The 4 Hour Workweek, Expanded And Updated: Expanded And Updated, With Over 100 New Pages Of Cutting Edge Content.
author: Timothy Ferriss
name: Paul
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 2012/05/21
date added: 2012/05/21
shelves: non-fiction
review:
There is an element to Timothy Ferriss‘s treatise on how to decouple yourself from the standard life track of school-work-retirement that rings a bit like P.T. Barnum. At times, hearing Ferriss wax about creating revenue streams that dump money into accounts without real heart or soul commitment gives one a cognitive dissonance effect as you wonder if the book was written as some kind of hokum he cooked up to finance his latest round of jet-setting and continent-hopping. There is a passing reference late in the book where Ferriss seems to indicate that writing is what he feels is his passion, but it still feels like he’s somehow gaming the reader.
Which would be more of an offense if he weren’t so persuasive in his efforts to sell the notion of skirting standard practices and focusing on that which is truly enjoyable in life. The early sections in the book where he describes the drudgery of the daily grind felt like he was talking directly to me at times. His passion for travel is infectious and his ability to convince readers that this sort of drastic course correction is not only possible but maybe imperative really worked on me. I suspect the efficacy of his arguments will depend somewhat on how dissatisfied the reader already is going in, but a lot of the stuff about embracing the worst case scenario and delineating your personal goals is easily adaptable to even smaller shifts in the program.
Of course, not everything Ferriss presents as shrug-worthy is really so easy. His recipe for creating businesses sounds like the kind of thing anyone could do, but I suspect that if anyone could come up with a business model that would permit a Ronco-style cash flow you couldn’t throw a rock without hitting one of his oft-referenced New Rich. And at times he seems to be advocating a strong link between being kind of a steamrolling jerk with being successful. Maybe that’s actually true, but if so, I’d have to consider if Ferriss’s brand of success is really something I’m interested in.
Some of the sections that are full of very specific, practical advice can feel a bit like filler, and in my edition can come across as dated. I guess this is the hazard of a book that advocates technology solutions; newer developments that could be easily leveraged to facilitate some of the things Ferriss discusses (like social media or crowd-sourcing) are ignored or perhaps simply post-date the edition I read. Then again, considering Ferriss’s unusually luddite-like approach to communication tools considering his leveraging of other technological solutions, maybe he would think of the babysitting necessary for building cults of personality like Twitter or Kickstarter to be wastes of time better spent living the “dreamlines.”
I’m of two minds about The 4-Hour Work Week. On one hand it’s incredibly compelling, and easy to read, full of thought-provoking and motivating bits and pieces. On the other hand, it’s never clear how many of these strategies are effective independently of each other. As a full lifestyle design blueprint, I’m sure it could work out for people willing to devote all the effort to modeling your life after Ferriss. For those who don’t necessarily want to tell people that they only check email once a week or practice staring down people just to learn how to maintain eye contact at the risk of a profound butt whooping, I’m not sure there is enough here to really make this more than an interesting thought exercise/case study in subverting societal expectations.