

Diary of a Self-Help Dropout: Flirting With the 4-Hour Workweek - qaexl
http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/magazine/17-01/mf_self_help?currentPage=all

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iamelgringo
Mr. Ferriss is a master at self promotion. That doesn't mean that there's not
good stuff to be learned after you sift through the self-promoting crap in the
book.

Tidbits I picked up:

* Throw a quick 3 page website up as a sales letter to market a $100 product. Point $200 worth of ad-sense at it over 10 days to see if you get any uptake. If you have more than 2 signups or "buy-ins", you've past the break even point and you're on the road to making money.

* Focus on developing a $50-150 priced product. You don't have to sell a ton of those products to make a decent living for yourself.

* 100 units sold * $100 = replace my monthly income.

* Focus intensely on what's going to make you cash. All the cool technology you're building doesn't matter to your business unless it helps the bottom line. This was apropos to me, because I have an acute case of... oh, look at this shiny new thing. Focusing on what makes money helps cut through some of that.

* People like to buy things. No, really. They like to pay for things. It makes them feel better about their lives. So, if you offer them a compelling reason to give you money, they will probably give you the money.

* Outsource as much as you can that isn't non-core business. e.g. Hire interns to do marketing and PR work for you. Outsource writing your copy. Outsource design work, outsource product development if appropriate. Outsource market research, outsource date finding, outsource travel plans, outsource, outsource, outsource everything away to make your life simpler.

* Filter out distractions as much as possible. i.e. no meetings, minimal email.

* Have balls. No, really, dude hacked a martial arts festival and won. Why? By hacking the weigh-in legally. He has a lot of legal cons that help you hack the publicity system. Put your balls to use by hacking a social structure and rules in a situation to your benefit. If you don't have the balls to try something, you're not going to achieve it.

* Chase the big dreams. Life is too short. If you want a Lotus Elise, test drive it, and find out how much you'd have to make a month to pay for it. Figure out how to make that money. If you want to go to Figi, figure out the cost, make the money to get there and then just go.

~~~
qaexl
Yeah, the Taiwanese with whom he competed with are pretty serious about Face.
When I read the excerpt about it, I rolled my eyes and thought Ferris was full
of it, claiming to be a national kickboxing champion. After reading the
account, however, I have to admit it was a good hack. Throw people out of the
ring. There isn't much way for the judges to cheat on that either, heheheh.

Ferris recently got a new TV show on History Channel, airing as a pilot. It is
called "Trial By Fire", where he attempts to learn skills that normally takes
10 - 20 years to master and learn them in about 5 days. The show is
interesting to see how the strategizing works. I have no idea if there are
going to be more made, but if they were, Ferris promised showing skills like
car racing.

Of course it is probably a way to get all of the stunts he wants to learn
financed by a TV Network, but that's the point. What he wants to do isn't
necessarily what I want to do, and applying the skills of hacking to life is a
good thing.

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medearis
I have a buddy who apparently took the 4HWW to heart and moved to Argentina to
work as a freelance software engineer... he seems to be doing well.

Personally, I thought Ferriss made it seem a little easy, but who knows? Did
you actually do all of the challenges? I guess you can't knock it until you've
tried it.

~~~
rtw
Does your buddy need to travel back to consult with customers in the US
(assuming that is where he is from)? Was he an established consultant before
the move?

~~~
medearis
He does have to travel to meet with clients, but from what I've gathered, it
is not particularly frequent. He had a pretty solid resume as an engineer and
is definitely one of the most creative, smart people I know, but I don't think
that he had much of a list of prior clients. As I recall, our school kind of
set him up with his 2 main clients. Its quite a bold move on his part and
inspiring to me. It's only one data point, but its certainly an example of how
its possible to carve out a niche.

~~~
rtw
Pretty cool, thanks.

Coincidentally... <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=408190>

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jwesley
Can't we all just proclaim in unison that The 4 Hour Work Week is crap and
never mention Timothy Ferriss again?

~~~
pchristensen
No, because it's not true. Ferriss is probably the most marketed person on the
planet, and 4HWW is talk about tons, but the book has good, specific
information (that the reviews _always_ leave out). Much of it isn't original,
but if you haven't seen it anywhere else, it's new to you. Some of it is very
detailed and original (or at least I haven't seen it anywhere) and worth
taking a few hours for.

Don't confuse the man with the message.

~~~
toby
I really enjoyed the lifestyle message of the book, which I think is an
interesting goal, but the "specific information" about how to implement it
kind of upset me.

There's enough room in this world for a few people to be selling vitamins or
"information products" via infomercials, but that's only because there are a
lot of people doing other things. Good for him that he found his niche, but
it's totally misleading to suggest to everyone else that we can all race cars,
dance competitively and live all over the world by following the exact same
path.

Also, the suggestion that all favelas are just like "City of God" was pretty
offensive.

~~~
jwesley
The misleading aspect you mentioned is exactly what irks me about the book. It
is a fantasy being sold to every person working a dull job. The glorification
of the no-work, jetsetting lifestyle is misleading as well. To have a
profession and be a member of a community should be a source joy and
accomplishment, not something to run away from. I think most people would find
traveling the world alone, constantly indulging fantasies, would become boring
and meaningless after a few months.

~~~
qaexl
That doesn't really have much to do with the article. It's actually about a
freelancer trying three different time management techniques, including the
ones found in 4HWK. It was meant to be tongue-in-cheek. In fact, the author
said, "Ferriss' system basically amounts to finding ways to avoid doing your
work." which I imagine you'd appreciate it for its intended humor.

With regards to the social implications of 4HWK, As had been said in many of
the comments here about it, the idea is to be able to do what you want to do,
whether it is to indulge in what you consider as fantasies, or to throw
yourself back into doing another time-consuming, socially-productive startup.

I think you underestimate the difficulty of having nothing to do. In those
moments, there is nothing to distract you from taking a good, hard look at
yourself. There are many things that come up, assumptions about what is
socially acceptable (getting a job) and what is not gets examined. I've done a
bit of that in the past before, and I recognize it in Ferris's words at the
beginning of his book. If after going on this imposed exile for a year, you
come out of it going after a new dream, or a new project, that is often more
true to yourself than running around being "productive". It is the equivalent
of reaching the self-acualization stage of Maslow's ladder, and being ready to
go beyond that. This experience is life-changing enough that I think people
should have the opportunity to give it a try. Yes, it requires the cooperation
of other people helping you out. What of it?

The other side of it is that American society may value egalitarian hard-work,
but much of the middle-class affluence is founded on those living in harsher
working conditions. Basic things as simple as running water, toilet paper,
nutritionally-balanced meals, junk food, iPhones and news.ycombinator.com are
all taken for granted here. They are not universally available. It is one
thing to criticize Ferris's method for resembling an unsustainable Ponzi
scheme, it is quite another to describe it as indulging in fantasies and
gloficiation of no-work when the average, mainstream American middle-class is
affluent by world standards.

