[Smitty]

Interesting article by J.W. Black over at In Mala Fide, titled "Tim Ferriss Followers Are Impressionable Children."

I'm indifferent to the article as I've never read anything by Tim Ferriss, but I think Black has some interesting points.

A few notable quotes:

Quote:

Tim thinks you can quit your stupid job working for ‘The Man’, travel, work smart, and forge your own reality while virtual assistants in Mumbai sort through your Post-It Notes. Oh yeah, and Tim will try to convince you that you can do it without his background and titles… sizzle, sizzle, sizzle. Would a crowd of hand amputees believe me if I told them I have fingers that type 75 words per minute, and I can train them to do it too — the fingers aren’t really that important?

Quote:

I don’t advocate the vagabond, anti-American (in a geographical sense) entrepreneurial fantasy that is in vogue now. The truth is that most people are average, you’re more likely to succeed in a rooted area where your contacts reside, the world economy sucks, competition is fierce, and this is likely the worst time to burn employment bridges. If you want to try out some extended traveling opportunities, go for it, but don’t accept unrealistic ideas sold by charlatans. Be bold, not reckless. That is, unless you have the Tim Ferris royal flush poker hand, in which case, it really doesn’t matter how you bluff, does it?

[Saladin]

Meh, the location independent lifestyle is achievable, many members on this forum are already doing it. IT may not be easy buts its achievable.
I personally know quite a few guys who have huge amounts of freedom and can live and work wherever they want.

[mofo]

There is a better way imo. Make money first.

[Iceinthewater]

I've felt that Ferris is full of shit about a lot of things. He's new book reminds me of Kevin Trudeaus "miracle cures they don't want you to know about" or whatever the hell its called

[November]

Tim's material is all valid. I think he sells largely to a "magic-pill" mindset demographic, but that doesn't mean his approach doesn't work.
Look at Tim's own lifestyle... he didn't get to where he is today by "being average" and "working in a rooted area where [his] contacts reside".

Quote:

Oh yeah, and Tim will try to convince you that you can do it without his background and titles

Bullshit. Everyone has to start somewhere. I know guys who travel year round who dropped out of high school or college and worked their way to the top.

[Iceinthewater]

(01-16-2012 11:10 PM)November Wrote:  

Tim's material is all valid. I think he sells largely to a "magic-pill" mindset demographic, but that doesn't mean his approach doesn't work.
Look at Tim's own lifestyle... he didn't get to where he is today by "being average" and "working in a rooted area where [his] contacts reside".

Quote:

Oh yeah, and Tim will try to convince you that you can do it without his background and titles

Bullshit. Everyone has to start somewhere. I know guys who travel year round who dropped out of high school or college and worked their way to the top.

I was referring more to his health stuff - obviously the global lifestyle is for real.

[RichieP]

Heh. So far, everything of his I've tested has worked.

Location Independence: Works very well. But I have found it difficult to "get there", although, I have.
Four Hour Body: Slow carb diet works a treat. Not much fun, but sheds the fat. Havent tested his mass gain, but the principles look pretty sound and fits in with "hardgainer" bodybuilding principles.

I think there's a couple of things to bear in mind with TF:

-He's a sensationalist writer. He writes everything in his books in a "blog post" style to get people pumped up and excited. Which is fine, because he also delivers the goods, but just note that this is the way he does it.

-He himself is intelligent with a voracious work ethic. He's a high-achiever and hustler, so some things that genuinely are easy for him will be difficult for others. Location independenct business, for example, takes up 50 pages in his book and seems like a cake walk. In reality, it's taken me two years to really get on top of, but, I have done it, more or less.

[Aliblahba]

Ive always believed the first step to being successful is to not read a book written on how to do it.

I could be wrong though. Can anyone site successful people like Bill Gates that read a how to book on how to get where they are? Im just curious.

[Iceinthewater]

(01-17-2012 03:17 AM)RichieP Wrote:  

Heh. So far, everything of his I've tested has worked.

Location Independence: Works very well. But I have found it difficult to "get there", although, I have.
Four Hour Body: Slow carb diet works a treat. Not much fun, but sheds the fat. Havent tested his mass gain, but the principles look pretty sound and fits in with "hardgainer" bodybuilding principles.

I think there's a couple of things to bear in mind with TF:

-He's a sensationalist writer. He writes everything in his books in a "blog post" style to get people pumped up and excited. Which is fine, because he also delivers the goods, but just note that this is the way he does it.

-He himself is intelligent with a voracious work ethic. He's a high-achiever and hustler, so some things that genuinely are easy for him will be difficult for others. Location independenct business, for example, takes up 50 pages in his book and seems like a cake walk. In reality, it's taken me two years to really get on top of, but, I have done it, more or less.

yea the slow carb thing is awesome but that's been around for a long time - was called low glycemic index diet, etc. coupled with high protein and fat, it's basically the paleo diet.

anything else of his work? the other stuff on fat burning and mass building and t-boosting didn't do much for me

[RichieP]

I gained alot of strength deadlifting the way he recommended.

I mean, it's not like he's coming up with amazing new stuff. He's just researching the potentially effective stuff out there, testing it, making an effort to distill the 80/20 and putting it all together. And he's good at that IMO. I also learned alot about self-testing and finding the "minimal effective dose" from his stuff.

[Vitriol]

Quote:

I don’t advocate the vagabond, anti-American (in a geographical sense) entrepreneurial fantasy that is in vogue now. The truth is that most people are average, you’re more likely to succeed in a rooted area where your contacts reside, the world economy sucks, competition is fierce, and this is likely the worst time to burn employment bridges. If you want to try out some extended traveling opportunities, go for it, but don’t accept unrealistic ideas sold by charlatans. Be bold, not reckless. That is, unless you have the Tim Ferris royal flush poker hand, in which case, it really doesn’t matter how you bluff, does it?

This shit is "in vogue" now? Really?

When I go out and about during the day, everyone I run into isn't exactly planning on getting their passport and jumping ship. He's right about most people being average, which entails that they'll be too afraid to relocate outside of the area they grew up... which kind of defeats his argument that everyone is trying to live abroad.

[Chad Daring]

Using the articles own language, I think Tim comes off as bullshit to us, because he is half bullshit. He's taken a good idea and "sizzled" it to sell it. Its good info wrapped in bullshit because bullshit is what sells to the masses. Guys like us see the bullshit so we can call the bullshit, but that doesn't mean the underlying message isn't a good one.

[rozayINTL]

I agree with the article. Ferriss sells people on emotions, on the concept of living the location independent lifestyle. I've read four hour work week and I didn't think it was anything special or particularly helpful.

[MikeCF]

He is Chicken Soup for the Male Soul.

Talk to any guy not born into money...NONE worked 4 hours a week, or even a day.

Did Ferris work 4 hours a week doing his books? Four hours a day, even? Try 14 hours a day.

Following Ferris is beta, because it's looking for the easy way out.

[Spike]

Reading his 40 hour work week book is what made me throw my life around and travel the world for nearly 3 years. I will be always be thankful for putting that idea in my mind.

BUT, the last few years his articles don't excite me anymore and most of it is BS. Every once and a while i check his posts.

Tim works his ass off every day of the week. Don't believe that 4 h stuff.

[Deluge]

The 4 Hour Work Out is total garbage.

As for location independence, like mofo said it's better to make the money first before you jet off to live overseas. Which is why I'm working on making passive income now so in four years time when I graduated university at 21 I can leave Australia immediately and never have to put up with a full time job. You ought to be making steady bank for a little while before you uproot yourself, especially so you have emergency money saved up in case something goes wrong.

[Iceinthewater]

I see the value in Tim's overall message, which is that if you take conscious action you can dramatically improve your life. This is a timeless message, but the context changes. I don't think many average guys would think that they could live a global lifestyle. So he's good at showing you what's possible. Like Chad said, guys in here see through bullshit so we're a little rougher on the self-improvement crowd.

[Future82]

(01-17-2012 08:03 PM)rozayINTL Wrote:  

I agree with the article. Ferriss sells people on emotions, on the concept of living the location independent lifestyle. I've read four hour work week and I didn't think it was anything special or particularly helpful.

Agreed!

[Jalouse]

(01-18-2012 06:10 AM)P Dog Wrote:  

The 4 Hour Work Out is total garbage.

As for location independence, like mofo said it's better to make the money first before you jet off to live overseas. Which is why I'm working on making passive income now so in four years time when I graduated university at 21 I can leave Australia immediately and never have to put up with a full time job. You ought to be making steady bank for a little while before you uproot yourself, especially so you have emergency money saved up in case something goes wrong.

If you were to build up passive income over four years you would then have something akin to a four hour work week.

Ferris never said you have to uproot yourself he always talked about taking mini retirements for a couple of months to enjoy life whilst you're young rather then waiting for retirement.

[Pilgrim37]

Ive always believed the first step to being successful is to not read a book written on how to do it.

I could be wrong though. Can anyone site successful people like Bill Gates that read a how to book on how to get where they are? Im just curious.
[/quote]

Couldn't have said it better myself.

A lot of those writers have gotten wealthy by selling books on how to "sort your life out" "play the stockmarket" "etc etc fill in the blank,to rather gullible people,they haven't actually made their money by DOING the particular activity.

A friend of mine is a devotee of anthony Robbins for over 10 years flying to seminars buying this course and that seminar,volunteering to staff seminars when Robbins charges $5000 per person etc etc

Guess what situation my friend is in after 10 years of this?
That's right ,he's flat broke living with his mum!

But he still carries on in the same vein with Robbins...I think many people get addicted to these courses ,change your life seminars etc ,it pumps them up and they feel great and HIGH ....
....then they leave the course and have to deal with the realities of everyday life and bills and bosses and commutes and all the rest.
In response,they just nosedive back into their "self help " books to get another fix to shelter them from the shitstorm!!

I saw some programme where this girl went on a get rich course and they told her to hold her ear and repeat "I am A MILLIONAIRE" X 10 every morning.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing!

The only books I like of that category are :

Dale Carnegie
Napolean Hill and
Earl Nightingale's The Strangest Secret

Just good basic advice,actions and principles .
For specific profession just go straight to someone involved in that world.

Here's Earl with his pearls of wisdom on success in life.

And the straight talking Napolean Hill...his section on sex transmutation in his book is useful too.
Basically putting a lot of your sex drive into creative/ambition actions

[WestIndianArchie]

(01-16-2012 08:53 PM)torontokid Wrote:  

Meh, the location independent lifestyle is achievable, many members on this forum are already doing it. IT may not be easy buts its achievable.
I personally know quite a few guys who have huge amounts of freedom and can live and work wherever they want.

Agreed. The vast majority of the people who hate the 4HWW or Tim have never actually tried any of the ideas in the book.

Now the most important section of the book, the part about separating your time from your income by building an online business written in 05/06, needs to be fleshed out and updated in 2012 - but there are whole communities of people making money online with digital and physical products and living abroad.

[Deb Auchery]

Most people that slam T4HWW are people who are can't think outside of the box, and are not business-minded.

I'm getting close to living the TF lifestyle, i'm not quite there yet, and I have friends who are already there. One friend is making $100k plus working less than 4 hours a week.

There is a lot of hot air in the book naturally, but also a hell of a lot of good information.

So many ways to earn a living from anywhere in the world these days

[Iceinthewater]

(01-18-2012 04:59 PM)Deb Auchery Wrote:  

Most people that slam T4HWW are people who are can't think outside of the box, and are not business-minded.

I'm getting close to living the TF lifestyle, i'm not quite there yet, and I have friends who are already there. One friend is making $100k plus working less than 4 hours a week.

There is a lot of hot air in the book naturally, but also a hell of a lot of good information.

So many ways to earn a living from anywhere in the world these days

What does your friend do? Internet marketing stuff or what?

[2 Cool 4 U]

(01-18-2012 04:59 PM)Deb Auchery Wrote:  

Most people that slam T4HWW are people who are can't think outside of the box, and are not business-minded.

While they're stuck working in their boring 9-5 job

[Leads]

Guess I'm one of the few who actually read 4HWW....and then built several passive income businesses. It was a brutal journey, but I notice many people have failed to build passive income, and remain bitter employees, etc. You almost need to get in a childlike state to get stoked about even 300 bucks automatically dropping monthly.

As for his blog, stopped listening years ago. Never read the 4H Body book