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A review by domskeac
The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss
1.0
I’m not sure I can adequately express how much I hate the tone of this book.
I was looking for a book that critiques the Protestant work ethic, reminds us not to dream of labor, and give tips on how to curate presence and efficiency so that we have more time to connect with people in the world. What I found was essentially an enslaver’s manifesto—his main tip is to underpay brown women to overwork for you (including emotional and relational labor) so you can be a disengaged, selfish rich white “capital C” Capitalist. I’m telling you, this book belongs in the libraries of plantations.
As I read I kept thinking of Kant’s frame of ethics (“what if everyone did that—would it be ethical?”) and how unethical his suggestions are from that framework. This book is premised on a certain class/social group/gender accessing more resources BECAUSE others around them are accessing less. The theory is inherently elitist; it is not scalable, it is meant for a specific type of work done by a specific demographic of people.
Somebody please write the other book I thought this would be.
I was looking for a book that critiques the Protestant work ethic, reminds us not to dream of labor, and give tips on how to curate presence and efficiency so that we have more time to connect with people in the world. What I found was essentially an enslaver’s manifesto—his main tip is to underpay brown women to overwork for you (including emotional and relational labor) so you can be a disengaged, selfish rich white “capital C” Capitalist. I’m telling you, this book belongs in the libraries of plantations.
As I read I kept thinking of Kant’s frame of ethics (“what if everyone did that—would it be ethical?”) and how unethical his suggestions are from that framework. This book is premised on a certain class/social group/gender accessing more resources BECAUSE others around them are accessing less. The theory is inherently elitist; it is not scalable, it is meant for a specific type of work done by a specific demographic of people.
Somebody please write the other book I thought this would be.