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Did Tim Ferriss go crazy?

He just released an NFT collection called The Legend of Cøckpunch.

Yup, Tim Ferriss, best-selling author of the Four Hour Workweek and host of a podcast with over 100 million downloads, released an NFT collection with a dick joke.

And it's selling like crazy.

Last time I checked, the collection has 4,465 ETH in volume. Over $5 million in trading volume based on a dick joke. In a bear market.

A lot of people are criticizing Ferriss for capitalizing on his celebrity, but most of these critics aren't Tim Ferriss fanboys like me. They probably don't realize the background of his collection:

• Tim worked as an illustrator throughout college and wanted to make comics

• During the pandemic, he got a lot more into drawing and art

• He's has his friend and Moonbirds founder Kevin Rose on his podcast to chat NFTs multiple times dating back to almost 2 years ago

• All profit from Tim's NFTs are going to his foundation for psychedelics research

• The Legend of Cøckpunch is based on a fictional series he's working on

• He's been working on the project for 12+ months and said he could have launched it in the bull market but chose to wait until he was ready

• He admitted this is a "very questionable career decision"

Questionable decisions

Tim didn't go crazy. Tim just got bored.

Tim struggles with depression. Now worth somewhere probably over $100 million at this point, Tim has said he hasn't found the drive to write as much anymore.

He said on a recent podcast that he gets close to publishing blog posts, but he feels nothing is as good as his old work. Yes, rich, famous best-selling authors can struggle with self-esteem and pride over their work as much as you or me.

Struggling to write much, drawing has been an excellent creative outlet for him.

In this NFT collection, he chose to make funny artwork — something that made him happy even though it pissed a lot of people off and may have risked his career a bit. He made something that made himself laugh.

And I think that's wonderful.

Making yourself laugh is the most important part of creating. Fuck it if people think you're unprofessional for making dick jokes. Famous comedians get paid millions for making dick jokes. Who's to say you can't be funny too?

Be More Like Tim

I aspire to be more like Tim. You probably should as well.

I love making people laugh. Whether it's through writing satire, cracking wiseass comments, or doing stand-up, making people laugh is an addicting feeling.

Nothing is better though than making yourself laugh though. If you struggle to do that, you're probably taking yourself a bit too seriously. You spend all day with YOU. Not laughing at yourself is not a good strategy for happiness.

It's not a good strategy for dating or work either.

As Taleb wrote in Bed of Procrustes, "Wit seduces by signaling intelligence without nerdiness." There's a reason the funny guy always gets the girl.

I always thought founders and CEOs would be serious Machiavellian people. What I've found in my work ghostwriting for them is that most of them have a wicked sense of humor and crack jokes as much as I do. They curse like sailors too.

It's because a sense of humor doesn't mean you shouldn't be taken seriously. Often, it means quite the opposite.

As Paul Graham wrote in Hackers & Painters, "To have a sense of humor is to be strong: to keep one’s sense of humor is to shrug off misfortunes, and to lose one’s sense of humor is to be wounded by them. And so the mark — or at least the prerogative — of strength is not to take oneself too seriously."

Go out and be a bit more like Tim Ferriss today. Don't take yourself too seriously. Go make something that makes yourself laugh.