If Books Could Kill - The 4-Hour Workweek

00:00:00.260 Michael. Peter. What do you know about the four-hour work week? All I know is that the

00:00:05.760 only reason I'm letting you do another productivity book is so I can get an update on your household

00:00:09.960 chores. You know, as we've sort of progressed through the first year of the podcast, I feel

00:00:28.760 like the books we cover have sort of started to divide themselves into some distinct categories.

00:00:36.280 And there's only a few, right? There's like the relationship books, the politics books,

00:00:40.740 the social science books, and then finally, the financial self-help books.

00:00:47.160 The guru books. 1.00

00:00:48.080 The rise and grind shit. 1.00

00:00:49.780 Yes. 0.99

00:00:50.060 This is one of the most influential rise and grind books of the last 20 years.

00:00:55.940 If he brings it back to birth rates, we're really going to have some synergy for this podcast.

00:01:00.720 I thought, like, who better to review this than a podcaster?

00:01:05.900 You want to teach me about four-hour work weeks, buddy?

00:01:10.340 I'm the world's foremost expert.

00:01:12.520 The Peter story, yes.

00:01:15.400 So Timothy Ferris, the author, he publishes this in 2007 when he is a 29-year-old tech entrepreneur.

00:01:24.040 Okay.

00:01:24.360 This is the mid-aughts, so we are experiencing a bit of a tech boom.

00:01:29.880 Like Facebook and Twitter are just getting off the ground.

00:01:33.140 There's sort of a rush of capital into tech for the first time since the dot-com crash.

00:01:38.380 Ferris himself was an employee at a digital storage company for a bit, and then he had launched a startup hawking some scammy neurotropic supplements that he called Brain Quicken.

00:01:55.320 So it's also an accounting software when you want to stay up all night typing in your expenses.

00:02:00.700 The original title for this book that he had pitched was Drug Dealing for Fun and Profit.

00:02:05.780 Wait, really?

00:02:06.540 Yeah.

00:02:06.980 Okay.

00:02:07.420 You can sort of tell that Tim is annoyed that he didn't name the book that because he has

00:02:11.540 brought that up in like so many interviews.

00:02:14.220 Oh, yeah.

00:02:14.860 He just wants to get it out there.

00:02:16.620 Like I had a cool title for the book, by the way.

00:02:18.600 Yeah, it's like the guy who directed The Professional who just calls it Leon for the

00:02:22.540 next like three decades.

00:02:24.360 Still mad about it. Still mad about it. So he's doing like the right wing podcast supplement

00:02:32.140 grift, but in the mid aughts. So he's he's a pioneer, you know? Yeah. None of this pans out

00:02:39.600 quite like he had hoped. He's sort of doing well, but he's worn out and he sets out to restructure

00:02:47.500 his life entirely so that he can make as much money as possible while working as little as

00:02:53.460 possible, or at the very least, start prioritizing the things in his life that he wants to

00:02:58.100 prioritize.

00:02:59.000 It is funny how all of these books start with like someone who doesn't have a normal

00:03:03.120 job.

00:03:03.920 They're always like an entrepreneur or like some sort of innovator or something, something

00:03:08.980 basically somebody who like can disappear for days on end.

00:03:12.280 Yeah, I think it's important to understand this book as the product of a guy who basically

00:03:16.180 has everything he thought he wanted, but is still disillusioned, right?

00:03:21.480 He's an entrepreneur.

00:03:22.780 He says that his supplement company was making him about 70 grand a month.

00:03:26.520 Oh, my God.

00:03:26.920 But he still feels trapped, right?

00:03:28.980 He's sort of worn down by the grind.

00:03:30.940 He's overworked. 0.94

00:03:32.000 He's miserable.

00:03:33.540 And he plans a big trip, a sabbatical year traveling the world. 0.92

00:03:38.360 Okay.

00:03:38.760 And he has all of these apprehensions about it, but he does it anyway.

00:03:42.300 And as a result, he sort of has a variety of revelations about how to optimize his life.

00:03:47.480 Wait, so is this Eat, Pray, Love for like San Francisco tech bros?

00:03:52.960 There's a long section about carbs.

00:03:55.020 So the subtitle of this book is Escape the 9 to 5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich.

00:04:02.380 Okay.

00:04:02.840 So I'm going to send you his little definition of the new rich.

00:04:06.500 I like how you say his little definition.

00:04:08.380 His little definition.

00:04:09.220 It's actually quite a lengthy definition and I've cut out parts.

00:04:11.560 The new rich are those who abandon the deferred life plan and create luxury lifestyles in the present using the currency of the new rich, time and mobility.

00:04:21.640 This is an art and a science we will refer to as lifestyle design.

00:04:26.260 My journey from grossly overworked and severely underpaid office worker to member of the new rich is at once stranger than fiction and, now that I've deciphered the code, simple to duplicate.

00:04:37.620 There's a recipe.

00:04:38.800 From leveraging currency differences to outsourcing your life and disappearing, I'll show you how a small underground uses economic sleight of hand to do what most consider impossible.

00:04:50.360 He is making it seem as if anyone can do this. And in fact, it's something that a 29-year-old tech millionaire can probably do relatively easily.

00:05:00.500 This is like the rich dad, poor dad guy being like, OK, step one, buy an apartment building in a city experiencing a housing boom.

00:05:08.440 I also want to point out that you read The New Rich and Lifestyle Design, but he immediately starts using acronyms for these things.

00:05:17.220 So it's N-R and L-D. 0.97

00:05:20.040 It's so fucking annoying. 0.97

00:05:21.040 This is something that we come across in academic articles all the time. 0.99

00:05:24.180 It's like you're making up acronyms. 0.85

00:05:25.540 And then by the time you get to the end of the abstract, it's like the T-M-L-R doesn't

00:05:30.320 match the A-D-T. 0.95

00:05:31.920 Right. 1.00

00:05:32.360 Oh, my fucking God. 1.00

00:05:33.620 Now, I bring that up because the entire book is also built around a dumb acronym. 0.99

00:05:39.540 DEAL, and this is his step-by-step process for becoming a member of the new rich.

00:05:44.560 D, definition. This is the section where he defines the new rich and explains how they operate.

00:05:52.120 E, elimination, where he shows you how to eliminate the notion of time management and

00:05:57.660 all of the other things that are extraneous to your success. A, automation, where he teaches

00:06:04.020 you tricks to automate your work and income. And L, liberation, where he explains how to

00:06:11.240 liberate yourself from a single location and travel the globe while maintaining your lifestyle.

00:06:17.560 He will not, however, liberate all of the slaves that he's going to hire over the internet to do

00:06:21.560 his work for him. Oh, you've read the book? That's book two. That's the sequel book.

00:06:26.040 Okay, so let's start off with D, the D in deal for definition, where he sort of talks about the

00:06:33.040 new rich versus who he calls deferrers. A big theme of the book is that you can live like the

00:06:38.660 exceedingly wealthy without being exceedingly wealthy yeah he says quote i've chartered private

00:06:44.600 planes over the andes enjoyed many of the best wines in the world in between world-class ski

00:06:50.060 runs and lived like a king lounging by the infinity pool of a private villa here's the

00:06:55.180 little secret i rarely tell it all costs less than rent in the u.s if you can free your time

00:07:00.780 and location your money is automatically worth three to ten times as much this has nothing to

00:07:06.400 do with currency rates. Being financially rich and having the ability to live like a millionaire

00:07:11.960 are fundamentally two very different things. Wait, is he just talking about like going to

00:07:16.120 Costa Rica and getting like a cheaper hotel room or something? Because it sounds like he's

00:07:19.680 explicitly saying that's not what he's saying. He is explicitly saying that that's not what

00:07:23.800 he's saying, but it is what he's saying. Now, I'm not talking about going to a cheaper country,

00:07:31.180 but if you go to a cheaper country it's cheaper i i feel like we're also adding to our sort of

00:07:36.360 like glossary of things that show up in all these airport books and i feel like one of them is

00:07:40.760 dressing up something totally unexotic as like forbidden wisdom like the idea that you can go

00:07:47.000 to like thailand or india and like live at a much higher standard of living than you can in the

00:07:51.400 united states it's like really basic and banal to point out i yeah i got sort of intrigued here

00:07:56.080 because i was like oh is he gonna like is there gonna be some kind of cool trick here

00:08:00.080 Yeah. But no, there won't be. So don't get excited. A lot of the opening sections of the

00:08:05.120 book are just him sort of setting the table, providing guidelines and themes that he hits

00:08:10.240 throughout. Many of them are sensible and inoffensive. Like a big one is to stop using

00:08:15.420 the excuse of the timing isn't right to put off big moves in your life from like business decisions

00:08:22.180 to vacations, because he says the timing never feels right. And you'll never make the big moves

00:08:26.240 if you think that way. That actually sounds like reasonable advice to me, honestly. Totally.

00:08:29.700 do stuff he also says that people tend to want to increase their income when they think about

00:08:36.120 becoming more successful but it's just as valuable or can be just as valuable to just reduce the

00:08:40.900 number of hours you work okay there is some weirder stuff um he says ask for forgiveness

00:08:46.860 not permission which is of course like a common saying but in this case he's talking about like

00:08:51.400 making large life decisions without telling your boss or life partner oh wait like he explicitly

00:08:57.280 says this quote people whether parents partners or bosses deny things on an emotional basis that

00:09:03.660 they can learn to accept after the fact oh so we're at another major theme of all these airport

00:09:09.740 books toxic masculinity that's right don't tell her what you're thinking and doing so one of the

00:09:14.800 big underlying ideas behind the book is that people are scared of change and will choose

00:09:20.900 unhappiness over uncertainty that's actually kind of wise yeah no i i agree and um it's you know

00:09:28.160 sort of it's on theme with the you know the timing is never right idea yeah but it's also you know

00:09:34.440 this is where you start to realize that he's about to give you a lot of advice that is very applicable

00:09:39.560 to a 28 year old with seven figures in the bank right you know like when he is considering his

00:09:47.740 big year-long sabbatical, he's weighing the downsides. And he's like, look, even if everything

00:09:52.880 goes wrong and my business collapses, what's my worst case scenario? And he's like, look,

00:09:58.620 I have the experience and the resume to get a job and get back on my feet and it won't be great,

00:10:02.600 but it'll be fine. Yeah. He's like, what's the worst that could happen? I'm already earning

00:10:06.300 $70,000 a year in interest from my accounts that I have. Right, right, right. Yes, people, that does

00:10:12.860 in fact give you a lot more options true so yes many people do choose unhappiness over instability

00:10:18.780 i agree with that but that's because the risks of instability for many people are extremely high

00:10:25.460 yeah how many fake gurus are there out there advising people to like leave the rat race and

00:10:31.140 pursue whatever makes you happy right move to costa rica and give surfing lessons right yeah

00:10:37.360 Now, Ferris is giving that same advice, but without the tradeoff where, like, you abandon your dream of material wealth.

00:10:45.740 Right.

00:10:45.900 You can go teach people to surf in Costa Rica for a living, but that requires some level of comfort with poverty, right?

00:10:53.300 Yeah.

00:10:53.680 And this book is fundamentally about not wanting to make that tradeoff.

00:10:58.400 Right.

00:10:58.740 Because, yeah, the ordinary advice would be like, yeah, go bum around Southeast Asia for a while and, like, you're just going to be broke and sleep in, like, youth hostels and stuff.

00:11:05.460 Right. 0.91

00:11:05.640 Which is great. And like a super formative and awesome experience. But also you're not going to like earn money doing that. Like that's not a path to riches necessarily. It's just like a nice thing to do when you're young.

00:11:14.640 Right. And so what we're getting, what we're building towards is that he's going to show you how you can do all that while still being a little bit rich. Right. While being part of this new rich club.

00:11:26.340 Yeah. The last part of the opening section is about the practice of dreamlining. This is where

00:11:32.360 you create a clear outline of what your dream is. OK. And he provides like worksheets and shit. 0.99

00:11:38.560 OK. Those worksheets have examples and I'm going to I'm going to read off some of those examples 0.92

00:11:43.180 to you. He says, let's say in six months I want to have an Aston Martin, a personal assistant

00:11:49.540 and be a bestselling author. And then he lays out the cost for the Aston Martin. It's two thousand

00:11:55.860 a month okay he prices the personal assistant at four hundred dollars based on 80 hours a month

00:12:03.000 at five dollars an hour wait a rate that was below the federal minimum wage yeah uh at every point

00:12:10.580 after 1997 he prices becoming a best-selling author at zero dollars uh because the only costs

00:12:18.160 are a your time which is free and b three unpaid interns to handle promoting uh the book okay

00:12:25.840 This is a turning point in the book because it's the first peek at the actual secret behind

00:12:31.000 the four hour work week.

00:12:32.740 Child slaves. 0.87

00:12:33.420 We're back to child slaves.

00:12:35.120 Well, we are.

00:12:36.500 This is the first time he touches on a significant, maybe the most significant material component

00:12:41.320 of the strategy, which is identifying sources of cheap labor to do the work for you.

00:12:47.620 Hell yeah.

00:12:48.200 Again, not exotic advice.

00:12:50.520 This is this is pretty standard advice of like if you want to be rich, like find people willing to work for you for like almost nothing.

00:12:59.260 Yeah. And it's interesting because it's like, OK, yeah, four hour work week for you.

00:13:03.900 Yeah. Full time job for your slave wage team. 0.56

00:13:07.860 Right. All right. E. Elimination. 0.95

00:13:13.640 He says to forget about time management.

00:13:16.300 He thinks that people focus on busying themselves too much without thinking about being effective

00:13:21.920 with their time.

00:13:24.140 He talks about identifying and eliminating time-wasting or time-consuming habits.

00:13:30.320 He suggests limiting your email use so that you have a dedicated email answering hour

00:13:35.520 every day, thus avoiding constant email interruptions.

00:13:40.280 That honestly seems like very good advice.

00:13:42.100 Yeah, I agree.

00:13:43.420 He says, have a second phone number so that you can have one dedicated to urgent matters. 0.97

00:13:48.880 That's what Hillary Clinton did, and the country never forgave her.

00:13:52.700 Interesting.

00:13:53.440 Interesting he goes there.

00:13:54.400 He also gives advice for being effective on phone calls, and I'm going to send you some

00:14:00.040 templates.

00:14:01.820 Read the intro, and I'll be John, and you'll be Jane.

00:14:04.960 If someone does call your cell phone, it's presumably urgent and should be treated as

00:14:09.160 such.

00:14:09.860 Do not allow them to consume time otherwise.

00:14:12.520 It's all in the greeting.

00:14:14.300 Compare the following.

00:14:16.020 And then I'm Jane receiving a call.

00:14:18.840 Hello.

00:14:19.600 Hi, is this Jane?

00:14:20.480 This is Jane.

00:14:21.380 Hi, Jane.

00:14:21.880 It's John.

00:14:22.540 Oh, hi, John.

00:14:23.140 How are you?

00:14:24.400 John will now digress and lead you into a conversation about nothing from which you will

00:14:28.620 have to recover and then fish out the ultimate purpose of the call.

00:14:32.100 There's a better approach. 0.76

00:14:33.620 This is Jane speaking.

00:14:34.800 Hi, it's John.

00:14:35.880 Hi, John.

00:14:36.320 I'm right in the middle of something.

00:14:37.400 How can I help you out?

00:14:38.240 that's that's not in the screen grab you said that's you we're now in full improv that's me

00:14:45.700 john panicking jane's got me in the spotlight i better act fast this seems like reasonable

00:14:51.100 advice get to the point of phone calls i guess this is one of my favorite parts of the book

00:14:55.180 because he's basically advising you on how to save four seconds off of every phone call

00:15:00.380 and it's like okay i guess that's part of the 36 hours that i will gain every week during this

00:15:07.000 but it seems like we're gonna need to do a lot more work it's funny to me that usually we try 0.98

00:15:11.520 to be meticulously fair to these books and like we we dove right in i'm like roasting this fucking 0.70

00:15:15.640 guy we didn't it's very hard not to you know the one thing i will say in defense of this book is 0.85

00:15:21.360 he gives the full scheme like he lays out the full vision so we'll give him credit for being

00:15:27.820 kind of upfront about this deranged plan but the plan is still deranged next section is a automation

00:15:34.580 and the first chapter of it is called Outsourcing Life.

00:15:39.420 It begins with an account that's not written by Ferris.

00:15:42.520 It's written by A.J. Jacobs at the time, an editor at Esquire.

00:15:47.760 Okay.

00:15:48.540 Give me one second.

00:15:49.440 I'll send it to you. 1.00

00:15:50.400 Oh, my fucking God. 0.99

00:15:51.920 He says, it began a month ago. 0.99

00:15:54.300 I was midway through The World is Flat, the bestseller by Tom Friedman.

00:15:58.300 I like Friedman, despite his puzzling decision to wear a mustache.

00:16:02.500 Ooh, ooh, got him. 0.87

00:16:04.220 Burned.

00:16:04.360 His book is all about how outsourcing to India and China is not just for tech support and

00:16:08.540 car makers, but is poised to transform every industry in America, from law to banking to

00:16:13.460 accounting.

00:16:14.320 I don't have a corporation.

00:16:15.760 I don't even have an up-to-date business card.

00:16:17.860 I'm a writer and editor working from home.

00:16:20.160 Then again, I think, why should Fortune 500 firms have all the fun?

00:16:23.600 Why can't I join in on the biggest business trend of the new century?

00:16:27.900 Why can't I outsource my low-end tasks?

00:16:30.280 God, I actually remember this, Peter.

00:16:31.660 There was like a brief period of hype around like ordinary people outsourcing aspects of their lives to like personal assistance.

00:16:41.320 Because whenever something is like great for giant corporations, there's always a giant PR push to be like, this will be good for you too.

00:16:49.440 Yeah, this is going to change life for everyone.

00:16:51.500 But then my understanding is that it completely fizzled out because once you actually get down to it, there's not that many tasks in your life that you can outsource.

00:16:59.660 Like it would be kind of nice to be like, hey, can you call a restaurant and like make a reservation for seven for me and my friends?

00:17:05.760 Great.

00:17:06.380 But then by the time you tell someone in India to do that, and then you probably have to clarify with them like, wait, which restaurant?

00:17:13.600 Oh, yeah.

00:17:14.060 Oh, here's the number.

00:17:15.400 It's not saving you that much time.

00:17:16.960 And then how many tasks can you really outsource to someone who like doesn't know your life very well?

00:17:24.200 You know, like respond to my Tinder messages for me.

00:17:27.400 And a lot of tasks are also in person.

00:17:29.300 And a lot of the things that take up people's time are stuff like, you know, getting your

00:17:32.520 kids ready for school or whatever.

00:17:34.100 I do want to say that this builds toward my theory that there will eventually only be

00:17:38.720 one book, right?

00:17:39.900 And we are working toward the single book.

00:17:42.620 So the basic principle is that you use assistance to free up your time to do work, which gives

00:17:49.460 you more money for assistance, which gives you more time.

00:17:52.960 You know, it's the cycle of glory.

00:17:55.200 This is when the vision of the book sort of came fully into focus.

00:17:59.300 from me because it starts off with this very relatable disillusionment with the workplace

00:18:04.940 grind and a desire to escape it and focus on the more important things in life. But then you get

00:18:11.120 to the core of the book and you realize it's not really about escaping the grind per se.

00:18:15.660 It's about offloading the grind onto someone poorer than you.

00:18:19.660 Right. It's basically, I want to escape the rat race by no longer being a rat, 0.96

00:18:24.820 but becoming like the rat master. Like I'm the one building the maze.

00:18:29.300 transition from exploited to exploiter. So Ferris gives a bunch of tips about managing your

00:18:36.280 assistance. Like he says to be specific when you're delegating, otherwise you lose time later

00:18:41.900 trying to clarify. Oh, don't you hate that? He also talks about like the limits of delegation,

00:18:48.040 and I'm going to send you a bit. First, I try to delegate my therapy. My plan is to give Asha a

00:18:55.420 list of my neuroses and a childhood anecdote or two have her talk to my shrink for 50 minutes

00:19:00.140 then relay the advice smart right my shrink refused ethics or something fine instead i have asha send

00:19:07.860 me a meticulously researched memo on stress relief it had a nice indian flavor to it with a couple of

00:19:14.260 yogic postures and some visualization oh my god bro this honestly reads like satire like it read

00:19:21.020 this reads like an argument against being able to outsource this stuff like this seems like a 0.52

00:19:25.800 description of like why this would never fucking work i mean look there might not be a better

00:19:29.780 summation of this book than tim identifying therapy as the least important use of his time 0.85

00:19:35.120 and then trying to offload it onto an outsourced wage slave personal assistant who's indian so of 0.98

00:19:42.320 course the recommendation is yoga obviously that's what they do there but then yeah this 0.98

00:19:46.960 is this weird like capitalistic understanding of like your own personality and relationships

00:19:52.640 because at this point you're like oh i'm gonna catch up with a high school friend of mine well

00:19:56.760 why don't i outsource that and like asha can go and she can give me like points so like what's

00:20:00.880 greg up to these days yeah right right like that's this is the point of life it's as if the dream is

00:20:07.000 just being plugged into the matrix and you're just like a twitching little corpse while while your

00:20:11.500 personal assistants handle everything for you. It's it's bizarre. He also goes through the

00:20:16.980 concerns that you might have about this sort of arrangement, not the moral concerns. He says that

00:20:22.600 the number one fear is that someone within your army of personal assistants might decide that it

00:20:27.700 would be more profitable to just steal from you. But does he talk about how hard it is to find

00:20:31.520 people now that quiet quitting is such a big problem in our society? Ferris gives some tips

00:20:36.400 for suppressing these wage slave rebellions uh he talks about like background checks and ndas and

00:20:43.780 like encryption and vpn oh my god and he's like i only provide sensitive information to my most

00:20:49.280 trusted assistants i don't know man when i when i worked in human rights at one point i had a team 0.56

00:20:54.120 of like five people that i was managing and it was so much fucking work to manage people i mean

00:20:59.040 all you're doing is you're basically turning yourself into like a middle manager right of 0.85

00:21:03.400 your own life i mean look by the time you're getting someone to sign an nda for four dollars 0.92

00:21:08.660 an hour like what are you fucking doing here you know all right the next few chapters we we move 0.76

00:21:14.820 away from the indentured servitude okay and toward income autopilot uh which is about creating 0.98

00:21:23.200 streams of passive income by starting a business another theme for the show this is all these

00:21:29.180 books promise passive income now he says the ultimate goal is to have a business where you

00:21:34.200 can remove yourself from the org chart and put yourself in a position where you're essentially

00:21:38.860 in an oversight role he does this primarily by relying on trusted contractors and giving them

00:21:45.760 leeway to make decisions as they deem fit oh i'm gonna send you a little bit

00:21:52.500 he says i'm more like a police officer on the side of the road who can step in if need be

00:21:59.880 i check reports from fulfillment each monday and monthly reports from the same the first of each

00:22:04.960 month the latter reports include orders received from the call center which i can compare to the

00:22:09.820 call center bills to gauge profit otherwise i just check bank accounts online on the first

00:22:15.080 and 15th of each month to look for odd deductions if i find something one email will fix it and if

00:22:21.000 not it's back to kendo painting hiking or whatever i happen to be doing at the time okay so he's

00:22:26.580 working this is like just being a boss just being a boss yeah although i this is another one of those

00:22:31.300 things where i um this is the second time i've said this on this podcast but this is another

00:22:35.200 place where i would pay a million dollars to watch carl marx read this just like how do i maximize

00:22:42.960 my rent seeking like how can i maximize my lecherousness vis-a-vis labor right there's

00:22:49.940 something deeply disturbing about being like i still get the money but i try to do as little as

00:22:55.120 possible i like i i don't know i hear that i read this and i hear the international i also feel like

00:23:00.360 look man if these books are going to recycle their little lessons we're going to recycle jokes

00:23:04.260 we're just going to keep doing it every episode we're going to make the same mark's joke if

00:23:08.420 they're building towards one book we're building towards one episode

00:23:11.540 also the uh the rich dad poor dad guy also said this of like be the head of a company and like

00:23:18.960 just receive passive income but like that's hard it's hard easy to start your own successful 0.83

00:23:25.160 company that you can then completely bow out of more people would fucking do it like the whole

00:23:31.000 point is that it's not easy to do this and often requires massive startup capital and like some 0.96

00:23:36.580 sort of specialization and all kinds of luck and shit well mike not to cut you off but tim ferris

00:23:42.820 has a plan for you oh there are steps towards starting a functional business that provides

00:23:48.620 you passive income in this book. He got a little ahead of himself talking about the org chart,

00:23:53.480 but he's like, all right, so what's the real question, right? You want to know how to create

00:23:57.280 a product that you can sell passively without handling much of the day-to-day.

00:24:02.440 It's 2007, so is it just bubble tea? It's going to be bubble tea.

00:24:05.520 No. He says you don't want to provide a service because that means you get paid by the hour,

00:24:10.400 right? You want to provide a downloadable or shippable product. So he says, think about

00:24:16.400 markets that you know, industry groups that you associate with, for example, social groups you

00:24:21.200 associate with, figure out which of those groups have magazines with large circulations that you

00:24:25.980 can advertise in. Again, this is like almost 20 years ago, right? Yeah, fair enough. He says,

00:24:31.100 one, pick an affordably reachable niche market. Two, brainstorm a product to sell to that market.

00:24:38.280 Step one, come up with a great business idea. Step one. Step two, sell. He says, look,

00:24:43.800 You can try to sell a physical product, but the simpler route is to sell an informational

00:24:49.280 product like an instructional DVD course.

00:24:52.520 Oh, no. 0.99

00:24:53.500 Oh, so he's turning you into a fucking self-help guru like all these guys do eventually. 0.99

00:24:57.640 That's right. 0.99

00:24:58.700 He's saying, look, these are harder for competitors to replicate.

00:25:01.760 Oh, my God.

00:25:02.300 They have lower upfront costs, higher margins, all the good stuff that you want in a business,

00:25:08.460 right?

00:25:08.680 And then he's like, eventually write a book, giving some fake plan and sell it to a bunch 1.00

00:25:13.580 of fucking suckers. 1.00

00:25:14.880 You know, I was about to say this. 1.00

00:25:16.540 This is not the first time that we've seen one of our authors advise readers to do scams.

00:25:22.280 But this is, I think, the first time we've had one explain the scam that he's running

00:25:26.720 on you right now.

00:25:28.120 Yeah, you are now the product being sold. 1.00

00:25:30.480 Like you are the sucker. 1.00

00:25:31.880 Right. 0.99

00:25:32.140 It is so fascinating to me how many of these guys are basically just like training you

00:25:36.700 how to become a guru. 0.99

00:25:37.800 Because they're like, well, I can make up all this shit. 1.00

00:25:39.940 Why don't you start making up a bunch of shit and then sell it to other people? 0.99

00:25:43.220 Our listener at home is like, but Peter, how can I sell an informational DVD when I am not an expert in anything at all? 0.99

00:25:52.740 And Tim's got you covered.

00:25:54.680 So I'm going to send you something.

00:25:57.140 He says, if you aren't an expert, don't sweat it.

00:26:00.540 Expert in the context of selling a product means that you know more about the topic than the purchaser.

00:26:05.240 It is not necessary to be the best, just better than a small target number of your prospective customers.

00:26:11.140 Let's suppose that your current dream line to compete in the 1,150-mile Iditarod dog sledding race in Alaska requires $5,000 to realize.

00:26:20.380 If there are 15,000 readers and even 50 or 0.33% can be convinced of your superior expertise in skill X and spend $100 for a program that teaches it, that's $5,000.

00:26:32.220 Bring on the Huskies. 0.97

00:26:33.560 oh so is this just like bullshit your way that is absolutely the i mean first of all he says 0.99

00:26:38.840 look expert doesn't mean that you are an expert it means that you know more about the topic than 0.98

00:26:44.120 the other guy and it's like whoa whoa whoa does it this is also the career of numerous national

00:26:50.660 political pundits they don't have any actual expertise but you know what just talk like you

00:26:55.660 do it's fine he also suggests just like finding several books on a topic and then paraphrasing

00:27:01.060 them or using content from the public domain that's what rich dad poor dad does too he's just

00:27:07.300 like yeah just repackage stuff that other gurus are saying this is a great like giant national 0.97

00:27:12.320 game of telephone that happens with these fucking self-help books is they're all just repackaging 0.98

00:27:16.220 shit from other self-help books there's an incredible insert in this book titled how to 0.99

00:27:21.820 become an expert in four weeks fuck yes he says quote there is a difference between being perceived 0.97

00:27:26.540 as an expert and being one, and that all that matters in this context is being perceived as 0.72

00:27:32.260 one. He outlines some steps. He says, one, join a few trade organizations in the field. Two,

00:27:39.200 read the three top selling books on the topic. Three, give one free seminar at the closest

00:27:45.520 well-known university using posters to advertise, then leverage that to give some seminars for

00:27:52.100 large corporations with campuses nearby if you can. Four, optional, write an article for a trade

00:27:59.040 magazine and if they decline, offer to interview someone more established in the field. Five,

00:28:05.820 and this one's slightly outdated, but join ProfNet, which is a service that connects journalists and

00:28:11.580 experts for articles. My immediate gut reaction to this was this would work. This would work.

00:28:20.940 Yes, it's crazy.

00:28:21.880 100%.

00:28:22.280 Yeah.

00:28:22.680 It felt a little bit like looking into the abyss, reading this section.

00:28:25.740 It's really wild how he's just saying it.

00:28:27.560 Right.

00:28:27.880 This is the most openly I've ever seen someone like this talk about this sort of thing.

00:28:32.620 It's sort of perfect that he comes out of this like health grifting sector because like the public knows so little about health stuff. 0.53

00:28:39.720 I don't know if you're getting these in your inbox yet, Peter, but like somehow I've ended up on all these fucking PR lists for like health influencers.

00:28:45.100 And so I get probably like 30 to 50 emails a day from these atrocious PR firms that are like, this guru says like kidney health is the key to longevity. 0.98

00:28:55.300 And it's some random fucking guy. 0.95

00:28:57.300 And they want to be a guest on our podcast. 0.99

00:28:59.240 And like a lot of podcasts fall for this. 0.98

00:29:02.000 And a lot of journalists also don't know shit about kidneys because most people don't. 1.00

00:29:05.640 And so like, okay, I'll interview the fucking kidney guy. 0.99

00:29:07.700 And then you start getting this like earned media. 0.99

00:29:10.300 You start showing up in media reports.

00:29:11.660 And before you know it, like a large number of people think that you're an expert on whatever thing you've called yourself an expert on. 0.96

00:29:19.040 If you want to do an informational DVD that sells, you're probably doing some general wellness bullshit. 0.95

00:29:24.860 Yeah. 0.90

00:29:25.060 It's either wellness or financial advice.

00:29:28.080 Yeah, financial stuff.

00:29:28.940 Yeah.

00:29:29.320 You know, this is one of the most rich dad, poor dad parts of the book.

00:29:33.420 And Tim Ferriss has been on Robert Kiyosaki's podcast.

00:29:36.760 Perfection.

00:29:37.120 And I tried to do a full Hobbs and listen to it. 1.00

00:29:40.700 And Kiyosaki might be the worst host in history.

00:29:44.400 Yes, he's tough to listen to.

00:29:45.700 It's real tough.

00:29:46.440 His questions are terrible.

00:29:47.620 He was completely unfamiliar with Tim's work going in.

00:29:50.420 And I made it five minutes and I was like, this has me feeling bad for Tim Ferriss and

00:29:55.900 I can't tolerate that.

00:29:57.040 So I have to leave.

00:29:59.040 All right.

00:30:00.240 We're we are now past the A in deal, which is the slave labor and fraud business portion.

00:30:08.680 And we are on to liberation.

00:30:10.260 Freeing myself to employ others in exploitative conditions. Yes.

00:30:14.400 What's interesting about this section is that for much of it, he actually pivots away from like this basic framework. And a lot of it is geared towards employees rather than like self-employed entrepreneurs.

00:30:26.240 OK.

00:30:26.280 The practical advice here is primarily about how to convince your employer to let you work remotely.

00:30:32.960 OK.

00:30:33.540 Which means we get to witness how a guy in 2007 thought employers would react to an employee request for remote work.

00:30:40.340 Yeah, it's a little unfair to shit on him for this because, like, of course, this was the framework at the time and this has all become normalized. 0.97

00:30:48.040 But it's also very funny to shit on him for this. 0.98

00:30:50.660 So maybe we should continue. 0.98

00:30:51.740 So he offers up some fake dialogue between you and your boss to sort of, you know, give

00:30:59.560 you a template for how to discuss with your manager your desire to do remote work.

00:31:05.560 I love it when we do scripts.

00:31:07.000 I will be the boss, Bill.

00:31:09.060 Okay.

00:31:09.520 And you can be Sherwood, the employee.

00:31:12.260 Okay.

00:31:12.620 This is Tim writing out the dialogue that he believes will happen when you ask your

00:31:17.500 manager for remote work.

00:31:19.080 Hi, Bill.

00:31:19.700 Do you have a quick second?

00:31:20.620 Sure.

00:31:20.920 What's up?

00:31:21.360 I just wanted to bounce an idea off of you that's been on my mind.

00:31:24.100 Two minutes should be plenty.

00:31:25.340 Okay, shoot.

00:31:26.000 Last week, as you know, I was sick.

00:31:27.920 Long story short, I decided to work at home despite feeling terrible.

00:31:31.420 So here's the funny part.

00:31:32.680 I thought I would get nothing done, but ended up finishing three more designs than usual

00:31:36.960 on both days.

00:31:38.440 Plus, I put in three more billable hours than usual without the commute, office noise,

00:31:43.380 distractions, etc.

00:31:44.860 Okay, so here's where I'm going.

00:31:47.120 Just as a trial, I'd like to propose working from home Mondays and Tuesdays for just two weeks.

00:31:52.460 You can veto it whenever you want, and I'll come in if we need to do meetings.

00:31:55.880 But I'd like to try it for just two weeks and review the results.

00:31:58.940 I'm 100% confident that I'll get twice as much done.

00:32:01.960 Does that seem reasonable?

00:32:03.060 Hmm.

00:32:03.760 What if we need to share client designs?

00:32:05.820 There's a program called GoToMyPC that I used to access the office computer when I was sick.

00:32:11.320 I can view everything remotely, and I'll have my cell phone on me 24-7.

00:32:15.280 So what do you think?

00:32:17.580 Test it out starting next Monday and see how much more I get done?

00:32:20.880 Um, okay, fine.

00:32:23.140 But it's just a test.

00:32:24.160 I have a meeting in five and have to run, but let's talk soon.

00:32:26.680 Great.

00:32:27.240 Thanks for the time.

00:32:28.260 I'll keep you posted on it all.

00:32:29.940 I'm sure you'll be pleasantly surprised.

00:32:31.920 Thumbs up.

00:32:32.680 Yay. 0.99

00:32:33.300 I fucking nailed it, Peter. 0.98

00:32:35.020 I just want some acknowledgement of how good my line readings were. 0.99

00:32:37.640 No, you did great.

00:32:38.420 That was classic Sherwood.

00:32:40.020 is there like a lower form of like argument than just writing fake dialogue yeah yeah yeah

00:32:48.100 this is how it'll go like tim have you ever had a boss you know yeah like even in 2007 the idea

00:32:54.900 that you just be like can i not come in monday and tuesday and i promise i'll be working and

00:32:59.300 your boss would be like absolutely yeah they're not going to impose like arbitrary rules on you

00:33:03.400 this is work like come on man i also love that he's like promising to like do more work

00:33:09.700 and be more productive, which just sounds like to prove that you're productive, you're going to be

00:33:15.420 like constantly on the hustle. Right. But then the whole point of this framework is to slack off and

00:33:20.380 do less work. Well, one thing that he makes it clear that like if you go nuts during a trial

00:33:26.960 session, that'll buy you a lot of leeway to slack off later. Yeah. Then, OK, you set it up and then

00:33:32.920 once he's used to it, then you hit him with the four hours a week. Right. All right. I already

00:33:37.760 did something last week. Sherwood, who, by the way, I believe is just a fictional character he's

00:33:42.700 using to illustrate his points, proceeds to go to work from Oktoberfest in Munich. And it's like,

00:33:49.560 how long do you think a manager is going to let you work from impromptu vacations before you're

00:33:55.420 fired? You know, it is very funny how he's like toggling back and forth between perspectives.

00:34:01.200 Like in this section, he's speaking as an employee. And he's like, here's how to trick

00:34:05.580 your boss into giving you leeway but then it sounds like in the rest of the book he's speaking

00:34:11.640 as an employer yeah and he's like here's how to impose controls on your employees so they don't

00:34:17.860 take any leeway yeah right right right like i i want him to run the dialogue again but instead

00:34:24.120 of sherwood it's asha like do you do you let her to a trial period tim i actually don't really

00:34:30.300 understand this portion of the book and it feels like someone was just like can you put in something

00:34:36.320 for regular office workers yeah because the next section is when he sort of says you know i realize

00:34:43.380 this isn't really realistic for most people but that's okay because you can just quit and also

00:34:50.340 getting fired is not actually a very big deal if you've done what i've suggested so far and started

00:34:57.460 a fraudulent business. Yeah, just fall back on your supplement money, which you have.

00:35:01.400 So here is his bit about getting fired. He says, if you jump ship or get fired,

00:35:09.460 it isn't hard to eliminate most expenses temporarily and live on savings for a brief

00:35:13.780 period. From renting out your home to refinancing or selling it, there are options. There are always

00:35:19.340 options. If you have supplement millions, it might be emotionally difficult, but you won't starve.

00:35:25.160 Park your car in the garage and cancel insurance for a few months.

00:35:28.860 Carpool or take the bus until you find the next gig.

00:35:31.760 Rack up some more credit card debt and cook instead of eating out. 0.97

00:35:35.040 Sell all the crap that you spent hundreds or thousands on and never use.

00:35:38.820 Okay, so we're back to like stop eating avocado toast. 1.00

00:35:41.800 Look, just stop going out to fancy meals.

00:35:45.640 Also cancel your health insurance, second mortgage.

00:35:49.900 Go into severe credit card debt, guys.

00:35:52.240 It's not that hard.

00:35:53.940 rent out the home that you own instead of sailing on your yacht lease it so most of the rest of this 0.99

00:36:02.260 book is dedicated to advice about how to do cool shit with your newfound free time oh fuck yes okay 0.97

00:36:08.360 centers around what he calls mini retirements okay he says that people have retirement backwards 0.98

00:36:14.700 you should be looking for income that can fund adventures now rather than delaying it all until

00:36:21.400 retirement oh he says retirement quote should be viewed as nothing more than a hedge against the

00:36:28.080 absolute worst case scenario in this case becoming physically incapable of working and needing a

00:36:34.920 reservoir of capital to survive yeah he goes on like a long trip to spain and then he's like

00:36:39.920 why not take the usual 20 to 30 year retirement and redistribute it throughout life instead of

00:36:46.760 saving it all for the end god nothing is more annoying than someone who just came back from

00:36:50.480 spain the thing is that what he describes as the absolute worst case scenario of being physically

00:36:59.980 unable to work is sort of just an inevitability for many people yeah and it's it's weird to be

00:37:06.580 like well let's take the money away from that and put it towards vacations now right what he

00:37:13.860 actually means is like make a million dollars a year and then you'll have enough to survive

00:37:18.640 retirement when you're old anyway yeah he's trying to hedge by saying well look definitely

00:37:24.520 save for retirement in case something unexpected happens but also take your retirement in little

00:37:29.640 chunks now but what that basically amounts to is just like save for retirement and go on a bunch

00:37:36.080 of vacations now which is sort of already what everybody wants to do like the reason why people

00:37:41.420 don't go on vacations now isn't because they don't know that that would be awesome

00:37:45.460 he says that you should occasionally just relocate to somewhere you want to visit for

00:37:50.900 one to six months and that's what he considers a mini retirement okay even if you have his

00:37:56.420 fraud scheme working in the background right it's certainly you hear that and you're like

00:38:02.700 how is this feasible for most people right the first concern is obviously money yeah and he says

00:38:09.680 you can actually make this affordable okay so he lists out his costs from his extended stays

00:38:17.420 in buenos aires and berlin and i'm going to send you the pages from the book okay i thought it

00:38:23.220 might be something uh mike hobs would have insight into because you lived in berlin yes so i'm going

00:38:29.460 to send you his monthly expenses for uh these trips okay so he's got a list of categories

00:38:36.620 so airfare free courtesy of amex gold card enormous apartment in the trendy soho like

00:38:44.500 prinz lauerberg district of berlin including phone and energy 300 us per month and then

00:38:51.240 meals he just says berlin 18 he says four or five star restaurant meals twice daily

00:39:00.300 yeah buenos aires ten dollars in berlin no 18 that's like three shawarmas a day i also don't

00:39:06.120 understand like two four or five star restaurant meals a day like what's the price of the treatment

00:39:12.880 for gout because that's what's going to happen but then i will sort of defend and attack him

00:39:21.340 here i feel like yeah he's fudging the numbers like these numbers are small but then on some

00:39:27.400 level the numbers don't super duper matter because like yeah could you get an apartment

00:39:31.720 in Prinzlauer Berg for 300 euros in 2007?

00:39:35.340 Probably not, but it was significantly cheaper

00:39:38.280 to live in Berlin back then

00:39:40.080 than it was in a lot of other global cities,

00:39:41.920 kind of like surprisingly cheap.

00:39:43.460 I'm sort of willing to forgive him

00:39:45.240 on like the specifics of the numbers.

00:39:47.460 But on the other hand, all he's really saying here

00:39:50.860 is that like some cities in the world

00:39:52.980 are cheaper than other cities.

00:39:54.940 And remember that earlier he said, quote,

00:39:56.580 this has nothing to do with currency rates.

00:39:58.760 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:39:59.940 This is also an area of the book

00:40:01.480 where his practical advice starts to flounder out and he has like an insert about saving on airfare

00:40:06.620 and his advice is just to use like kayak.com and break very far in advance and it's like okay

00:40:12.600 um he goes on to list education costs which are like um language lessons and then private tango

00:40:21.060 lessons uh which are quite expensive he starts off this book with an anecdote about being in a

00:40:29.220 high profile tango competition okay he's like just one year ago i had no experience but here i was

00:40:35.640 and here's and here's how i did it and it was so stupid that i was like i was like i'm not going

00:40:39.580 to include this it's too mean to read out the whole book oh and then in like berlin he's taking

00:40:45.760 mma training yeah um which i have to say he was ahead of the game here this is like 2006 2007

00:40:52.800 presumably. MMA is something that tech assholes are into now. He totals up his monthly costs as 0.96

00:41:01.200 $1,500 a month in Buenos Aires, nearly a third of which is the advanced tango lessons, and just

00:41:07.740 under $1,200 in Berlin. And then he says, how do these numbers compare to your current domestic

00:41:13.600 monthly expenses, including rent, car insurance, utilities, weekend expenditures, partying,

00:41:18.320 public transportation gas memberships subscriptions food and all the rest add it all up and you may

00:41:24.800 well realize like i did that traveling around the world and having the time of your life can save

00:41:29.680 you serious money so a few things that i wanted to say about that one you probably have a lot of

00:41:38.600 those domestic expenses while you're yeah yeah right presumably you're keeping your apartment

00:41:43.620 somewhere so you can when you go back to the states you're not living in a rented place right

00:41:47.160 Or if like if you have a house, you're paying your mortgage.

00:41:49.460 Yeah.

00:41:49.660 Not to mention that a lot of these expenses are stuff that he does not add into his Berlin

00:41:55.760 and Argentina expenses.

00:41:58.100 Right.

00:41:58.280 The other thing that came to my mind when I was thinking about his mini retirement scheme

00:42:02.240 is like, OK, what if you have children?

00:42:04.960 Yeah.

00:42:05.300 And he seems to be loosely aware that people are concerned about this.

00:42:09.060 And so I'm going to send you his attempt to lay the concerns of parents to rest.

00:42:16.860 He says the prime fear of all parents prior to their first international trip is somehow losing a child in the shuffle.

00:42:24.220 The good news is that if you're comfortable taking your kids to New York, San Francisco, Washington, D.C. or London, you'll have even less to worry about in the starting cities I recommended.

00:42:33.300 There are fewer guns and violent crimes in all of them compared to most large U.S. cities.

00:42:38.760 Oh, so it's like your kids aren't going to die.

00:42:40.980 right so he seems to think that the primary concern of parents is like that your kid might

00:42:45.940 get lost or kidnapped or shot or something yeah and it's like bro i don't even have a kid but i

00:42:52.920 know that what every parent is thinking when hearing this scheme is my kid has to go to school

00:42:58.860 yeah yeah yeah not like oh what if they get taken you know this is like how everyone says that when

00:43:05.800 we were kids we were worried about quicksand yeah it's like a child's idea of what a parent

00:43:09.780 would be worried about he's like now i know what you're gonna say what about parents but i do

00:43:15.340 address it in the book actually i've got you covered yeah i feel like okay this is like coming

00:43:20.380 into focus for me now like he's writing this as if it's advice but what it basically is is just 0.98

00:43:26.480 like a look how awesome my life is book if you're this guy your life rocks you're fucking rich you 0.74

00:43:33.800 don't have any like deep ties to any particular place you can like jet around the world and write 0.95

00:43:39.220 some emails and the money keeps coming in and you're like kind of sort of running this scammy

00:43:43.900 company but you don't really need to do that much like yeah it seems like you just wanted to write

00:43:47.560 a book about how awesome your life is but you're not like kind of capable of doing that as a form

00:43:53.160 of public reason of like hey everybody look how great my shit is but like you are allowed to act 0.83

00:43:59.000 as if your awesome life is in some way replicable right and it just isn't so you just you're just 0.87

00:44:04.140 telling me how awesome your life is and pretending that the reason other people don't do this is

00:44:09.580 because like they don't know some secret right and i i think you're right that he's just sort

00:44:14.240 of bragging and the main reason i think you're right is because in his next book there's a 0.96

00:44:19.700 digression about how he's like an expert at giving women orgasms oh wait seriously oh my god 0.92

00:44:25.760 oh my god oh my god yeah it's like yeah uh my next book uh the the four hour nut uh 0.93

00:44:33.120 all of these guys eventually just become like dating gurus don't they there's like a weird

00:44:44.180 it's like animals evolving into crabs one of his last chapters is about how like once you've freed

00:44:49.460 up all of your time to do what you want you might find yourself searching for meaning in life oh

00:44:55.380 and he calls the chapter filling the void oh my god which i mentioned because tim ferris now has

00:45:02.160 talked openly about how he's had like bouts of depression and struggled with mental health and

00:45:06.360 stuff but that he didn't recognize it at the time he wrote this book oh that's so interesting you

00:45:11.600 see it like peek through with like the title of the chapter where he's like okay you freed up your

00:45:15.820 time now you're going to hear the abyss calling yeah you're gonna wonder what to do about it and

00:45:20.500 it's like oh tim you've got to do the therapy bro let's circle back to the therapy this is the

00:45:25.260 I need therapy advice book. Holy shit. That's, that's honestly the first interesting thing 1.00

00:45:31.000 I've heard in this episode. Like a lot of this stuff that he was doing in his twenties was him

00:45:36.680 either chasing something or running away from something, which as somebody who lived abroad

00:45:40.960 for a long time, like you do really see this. It makes sense in general, right? That if you did

00:45:45.260 find yourself with 36 hours of free time a week, you might start thinking about what the point of

00:45:51.400 it all is, right? Like, yeah, there are mental and emotional challenges that come with having

00:45:55.700 the freedom to do what you want. This is why I always listen to podcasts, even if I'm like just

00:45:59.740 brushing my teeth or something, so I don't have to be alone with my thoughts. Never let the

00:46:02.940 thoughts in. Don't do it. There's also a bit where he provides his own view on the meaning of life.

00:46:08.080 He says that, quote, I believe that life exists to be enjoyed and that the most important thing

00:46:12.840 is to feel good about yourself. OK, which is both trite and stupid. But I mostly wanted to include 1.00

00:46:17.460 it because only a 28 year old silicon valley guy would think that he should just throw in his view

00:46:23.380 on the meaning of life yeah i've also got thoughts on the meaning of life fyi now that i've taught

00:46:28.400 you about how to do a fake fraudulent instructional dvd the funny thing is i feel like the actual

00:46:36.080 like low-key advice the book is giving without realizing it is to try to form like meaningful

00:46:42.020 relationships and that chasing money is not gonna make you happy right and this thing of like i'm

00:46:47.740 sitting by an infinity pool is like yeah it's really cool but like that that's not it right

00:46:52.720 yeah you should do as much of this stuff in your 20s as possible i honestly like think 0.60

00:46:57.180 fucking off to other countries and like if you're able to do it is like great and like don't make 0.97

00:47:01.840 excuses fuck off it whips but also like you need to be able to form deeper relationships and like 0.99

00:47:07.460 have something to come home to. Well, that's what you have Asha for. She's sending you 0.99

00:47:12.980 yoga poses. My best friend Asha.

00:47:21.960 God, now I feel so mean about the book because it sounds like he's writing this

00:47:25.900 as a way of like struggling out of some sort of darkness.

00:47:30.140 Don't worry. I got you covered.

00:47:32.060 Make me feel better. Tell me something problematic he said or did.

00:47:34.440 i will not let empathy for tim ferris uh okay grab a hold of you fix me peter so the book's a

00:47:42.200 hit of course right it spawns various spinoffs because they can't resist yeah a couple years

00:47:48.260 later he publishes the four hour body an uncommon guide to rapid fat loss incredible sex and 0.99

00:47:56.660 becoming superhuman it's very funny that he's like in this book he's like just bullshit your 0.81

00:48:01.400 way and make make people think that you're an expert and then his next book dude he's like i'm 0.98

00:48:05.220 an expert it's the scam it's the same scam bro he fucking told you if you read the four hour work 0.85

00:48:13.600 week where he explains the scam that he's running on you and then you see the next book and you buy 0.98

00:48:19.840 that i'm sorry but like you just shouldn't be allowed to be alone it's funny maybe in the first

00:48:26.140 book he deliberately said sell dvds as opposed to sell books to make it like less obvious what he

00:48:32.840 was doing like this is what he's doing i would love it if that was a an editor suggestion tim

00:48:38.380 can you delete books and just put dvds we're scamming people into buying the book tim so

00:48:42.980 anyway yeah you were having empathy for tim ferris and i was like don't worry uh his next book has

00:48:46.760 rapid fat loss in the title did you look at it is it any is it just like whatever do a bunch of

00:48:53.900 sit-ups or some shit uh yeah i so i skimmed this one a little bit he recommends what he calls a

00:48:59.780 slow carb diet oh yeah he claims he interviewed hundreds of experts for the book um which again 0.82

00:49:06.060 is just a component of that same fake expertise scam that he outlined for us um remember his

00:49:12.140 advice was like interview experts read a couple of the best-selling books and then bang you are

00:49:17.280 the fake expert this it's what he's doing as you're walking me through the book i i do actually

00:49:23.520 think that this is like significantly more poisonous than atomic habits for example i mean

00:49:29.020 we said this during the episode but atomic habits is just like a set of tips and it's like

00:49:33.020 the stakes are very low in that book you know i think it's sort of silly and it's emblematic 0.92

00:49:39.000 of a certain type of bullshit but it's nothing like this yeah if someone tried this like your 0.95

00:49:45.540 chance of dying on a boat in the middle of the atlantic is skyrocketing and also it's like it's 0.97

00:49:52.120 not even that the tips in this book are useless it's like many of them are like actively harmful

00:49:57.260 yeah not only to yourself because they're not going to work but also to society you're just 0.96

00:50:00.900 like oh telling lies about shit and becoming yet another fucking wellness guru and then also 0.99

00:50:05.860 the epilogue is that like none of this made him happy right right so right the fact that right 0.99

00:50:13.260 now he's like in the last couple years he's like sort of re-envisioning how he conceives of his 0.89

00:50:18.720 life just goes to show how hollow this shit is yeah exactly like what i've dedicated my whole 0.99

00:50:22.980 career to and like the way that i made my millions is basically just like bullshit he also publishes 0.99

00:50:27.780 the four-hour chef the simple path to cooking like a pro learning anything and living the good life

00:50:33.800 um couldn't even skim this one i have to be honest um he's obviously building around the

00:50:39.380 four-hour brand but it's also funny because you can see the allure of it decreasing like

00:50:44.780 four hour work week incredible 90 reduction in my work hours right four hour body and it's like

00:50:52.440 okay that's we're talking about working out four times a week for an hour that's just sort of like

00:50:57.340 a standard recommended exercise regimen and then it's like four hours chef and it's like that's

00:51:02.980 kind of a lot of cooking tim i don't also wasn't he an early pioneer of podcasting this is like

00:51:09.120 mostly how i know him is that his podcast was like wildly successful his podcast was very very

00:51:14.440 successful um he's also like um the book made him a hit in silicon valley and so like his company

00:51:22.460 gets bought by a private equity firm in 2010 he's sitting on a small fortune and becomes a

00:51:31.340 seed investor and has like struck it huge with various massive companies he's now extraordinarily

00:51:38.860 extraordinarily wealthy and all of it sort of underscores even he was not doing this right

00:51:45.540 right he's just working 70 hour weeks writing books and doing ted talks yeah and taking meetings 0.88

00:51:51.000 with silicon valley assholes and what he would say to that is like well look the whole point 0.82

00:51:56.020 is not necessarily that you only work four hours it's that you do whatever you want and you don't 0.96

00:52:00.420 need to work right right but if the idea is like you should be pursuing what makes you happy and

00:52:06.740 like what makes him happy is just working in the same exact way that he worked before right then

00:52:11.940 perhaps he wasn't actually pursuing what made him happy and i think i think that his change of heart

00:52:17.440 over the last few years sort of bears this out like he says now that he's less focused on material

00:52:22.340 success and productivity and is more focused on psychological well-being and he's gotten very 0.58

00:52:29.140 into psychedelics and meditation and spiritual retreats and shit like that the full silicon 0.97

00:52:36.380 valley dipshit life cycle right like how every like every time you look at jack dorsey he looks 0.98

00:52:43.240 like he's living deeper in a sewer but then it's not even like the silicon valley life cycle it's

00:52:47.860 just like the aging life cycle like as you become older you start to think about like what is

00:52:52.420 meaningful to me in my life and what do i want to leave behind which is totally fine i don't think

00:52:56.820 it's just that i think what makes it particularly silicon valley is that at every stage you are

00:53:00.900 incredibly confident that you have found yeah exactly this is the thing is that you're immediately

00:53:05.580 selling back like these little epiphanies that you had like 15 minutes ago right you're like hey

00:53:10.840 traveling is really great when you're in your 20s i'm gonna write a book about how everybody should

00:53:13.960 go travel and it's like i found out in my 40s that meditating is really cool i'm gonna book

00:53:18.380 about how meditating will save you meditation and spiritual retreats are changing my life and it's

00:53:23.060 like bro you're having a midlife crisis yeah it's fine like you're in your 40s yeah you've attained

00:53:27.760 what you've defined as success and it hasn't made you happy right and like yeah that's a lot of

00:53:32.140 people when they're in their 40s man yeah and a lot of other people don't get to like nope out

00:53:37.460 of the structures that they're in and just like take a break and go do ayahuasca in arizona not 0.98

00:53:43.760 everybody gets to do that but you're just again repackaging this shit as like no no i've got it 0.95

00:53:48.620 figured out you know not to brag but i was doing shrooms when i was 22 okay so i'm ahead of the 0.96

00:53:55.060 game and also i had like a black abyss in my heart when i was like 17 yeah tim join me that's right

00:54:01.480 some of us knew that it didn't mean anything you rented the dark i was born in it in 10 years he's

00:54:07.600 gonna like in 20 years he's gonna be writing a book about like the joy of grandkids or some

00:54:11.820 100 prostate health with tim it's very interesting how this book starts versus how it finishes

00:54:17.940 because like it starts off fairly relatable it's a common experience to feel like you're doing okay

00:54:23.300 doing what you're supposed to be doing but you're just working a lot and sort of looking around and 0.61

00:54:28.340 wondering like is this the rest of my fucking life yeah maybe the existence of this book 0.87

00:54:32.540 speaks to how beaten down the spirit of the american worker is because like this is a 0.98

00:54:38.940 structural problem yeah right like the problem that he sees but can't really identify is probably

00:54:46.220 that america is the only industrialized country on earth without mandatory paid vacation for workers

00:54:51.740 right yeah how bleak is it that to americans structural change is so unthinkable that 0.98

00:54:59.320 timothy ferris thought it would be simpler to employ a small army of third world wage slaves

00:55:04.780 in order to like loosely replicate what people in spain get as a matter of legal right and he's

00:55:11.020 like all you have to do to avoid all these like structural disadvantages of working in the united

00:55:16.000 states it's just like be fabulously wealthy it's like yeah great be the one percent awesome try to

00:55:21.280 step atop the structure yeah of uh of oppression using fraud to employ people so that you can

00:55:29.260 do more fraud and then travel the sequel to this is going to be called the 80 hour work week by asha

00:55:46.000 you

00:56:16.000 You

If Books Could Kill - September 21, 2023

The 4-Hour Workweek

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