Four-Hour Workweek
The first book of this year’s holiday haul that I’ve finished is Tim Ferriss’s Four-Hour Workweek. And — though it featured the “stop spending time on dumb stuff” tips I’d been reading it for, it’s definitely a little condescending and prescriptive.
Yes, he’s certainly right that most people spend far more time in meetings, “doing email”, or micromanaging than they need to; yes, much of what people do in offices they could do from home or from Buenos Aires (though he omits any reference to jobs that do need to be done in a particular physical location); and yeah, it’s probably true that most business owners have a few clients/customers they’d be better off dumping (but, “long-forgotten Italian economist”? Last I checked, Pareto was still sneaking into introductory undergraduate econ courses). And his main point — selling a lot of your time in the hopes of someday enjoying a pleasant retirement is dumb — is well taken. Heck, I don’t need to be convinced that spending 8-6 wasting time in an office is no way to live; that’s why I quit my job to freelance for less money.
But, he’s presenting the specific recipe that helped him to live his dreams as though it’s the recipe for everyone to live their own dream. It’s not — it’s the recipe for living Tim Ferriss’s dream. Don’t tell me that reading nonfiction (special exception: “Recommending this book might seem hypocritical, but it’s not”) is a waste of valuable time; at least at this stage of my life, I’d rather study philosophy or politics than tango or German. He acknowledges that standard office jobs provide desirable socialization, but doesn’t suggest how you could build a strong social network as a world traveler who doesn’t spend more than a few months anywhere. His assumptions are that everyone would prefer traveling to building a home, everyone can find fulfillment in leaving their existing friends for short-term friendships, everyone would rather do things than think about things; and this simply isn’t true.
Well, at least I applaud his cleverness in marketing/selling his book to a broader audience (myself included) than it’s really useful for.
Tags: books