Post: #1

I previously have posted in threads about Tim Ferriss, mostly in a negative light.

But after reading his material and watching some interviews, I've come around on him (a little bit).

Basically, I think Tim is the kind of author where genuinely good content and hype are mixed together in one place, and where you can get tons of value IF you're able to discern where he's being hypey.

But the good stuff, when you find it, is gold.

Example: THe "Everything Popular Is Wrong" chapter in the 4 hour workweek. This is a pretty brilliant way of summarizing the threads uniting seemingly unrelated self development systems that work simply because they go against the laziness and groupthink that most people succumb to.

Example: value investing vs. technical analysis. This isn't mentioned in the book but there's a reason value investors generally beat technicians; the former are contrarian, the later try to ride trends.

Post: #2

Not this again.

Post: #3

Ferriss isn't bad. At the end of the day he's pulled off what many only wish they could. Results are what 99% of people never get. Period. Most people, unfortunately, just sit on the sidelines and analyze what others do.

Post: #4

So you hopped on the Tim Ferriss Wheel...
http://www.returnofkings.com/7844/are-yo...riss-wheel

Post: #5

Tim Ferris is full of shit and peddles garbage to idiots

Tim Ferris is a genius, but only as a marketer of get rich quick schemes

Tim Ferris actually delivers some great insight if you get past the hype of his writing style

I was living like Tim Ferris before Tim Ferris

...did I cover it all?

Oh, no my own $0.02:

I can't understand the hate TF gets in the sphere. The guy lives an awesome life travelling all over the world, has had location independent cashflow since before most of us were even thinking of the possibility, experiments with a bunch of interesting shit all day, dates plenty of different girls, has stayed unhitched well into his 30s, has built a decent level of fame through his best selling books and SF tech scene presence, and banks hard all the while.

What's not to appreciate about the guy? He's pretty much living the dream.

Post: #6

(03-28-2013 05:02 PM)Andy_B Wrote:  I previously have posted in threads about Tim Ferriss, mostly in a negative light.

But after reading his material and watching some interviews, I've come around on him (a little bit).

People go through life like this...

Post: #7

(03-29-2013 12:00 AM)Rah Wrote:  Tim Ferris is full of shit and peddles garbage to idiots

Tim Ferris is a genius, but only as a marketer of get rich quick schemes

Tim Ferris actually delivers some great insight if you get past the hype of his writing style

I was living like Tim Ferris before Tim Ferris

...did I cover it all?

Oh, no my own $0.02:

I can't understand the hate TF gets in the sphere. The guy lives an awesome life travelling all over the world, has had location independent cashflow since before most of us were even thinking of the possibility, experiments with a bunch of interesting shit all day, dates plenty of different girls, has stayed unhitched well into his 30s, has built a decent level of fame through his best selling books and SF tech scene presence, and banks hard all the while.

What's not to appreciate about the guy? He's pretty much living the dream.

Its not that the stuff Tim Ferriss is doing or does is bad its the fact that he just chooses a topic to write about in his books researches it a little and posts some information claiming to be the best way or something that nobody has ever thought of before or some hack.

While there may be some merit in certain things he says he vastly over exaggerates things

For example his geek to freak transformation in 4hour body. anybody who knows anything about bodybuilding or fitness or who has actually dieted themselves knows that this is complete hogwash. even the most seasons bodybuilders would be lucky to put on 5 maybe 10 pounds of muscle mass a year naturally while tim is claiming he lost so much fat and put on 34lbs of muscle in one month. Bullshit

Nobody likes the jack of all trades. if you want the best information dont just look for the quick hack you have to actually do some research and learn from people who have successfully done what your researching and have actual knowledge about the topic and not some quick hack bullshit

Post: #8

(03-29-2013 12:35 AM)AlphaEnchantment Wrote:  Its not that the stuff Tim Ferriss is doing or does is bad its the fact that he just chooses a topic to write about in his books researches it a little and posts some information claiming to be the best way or something that nobody has ever thought of before or some hack.

While there may be some merit in certain things he says he vastly over exaggerates things

For example his geek to freak transformation in 4hour body. anybody who knows anything about bodybuilding or fitness or who has actually dieted themselves knows that this is complete hogwash. even the most seasons bodybuilders would be lucky to put on 5 maybe 10 pounds of muscle mass a year naturally while tim is claiming he lost so much fat and put on 34lbs of muscle in one month. Bullshit

Nobody likes the jack of all trades. if you want the best information dont just look for the quick hack you have to actually do some research and learn from people who have successfully done what your researching and have actual knowledge about the topic and not some quick hack bullshit

The value of his content is constantly debated by two sides that feel strongly one way or the other. But who cares? The guy is killing it on all fronts and has a more interesting life than 99.9999% of the planet, I would think he'd get more respect for that around here.

Post: #9

I respect the guy for having his shit together but I ran into some completely detrained bags of dicks doing 4 hour body "workouts" and popping all kinds of crazy ass supplements. He had the gall to talk down to me about my deadlifts, overhead press, and squats routine even considering everyone else in the gym seems to be allergic to the squat rack. I asked him what silly routine he was doing and pretty much got a sparknotes version of the book. After four months I think all he did was put on a pound of muscle and pissed out a bunch of body inflammation on his slow carb diet. 4 hours spread over a month just isn't enough time to force an adaptation no matter what pills you're popping.

Post: #10

(03-29-2013 12:58 AM)Rah Wrote:  The value of his content is constantly debated by two sides that feel strongly one way or the other. But who cares? The guy is killing it on all fronts and has a more interesting life than 99.9999% of the planet, I would think he'd get more respect for that around here.

The man is a con-artist.

Why should I respect someone who has built an empire upon lies?

Post: #11

(03-29-2013 03:36 AM)All or Nothing Wrote:  The man is a con-artist.

Why should I respect someone who has built an empire upon lies?

That's a little melodramatic. He does tend to make exaggerated claims, like the one you've made here.

Has he run a ponzi scheme and skipped town? Has he sold you a time share that doesn't exist? Did he send you an email introducing himself as a deposed Nigerian prince who needs your help getting his fortune out of the country? I don't get it.

He wrote books on subjects that interested him at the time, they sold millions of copies. I don't see the con, the empire of lies. I see a guy carving out an awesome life for himself through ingenuity and hard work.

Post: #12

(03-29-2013 04:08 AM)Rah Wrote:  

(03-29-2013 03:36 AM)All or Nothing Wrote:  The man is a con-artist.

Why should I respect someone who has built an empire upon lies?

That's a little melodramatic. He does tend to make exaggerated claims, like the one you've made here.

Has he run a ponzi scheme and skipped town? Has he sold you a time share that doesn't exist? Did he send you an email introducing himself as a deposed Nigerian prince who needs your help getting his fortune out of the country? I don't get it.

He wrote books on subjects that interested him at the time, they sold millions of copies. I don't see the con, the empire of lies. I see a guy carving out an awesome life for himself through ingenuity and hard work.

exagerated claims = euphemism for lying

I called him a con-artist because he is. He sells illusionary claims that create some sort of fantasy world for those who get sucked into his advertising. Then, the people who believe his claims buy his books before the illusion begins to fade away and reality sets in.

You cannot build a highly profitable business by only working four hours a week.

You cannot build an adonis-like body by only spending four hours a month in the gym.

All of the most successful people I have ever met in my entire life have consinstently worked 80+ hour weeks.

All of the most successful bodybuilders I have ever heard of, go to the gym for up to four hours a day.

While I do believe in the idea of working smart. I also believe that if you want to reach the top of the heap, putting blood, sweat, and tears into whatever you are working for is absolutely necessary. Otherwise, everyone would be successful.

I will give Tim Ferriss credit for one thing. He has a deep understanding of a critical weakness in human nature. We all like shiny things.

Post: #13

(03-29-2013 04:36 AM)All or Nothing Wrote:  exagerated claims = euphemism for lying

I called him a con-artist because he is. He sells illusionary claims that create some sort of fantasy world for those who get sucked into his advertising. Then, the people who believe his claims buy his books before the illusion begins to fade away and reality sets in.

You cannot build a highly profitable business by only working four hours a week.

You cannot build an adonis-like body by only spending four hours a month in the gym.

All of the most successful people I have ever met in my entire life have consinstently worked 80+ hour weeks.

All of the most successful bodybuilders I have ever heard of, go to the gym for up to four hours a day.

While I do believe in the idea of working smart. I also believe that if you want to reach the top of the heap, putting blood, sweat, and tears into whatever you are working for is absolutely necessary. Otherwise, everyone would be successful.

I will give Tim Ferriss credit for one thing. He has a deep understanding of a critical weakness in human nature. We all like shiny things.

So he's a crook because he chose hyperbolic titles for his books? I don't see it man, it just sounds like haterade to me.

Post: #14

People miss the point with Tim Ferris. I read his 4 hour workweek book as a curiosity and the methods he puts forward actually make a lot of sense for certain types of businesses. Its not business as I would consider a real business, more the online marketing and product sales type thing or one man shows, but its a nice earner for an individual looking for a lifestyle business. I would think a lot of the guys here would take some real merit in it because the vast majority of guys here are looking for lifestyle businesses with some cash flow.

I seriously doubt anyone is looking to build some corporate monstrosity using 4 hour workweek principles. If you went into the book expecting something like that, then I dunno hey.

People always seem to go into these things expecting a blue print, when all he provided was a model of sorts. Its simple outsource to free up time. Like a company outsources production, you outsource chores or wasteful time wasting projects. Thats it. He is basically preaching the merits of an outsourced assistant and better use of your time.

And it does have merit. Look at this guy for example. Cant believe they fired him instead of promoting him. This dude right here pulled off some of the 4 hour workweek principle.

Post: #15

(03-29-2013 05:53 AM)Hooligan Harry Wrote:  People miss the point with Tim Ferris. I read his 4 hour workweek book as a curiosity and the methods he puts forward actually make a lot of sense for certain types of businesses. Its not business as I would consider a real business, more the online marketing and product sales type thing or one man shows, but its a nice earner for an individual looking for a lifestyle business. I would think a lot of the guys here would take some real merit in it because the vast majority of guys here are looking for lifestyle businesses with some cash flow.

I seriously doubt anyone is looking to build some corporate monstrosity using 4 hour workweek principles. If you went into the book expecting something like that, then I dunno hey.

People always seem to go into these things expecting a blue print, when all he provided was a model of sorts. Its simple outsource to free up time. Like a company outsources production, you outsource chores or wasteful time wasting projects. Thats it. He is basically preaching the merits of an outsourced assistant and better use of your time.

And it does have merit. Look at this guy for example. Cant believe they fired him instead of promoting him. This dude right here pulled off some of the 4 hour workweek principle.

Agreed, I had the same exact reaction when I read this article. This guy should have gotten a promotion and the company should have looked deeper into how to improve their operations and lower costs through outsourcing. This kind of reaction, and the fact that the mainstream media is taking the side of the company, is indicative of a nation stuck in industrial-age work culture.

(There could have been legitimate other reasons why he got fired - such as security issues - which would have been a solid reason to fire someone. However, since the article highlights the fact that his primary offense was outsourcing, we'll assume that was the main infraction in question.)


All comments hereafter are specific to Four Hour Work Week, I have not read his latest two books.

--------------------------------------------------

PROBLEMS WITH 4HWW


I also have my reservations about Mr. Ferriss. He is clearly, above all, an internet marketer and his claims are often wildly misleading.

My goal in this long and rambling post is to primarily identify and share the glaring flaws that I found as I was experimenting with the concepts and blueprints he laid out in his book.

I will then identify and share how the 4HWW, while not really a practical business guide and often misleading, was ultimately a very strong red pill influence on my life.

4HWW didn't fill me with dreams about living on beaches and working four hours a week. If the only message that a person got out of the book is to be lazy and only work four hours a week, and that launching any kind of business is easy, I think that person severely misinterpreted the book.

Yes, Tim Ferriss, as an internet marketer, definitely made all of this seem way easier than it actually is.

You have to work a lot of 100 hour work weeks before getting to a four hour work week.

A massive flaw in his system is the assumption that you throw up a landing page for (French Shirts / Yoga Mats / Ebook / iPad cover) and then it'll just run independently forever with no maintenance. It doesn't really work like that, at least not for most of us.

While he didn't outright SAY that we'd all be sipping mai-tais in Koh Samui in a week after throwing up a PPC campaign, he definitely did NOT stress how difficult it is to actually reach the point where you can be comfortable enough to do that.

The biggest issue I had with the book is that he made virtual assistants seem WAY more intelligent, diligent, trustworthy, and English-language-capable than they are in reality. Especially at the prices he was quoting. I feel like everyone learns outsourcing the difficult and expensive way - or if you have learned it the easy and cheap way, I'd love to hear from you.


-----------------------------------------------

BENEFITS OF FOUR HOUR WORK WEEK


However, what I ultimately got from Tim Ferriss is a lot of inspiration, ideas, and courage to BEGIN FAILING in entrepreneurship and testing out ideas.

I can say without a doubt that reading the Four Hour Work Week changed my life dramatically for the better.

Many of the concepts he introduced to us are things that I utilize in my life, career, and business ventures currently, such as:

1. Geoarbitrage

-living in cost effective locations like Thailand while bootstrapping a business.

-Having a passport country in US/UK/CAN/AUS, basing your company in HK/BVI, sourcing all of your income from non-HK/BVI countries so that you can take advantage of the territorial tax law

-Staying out of the US for 330+ days a year, keeping your salary out of your corporation under 93K annually as per expatriate taxation laws

-Managing your banking/finance out of HK/SG

-Living in Bangkok/Saigon/Bali and taking trips around Asia on the cheap.

By utilizing geoarbitrage and diversifying one's interests abroad, one can turn himself into an internationalist who can shop the world for services and find business opportunities that might not have otherwise been possible if one were location dependent......tied down by one's career or material possessions.

After quite some time being mobile, a guy will start to ruthlessly cut down what he views as necessary. It starts off being simply impractical to lug around all the possessions that the US media brainwashes you into thinking you need.

Ultimately, though, one begins to adopt the mindset that nothing is permanent, the only constant is change, and material possessions are fleeting. A man becomes forced into a more minimalist mindset and lifestyle and this, ultimately, is liberating.

Geoarbitrage as a concept and a way of living has revolutionized my life, opportunities, and philosophy.



2. Lifestyle Design - I despise this term now because it's so overused by travel bloggers, but when he introduced this concept it was a powerful red pill for me. The idea that I could, for lack of a better term, design my lifestyle to be young, mobile, and global - outside of the confines of the traditional career templates in a system that had screwed my generation.

3. Automation/Outsourcing - while his actual instructions in the book for this were not great, it inspired me to go binge-read tons of material about this and start testing it all out. "Work the System" is probably the best book I've read about the automation topic post-4hww.

I still have not found a good resource to "learn" outsourcing. I feel like the only way to really learn it is to do it.

4. Digital Products and Internet Marketing

This is similar to the automation/outsourcing thing - Tim Ferriss hits on lots of topics and ideas in little details and wildly misleads us into thinking that it'll be incredibly easy and profitable. While his optimism for newbies reading his book is a bit misguided, it did inspire me to start searching for other resources about product design, marketing, SEO, social media marketing, etc etc.

--------

My two cents and conclusion about 4HWW is that it is not a business guide, it should not be treated as a business guide, and everyone is really taking it too seriously.

In the end I did not learn any practical skills directly from 4HWW.

However, besides studying abroad in university, 4HWW (and Ferriss by extension) was a major red pill influence in my life that sent me down the path I'm currently on.

---

Post: #16

Tim Ferriss is the shit! Sure some of his stuff is a little hyped up but there are plenty of great gems in his books. If it wasn't four the four hour workweekd I would have never thought to create my internet business and travel all over central and south america the last four years. I work a lot more than four hours a week and I'm pretty sure Tim Ferris does too, but his book inspired a legion of people to create and build more interesting lives. And like has been pointed out he lives a pretty awesome life himself!

Post: #17

(03-29-2013 05:51 AM)Rah Wrote:  So he's a crook because he chose hyperbolic titles for his books? I don't see it man, it just sounds like haterade to me.

I will admit that it is a little bit of haterade.

(03-29-2013 07:40 AM)youngmobileglobal Wrote:  My two cents and conclusion about 4HWW is that it is not a business guide, it should not be treated as a business guide, and everyone is really taking it too seriously.

In the end I did not learn any practical skills directly from 4HWW.

However, besides studying abroad in university, 4HWW (and Ferriss by extension) was a major red pill influence in my life that sent me down the path I'm currently on.

Thanks for the breakdown.

I can see the merit in the book as an introduction to a different lifestyle, rather than the definitive guide.

Post: #18

(03-29-2013 05:46 PM)All or Nothing Wrote:  

(03-29-2013 05:51 AM)Rah Wrote:  So he's a crook because he chose hyperbolic titles for his books? I don't see it man, it just sounds like haterade to me.

I will admit that it is a little bit of haterade.

(03-29-2013 07:40 AM)youngmobileglobal Wrote:  My two cents and conclusion about 4HWW is that it is not a business guide, it should not be treated as a business guide, and everyone is really taking it too seriously.

In the end I did not learn any practical skills directly from 4HWW.

However, besides studying abroad in university, 4HWW (and Ferriss by extension) was a major red pill influence in my life that sent me down the path I'm currently on.

Thanks for the breakdown.

I can see the merit in the book as an introduction to a different lifestyle, rather than the definitive guide.

Sure. What Four Hour Work Week is good for, in the context of business, is introducing you to certain concepts that you will have to independently research and experiment further on your own.

Including, but not limited to:

-Outsourcing

-Time management

-Location independent business management

-sales/marketing

Another thing that I felt I should bring up is that 4HWW was launched in 2007, before FB/TWT/Linkedin were the small business advertising platform juggernauts that they are now.

I feel like social media and content marketing is becoming more important than SEO and PPC. PPC in particular is often way too expensive for my taste.

Just my two cents.

-

Post: #19

thanks to tim ferriss i put on 34 lbs of lean muscle in 4 weeks

Post: #20

(03-30-2013 12:31 PM)bodmon Wrote:  thanks to tim ferriss i put on 34 lbs of lean muscle in 4 weeks

lol Drew from fit2fat2fit didnt even put on that much weight in fat in 6 weeks after stuffing his face everyday which goes to show how ludicrous that claim is

Post: #21

I think you can learn more from how someone conducts themselves compared to what they are selling.

Things like how they chose the subject topic, how they promoted it, how they went about creating the product, etc... You can learn stuff from Ferris just like you can learn from anyone who is successful.

Post: #22

(03-30-2013 12:31 PM)bodmon Wrote:  thanks to tim ferriss i put on 34 lbs of lean muscle in 4 weeks

Me too! My dick also grew 4 inches during the 4 weeks. I guess Ferris doesn't mention this positive side effect because he didn't want to sound like he was making crazy promises.

Post: #23

(03-30-2013 12:31 PM)bodmon Wrote:  thanks to tim ferriss i put on 34 lbs of lean muscle in 4 weeks

He rescued my kitten that got stuck in a tree!

Post: #24

This guy is so controversial. I'm going to have to check out his book just to see what it's all about.

Post: #25

Quote:"PPC in particular is often way too expensive for my taste."

The key to PPC is to have price in the ad if you are selling something then most people clicking on it at will at least be open to buying it at advertised price. PPC traffic is best targeted traffic you can buy but you don't want tire kickers and it is expensive..as you say... It's a good idea to keep your hand in the pay per click game and test.

SEO is fools gold. One of our sites is massive and has been a legitimate presence online for over 10 years. Nice business. Google changed their algorithm and boom...gone. As a whole, business is down about 80%. We haven't been able to get it ranking again. The real bitch is that a Chinese company copied our site completely and they rank where we used to...