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1.12k reviews for:
The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape the 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich
Timothy Ferriss
3.4 AVERAGE
1.12k reviews for:
The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape the 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich
Timothy Ferriss
3.4 AVERAGE
This book is not a great match for audio - because so much of this book is made up of references and referrals to websites, you feel like you are listening to someone spell ("H-T-T-P-...-DOT-COM") than read an actual book.
I've had this on my TBR shelf for a while, and finally got to reading it. Overall I think the ideas behind the book are great, however, there are a lot of things that have changed since the publishing of this book (AI, digital nomads are now a thing, remote roles, etc.). Still enjoyed reading the book though.
This is the third time I've gone through this book. I read the first third in its entirety and skim through the rest (every time!)
Love some of the principles in here:
- 80/20 Principle - use when making To Do list
- Parkinson's Law - set short deadlines on tasks so don't take all day getting things done.
- Eliminate excess intake of info. - newspapers, magazines, websurfing, etc.
- Cut back on e-mail - how much it's checked, when it's checked. Hours can be needlessly wasted on e-mail!
- Keep daily task list very short and based on what is most important. A lot of what we think we need to do can be eliminated, freeing up time to achieve great things. Pretend you can only work for 2 hrs/day or even 2 hrs/week - will force you to cut back the unimportant!
Love some of the principles in here:
- 80/20 Principle - use when making To Do list
- Parkinson's Law - set short deadlines on tasks so don't take all day getting things done.
- Eliminate excess intake of info. - newspapers, magazines, websurfing, etc.
- Cut back on e-mail - how much it's checked, when it's checked. Hours can be needlessly wasted on e-mail!
- Keep daily task list very short and based on what is most important. A lot of what we think we need to do can be eliminated, freeing up time to achieve great things. Pretend you can only work for 2 hrs/day or even 2 hrs/week - will force you to cut back the unimportant!
I don't agree with everything in this book, but some very interesting thoughts indeed!
informative
medium-paced
This book was disappointing for me. It had a great starting with reliable tips for managing your work life but soon goes into building a business which is very constrained in its product. A book may be for the typical American who can live outside of his country at a cheaper cost, but certainly not for me an Indian. I didn't find any of its teachings really practical. It says we should outsource most of our work to the people who will do it. I do not understand what will happen every person in this work chain decides to follow this book. The end dirty work needs to be done by someone, and the author chooses to think people in the third world and developing countries can do that for him. I did not resonate at all with this book, and I definitely don't recommend it.
There were some really valuable takeaways from this book, especially the first half (Definition and Elimination). Anyone could use some inspiration to simplify and take a look at what you want. However, what I couldn't get over was the blatant narcissism of Timothy Ferriss. He should be proud of his success and interesting life, but he unfortunately entered asshole territory. "Anyone can do this!" Except anyone in a medical field. Or teachers. Or construction workers. Or any of the underpaid Indian employees that are currently running his life for him. Ugh. Also, some of his accomplishments and techniques are pretty much cheating or lying.
It's a bit dated, but it still has useful information.
“Step 1: start a business that makes $70K per month that is completely reliant on outsourcing so it can be 100% automated, and then you can live like a rich person” said the heteronormative white guy in 2006 before the housing market crash, recession, pandemic…
Read this for continuing education credit. Love/hate relationship with the book. Author had so many great things to say - along with practical steps and tools for things like cutting out time wasters and such. But some statements didn't jive with me at all and I didn't agree with. That didn't take away, however, from enjoying the book and appreciating what I learned from it.