reader Survey – Vote for Future Posts:

If I could only write one more post on this blog, what would you most want to read?

The post A Day in Pictures – San Francisco (Plus: Reader Survey) appeared first on The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss.

Man, oh, man. I was going to wait until tomorrow to publish this follow-up to the last post, but it kicked up some dust, so I wanted to own up. Yessir, it’s an April Fool’s Day joke. Sorry for any confusion! It would have been too obvious on April 1st in the US, so I used the alternate time zone. The hardest part was creating realistic names. Here’s where I got “Van”‘s name:

First name

Last name (see Northern India)

I do indeed write all the posts (minus attributed guest posts) myself. As _Jon put it in the comments: “a personal blog shouldn’t be work, it should be a passion. If you need to outsource it, you have the wrong motivation.”

I couldn’t agree more. That’s why I’m here writing the posts, including the stupid ones (man crush anyone?). I love hanging out–virtually or in-person–with you guys.

This little prank has been in my head since Jan. 10th, when the infamous Tucker Max suggested a much better version that I was unable to pull off due to this London trip…

“BTW–I had a hilarious idea for what you need to do for an April Fools prank: Write a post, complete with video, about how you have taken outsourcing to the next level. You’re paying people to workout for you, to eat for you, sleep for you, watch TV for you, do literally everything. The vid would show you sitting in a chair in a white room,

cutting intermittently to people doing things with shirts that have “I am Tim Ferriss” on them. It would be f*ing HILARIOUS. You have to do this.”

Guys, I’m really sorry if the one-day-off date threw anyone. Now you know why I’m a writer instead of a stand-up comic! My timing is a little off, methinks.

Have a wonderful April Fool’s Day and keep smiling More from the UK tomorrow…

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