Is Tim Ferriss a Scam Artist?

Tim Ferriss is a very interesting guy. My first reaction to his book, The 4-Hour Workweek, was one of skepticism. But I read it, and I liked it.

First of all, I could do a short bio on Tim, but you would be better looking up his bio on Wikipedia here.

Second of all, you can get the flavor of the Ferriss Experience here.

So, let's get to the point. Is Tim Ferriss full of shit?

The answer to that question depends on what bit of Ferriss wisdom you are talking about. I think the first issue to deal with is the four hour thing. Is it possible to only work four hours a week? My answer to that is no.

To get out of "work" which Tim defines as the things you would rather not do, Tim tells you to delegate. The way he does this is to outsource stuff to overseas where the dollar buys more. Unfortunately, the dollar will grow steadily weaker as a result of government tomfuckery and this recession. My advice would be to determine your hourly worth and see if you can pay someone to do it cheaper than you could do it. A rich CEO would quickly see that a good housekeeper and a driver are actually moneymakers. You would hate to lose billions because you were cleaning your own toilet.

If you're broke, the best you can do is pay some kids to wash your car and mow your lawn. The difference between Ferriss and me is that he thinks it is ok to delegate work for the sake of play while I think lesser tasks should be delegated in order to accomplish bigger tasks.

Does Ferriss actually work four hours a week? I don't think so anymore than Jimmy Buffett lives in Margaritaville. Buffett works pretty damn hard, and I think Tim Ferriss does, too. But it isn't work if you enjoy it. The most impressive feat of both men is that they also pursue their leisure pursuits with almost the same amount of dedication as their professional pursuits, and that is a revolutionary idea. Is this possible? I think so.

The only person who can live the Tim Ferriss lifestyle is Tim Ferriss, but the value of his book and blog comes from his zany way of looking at problems and all the ideas you get from his lifestyle experiments. He is a lifehacker extraordinaire.

Another one of Tim's bold ideas is the "mini-retirement." This is basically a sabbatical or extended vacation. Tim's brilliance was in giving it a different name. Essentially, the problem with retirement is that it is wasted on the old. You should not postpone the things you want to do with your life until the end of your life. Let's face it. If you had raided your 401(k) two years ago, the money you blew would probably be less than what you lost in the meltdown. In addition, if you wait until you have all your shit straight before you can enjoy your life, your life will probably be over before you ever get to enjoy it.

There you have it. Two blows against the Puritan work ethic--leisure and immediate gratification. This is why Ferriss sounds like he is full of shit. We are so ingrained with the hard work mantra that we are unable to contemplate that there may be some other way of living. You can see how this would be appealing to some overworked Silicon Valley types.

My own advice is the one I've been giving for sometime now which I stole from Aristotle. Virtue is the mean between deficiency and excess. I think it is OK to work hard, but I think it is also OK to have some fun as well. I don't share Tim's assault on work, but I don't deny his leisure lifestyle either. In this respect, Tim is not unlike Jimmy Buffett or Yvon Chouinard who seem to blend work and leisure.

Instead of shirking work, I think people should learn to enjoy it more, so that it is more like play. Conversely, I am warming to the idea that maybe we should take our leisure as seriously as we take our work.

Tim has all kinds of other neat shit in his writings, but I think the Gentle Reader is still asking me at this point the question that started all of this. Is Tim Ferriss a scam artist? All I can say is that he hasn't ripped me off yet.

UPDATE: Tim Ferriss Revisited

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