#382: Safi Bahcall — On Hypnosis, Conquering Insomnia, Incentives, and More

Safi Bahcall ( @SafiBahcall ) is the author of Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas that Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries , which debuted #3 on Wall Street Journal ’s bestseller list. Loonshots describes what an idea from physics tells us about the behavior of groups and how teams, companies, and nations can use that to innovate faster and better. Safi received his PhD in physics from Stanford and his undergrad degree from Harvard. After working as a consultant for McKinsey, Safi co-founded a biotechnology company specializing in developing new drugs for cancer. He led its IPO and served as its CEO for 13 years. In 2008, Safi was named E&Y New England Biotechnology Entrepreneur of the Year. In 2011, he worked with President Obama’s council of science advisors on the future of national research. In this episode, we talk about many things we haven’t covered before, including hypnosis, conquering insomnia, thoughts on depression, optimizing incentives, and much more. You can also listen to my first interview with Safi at tim.blog/safi . Please enjoy! This podcast is brought to you by Peloton , which has become a staple of my daily routine. I picked up this bike after seeing the success of my friend Kevin Rose, and I've been enjoying it more than I ever imagined. Peloton is an indoor cycling bike that brings live studio classes right to your home. No worrying about fitting classes into your busy schedule or making it to a studio with a crazy commute. New classes are added every day, and this includes options led by elite NYC instructors in your own living room. You can even live stream studio classes taught by the world's best instructors, or find your favorite class on demand. Peloton is offering listeners to this show a special offer: Enter the code you heard during the Peloton ad of this episode at checkout to receive $100 off accessories with your Peloton bike purchase. This is a great way to get in your workouts, or an incredible gift. That's onepeloton.com and enter the code you heard during the Peloton ad of this episode to receive $100 off accessories with your Peloton bike purchase. This episode is also brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs , which offers a smarter system for the hiring process. If you’ve ever hired anyone (or attempted to), you know finding the right people can be difficult. If you don’t have a direct referral from someone you trust, you’re left to use job boards that don’t offer any real-world networking approach. LinkedIn , as the world’s largest professional network, which is used by more than 70 percent of the US workforce, has a built-in ecosystem that allows you to not only search for employees, but also interact with them, their connections, and their former employers and colleagues in a way that closely mimics real-life communication. Visit LinkedIn.com/Tim and receive a $50 credit toward your first job post! *** If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts /iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading the reviews! For show notes and past guests, please visit tim.blog/podcast . Sign up for Tim’s email newsletter (“5-Bullet Friday”) at tim.blog/friday . For transcripts of episodes, go to tim.blog/transcripts . Discover Tim’s books: tim.blog/books . Follow Tim: Twitter : twitter.com/tferriss Instagram : instagram.com/timferriss Facebook : facebook.com/timferriss YouTube : youtube.com/timferriss 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 , and many more. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .