Work Only Four Hours A Week
. . . . .and still eat, live indoors, and even travel the world.
Timothy Ferriss tells you how in his best-selling book, “The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich.”
A lot of people are intrigued–the book has been on the NYT bestseller list for 11 weeks. And some of his advice is pretty good (that the key to freedom and autonomy is being excellent at what you do, that you are allowed to redefine your approach to work, that success is not just a big house, nice car, and designer clothes).
But Working Girl, who thinks that work is one path to self-fulfillment if not downright enlightenment, seriously quibbles with his a priori premise:
Work is bad and if it’s at all possible to avoid it, you should.
The work he does advocate doing (those famous four hours) is no more than reselling stuff other people have produced–kinda sad, when you think of it. To create, to invent, to discover–those sound like much more fun.
Another thing that bugs: a fair amount of his advice for shortening your workweek calls for off-loading your work onto other people. Also, his instructions for how to, say, vacation in Samoa without telling your boss (by working remotely–he demonstrates a touching faith in the reliability of computers and the Internet) do not just flirt with dishonesty, they get right into bed with it.
Others have complained about the unsubstantiated claims in this book. Working Girl was not upset–she didn’t believe it all in the first place!
Does Ferriss practice what he preaches? Doubtful. It sure takes more than four hours a week to write (and then market) a book.
Tomorrow: Travel day. See you on Thurs!
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Although I enjoyed this book, found a few tidbits worth investigating for myself, and have to tip my hat at Ferriss’ boundless chutzpah, I found myself frowning over a few things as well, namely the point you make about how his “lifestyle design” is contingent upon others either not making the same choice or nor having the same opportunity. Within his construct, the worker bees of the world become the sad sacks of the world for one reason or another. It’s exploitive. It’s enough to make a person raise their fist in the air and chant Leninist slogans! (Not really…but for some strange reason I found myself musing on my visit to the Museum of Communism in Prague. It’s a fabulous museum, by the way and just in case you’re travelling to the Czech Republic anytime soon.)
Safe travels!
Maybe not all. But most of the ideas in http://www.timferriss.com can be customised to suit one’s lifestyle.
Dearest Working Girl,
I’m not sure what I find more impressive about Timothy Ferris – the fact that he vanquished four world champions while cage fighting in Japan, or the fact that he is the first American to hold a Guiness World Record in tango.
On second (or would that be third?) thought, maybe it is the fact that he used the term “vanquished” in his bio.
Sounds like quite a guy.
Al