The 4-Hour Workweek

Waste of time

I didn't care for the book. I think I had some philosophical differences with the overall theory.

Automate and take advantage of technology. That works. But if you are going to run a business, run it. Don't go out there thinking you can work for 4 hours a week and operate a winning company.

DNF at 37%.

I'll repeat something you might consider tattooing on your forehead: What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do.

This book is trash. “How to be a parasitic douche” would be a much more fitting title.

Got bored after 10%. Abandoning.

You don't really need to read this book in 2025. A lot of the content is dated and not applicable anymore. Some core ideas are still valid but those could be narrowed down to a couple of pages. There are a lot of links in this book to external websites or products that don't exist anymore. A lot of technological solutions suggested in this book are outdated. This books needs a major revision to be applicable in today's world. Tbh, the most relevant part may be the last chapter with book recommendations, which is where all original ideas came from and have been collected and rephrased in this book.

2 stars are for: collecting a bunch of concepts (80\20 principle, low-information diet, smart outsourcing, creating systems that work for you, entrepreneurship) and providing motivational success stories and examples that inspire you to continue on your business journey.

In a past life I dreamt of doing everything in this book, but that was in the mid-2010s and I just don't find a lot of the information in this relevant/timely now. The high level points still are valid, but the way in which Tim achieved all this doesn't seem possible today.

It is worth the read, but in my view, solely because he shows you there are other ways to approach work.

Valuable principles, too much details, some outdated tools, pre Covid working from home/anywhere ideas which are already busted, good quotes, some morally questionable suggestions, a little too much outcome oriented rather than process approach for work.

Audiobook version(even though I prefer not to increase the reading speed for my audiobooks I ended doing so for this book because it made sense).

Honestly... this book felt like a bit of a joke to me? Roughly the contents of the book are as follows:
* The first third of the book talks about how you can be a jerk to your colleagues
* Ferriss very enthusiastically recommends everyone to get a virtual assistant (VA) in India who you can pay dirt cheap to do your actual job for you (and also send your spouse gifts if/when they get mad you)
* In the last third of the book, it shifts gears and starts becoming more of a travel book. Ferriss recommends everyone to move to Southeast Asia or Central or South America where the cost of living is much cheaper than in North America or Western Europe. This assumes that everyone can do that easily, but people like me and so many other who have weak passports can't just pick up their bags and move to a different country. I don't think everyone would want to just pack up and move around the world either.

Overall this book feels like it was written from a privileged viewpoint without regard to the fact that the world is so diverse and people come from all sorts of backgrounds. I'm really surprised that this ended up becoming such a big hit and was even on multiple best sellers list. There are actual small bits of useful productivity tips sprinkled throughout the book but overall... not worth the read.

This book is incredible. Literally, not credible. As in I don't believe almost any of the examples in it.

My Elder Sister Gifted me this book.

Thought provoking. A good book to prerequisite a time of life reflection. Where do I want to be and how can I get there? It confronts the idea of not conforming to average or normal around you.

Seems done deaf and out of touch - reminds me of [b:Girl, Wash Your Face: Stop Believing the Lies about Who You Are So You Can Become Who You Were Meant to Be 35542451 Girl, Wash Your Face Stop Believing the Lies about Who You Are So You Can Become Who You Were Meant to Be Rachel Hollis https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1513038393l/35542451.SY75.jpg 56965748] 4 hour work week was only a 4 hour listen for me - I abandoned the audio book

Timothy Ferriss draws the model of the New Rich. These people understood that the right moment to live your dreams is here and now. You should leave your old job and establish your own business that can support your dream life. Live like a millionaire without actually be one.
His formula, DEAL, is made of four components:
Definition – according to the Pareto Principle, you should recognize 20% of the things you do that bring you to 80% of the desired outcomes. Be effective – not efficient, and focus on the few things that make significant progress;
Elimination – save time by “Data Detox” and removal of distractions;
Automation – create “autopilot” that assist you and manage tasks on behalf of you;
Liberation – learn how to release.

Die Tipps sind zwar zum Teil interessant, jedoch ließe sich der Inhalt in einem Blogpost wesentlich prägnanter zusammenfassen. Am Ende wirkt es so, als würde der Autor sich selbst in einem besonders guten Licht darstellen wollen und mit einem Titel wie diesen den Verkauf des Buches zu erhöhen.
Er schreibt selbst, man kann leicht ein Experte werden, wenn man mehrere Bestseller nimmt, diese zusammenfasst und daraus sein eigenes Buch macht. Das Ergebnis, so scheint es, ist dieses Buch.

Good book but I feel like most of the topics that covered in this book doesn't apply in Japan.

I listened to Tim Ferris' “4 Hour Work Week” via Hoopla audiobook, so thank you to the library!

I'm just going to say it: Tim Ferriss is a blowhard and reminds me of so many C-suite individuals who claim that they deserve massive compensation packages for being them, but without providing any demonstrable value to the organization.

Below are my thoughts about the book as I listened to.

Avoid direct communication as much as possible. We are supposed to avoid talking to people at work (as an employee or consultant), answer emails once per week, and tell people who call to email.

Set a huge hourly rate. To be one of the “new rich,” just say that your billing rate is $5,000 per hour. It doesn't matter if you're doing anything for that rate! Ha!

Create short deadlines. We are told to ignore minutae and create impossibly short deadlines for activities. Like “The Magic of Tidying Up,” Tim clearly has no understanding of accounting, which is all about minutae. I suppose this book is for management consultants, who I have generally found to do nothing.

Improve cash turnaround with automation. Nice tip for non-accountants: lockboxes are great, low-cost ways for businesses to speed up cash turnaround and standardize documentation.

Stop multi-tasking and to set a firm time that you leave. After working in Corporate America for almost 20 years, management thought that I was constantly available because I wasn't married and didn't have children. Once I started setting a time I had to leave for salsa lessons or book clubs or yoga, management stopped overloading me (and gave me more staff!). This tip seems simple on its face, but it really a good way to manage one's day to keep a decent work-life balance. Who cares if you're leaving to go soak in a warm bath or to go train for an iron man?

Low information diet. The most useful tip in the book! “A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.” However, simply not responding to voice mails and only checking emails once per week is insane. When you are your business, you must be an information bottleneck, as Tim describes it, or you won't understand what is going on in your business. It is true that it is a good idea to delegate when you have proper staff, but if you are a one-person operation, there is nowhere to outsource. The author even outsourced the decision about who to choose for President of the United States; it's a great idea to acquire other's opinions including those who have a similar and a different mindset. However, in this age of high volume questionable information, it is worthwhile to check sources yourself as opposed to just believing what everyone else says. If I believed the vast majority of my relatives, I would have voted differently and would believe all kinds of insane things (and be quite racist, to boot).

One week media fast. He is totally right that reading an hour of fiction (or non-fiction) before bed is a great way to relax and close down the day. Research indicates that using computers or smart phones or televisions when trying to wind down actually stimulates brain waves and makes sleep less restful.

Only check email twice per day. HAHAHA. Hilarious. This tacti does not train others to be more effective. It tells people that you aren't interested in providing information when needed. Perhaps checking email fewer times per day is a good idea, as opposed to checking email every minute. However, not checking it in the morning or at other times during the day is irresponsible given that there is phone call screening directing those who wish to communicate with you to email you.

No meetings. HAHAHA again. Sometimes, I find meetings to be very helpful. Not everyone communicates well over email and there are follow-up questions that are important to discuss. Asking to sit out once in awhile works, but not every single time.

Miss deadlines. Missing a deadline DOES NOT work in accounting. Oh, sorry, I decided not to do your financials! Oh, sorry, I decided not to do your tax return on time. Fees, schmees! Who care if you lose your non-profit status in your state. It saved me time and I batched wheeee! Sorry, but that is nonsense. Batching is a good idea, which requires that you organize like tasks and complete them together, as opposed to starting from scratch each time you do a task.

Declutter. Hilariously, he recommends decluttering and reducing the number of possessions to free up physical weights to support more traveling and being more efficient. This is right in line with the Marie Kondo method and has some truth. Who doesn't feel better by getting rid of items you don't need and someone else can? It is true that you don't get as distracted by a bunch of stuff and can more quickly choose clothing or navigate through the house when there isn't stuff everywhere. However, the point is so that you can travel with almost no posessions. I like having different shoe options for going to the pool, touristing, and a fancy dinner.

To sum up, spend as little time with people that you work for, work with, and who work for you, as well as friends, relatives (even your immediate family – definitely use a virtual assistant to correspond with your spouse about interpersonal issues).

This book will change your life. At least the part of your life you want to. You don't have to agree 100% with some parts of it, but it's so much you can learn from, that ignoring it because people too frightened to apply it don't consider it a good book is an error. Read it and decided for yourself.

Useful to everyone, with caveats:

I'll start with the bad - The author had a good philosophy marred by a blind indifference to the stakes and consequences the average person considers when deciding whether to 9-5 it. But maybe that's the attitude you need to write this kind of book.

The good: While you're reading it you'll be motivated to think about what you want, why you want it, and to take action to get there, but not necessarily the steps in this book. It's not a how-to for everyone even though the author positions it that way. His approach is: here's how you should live your life, and here's the way I accomplished that. He doesn't really make it clear that there are ways other than his own, which can be discouraging if you can't see yourself taking his approach.

I'm being vague for a reason - if I knew his approach before I started reading I probably would never have picked it up, and would have missed out on a really valuable perspective.

Good philosophy and fun to read but the practical advice feels a bit outdated at times now.

It does contain some interesting ideas but there is too much discussion on online tools. Also some of the websites recommended are no longer up-to-date.

An interesting take on using a mix of simplifying life, disconnecting from work in the office and geographic ties and setting up an Internet-based business to take “mini-retirements” during your entire life instead of working and then retiring.

It's an interesting measure of how the world has changed that even the revised 2009 edition seems a bit dated - the concept of telecommuting was still fairly new when the book was originally written - it's been routine for over a decade now.

For those with strong reasons to stay in one place, some of the approaches will work better than others. And while Ferriss advocates for fully following the approach, he acknowledges that it won't fit all readers' situations and recognizes that people will take away pieces from the book as well as jumping in. Regardless, there is lots of specific advice, presented with the expectation that the reader will take the advice as places to start making changes they want to their lives and work.

Got about half way through this, listening on Audible before I just stopped. Bottom line: you too can join the new rich by exploiting other people.

After finishing this, the author still sounds like kind of a terrible person, and book sounds like the product of his own get-rich scheme. “Read this detailed how-to book to find out to make MILLIONS by... selling detailed how-to books!”

That said, there were some helpful things:

First, by reading about how he manipulates other people (e.g. telling a long winded colleague that he (Ferriss) has a phone call in 5 minutes) you'll learn how to recognize it when it's done to you. Secondly, the details of how to organize an autonomous company and how to live abroad cheaply actually seemed like good information.

So, I would recommend starting half-way through where these details begin and to check out the book from your local library, lest you give Timothy Ferriss more of your money.

I appreciate the premise: How do you do the least amount of work possible? For any developer that's a goal. That's not the goal because then you can take off though - it's so you can get more done. Most of the projects suggested in the book contribute nothing to society, and are usually self serving.