The 4-hour work week

[archerships]

What would you do if you could pay for your lifestyle on less than 4 hours per week? Such is the promise of Tim Ferris's book, The 4-Hour Work Week. The book isn't out yet, but he gave a presentation at the SXSW (South by Southwest) conference. You can download an mp3 of his presentation here, and read a written summary here. I'm listening to the mp3 now. The most interesting thing so far is the extent to which he's outsourced many mundane tasks. For example, he says he has hired a team of Indian MBA's for $5/hour/person.

Comments

[istar.livejournal.com]

I'm listening to the mp3 now, but Ugh! If this entire concept depends on foisting work off on low-paid talent in developing countries, it's not going to hold up over time.

One of my friends in Portland does a low-impact work week (consulting) to launch his career in comics. I really admire that. My impression is that it requires a lot of frugality and a huge amount of time/work developing the comics career, though.

[crasch.livejournal.com]

You say foisting as if it's a bad thing. :> The key idea is that you focus on work that's your comparative advantage. Everything else you should outsource when the cost of doing so is less than the cost of doing it yourself. Currently, Indian MBA's are the least cost providers, but the principle would hold true even if the price of Indian MBA's became prohibitively expensive.

[drsaddam.livejournal.com]

Hi, sounds fascinating! Where is his written summary? Your link is blank.

[crasch.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Link should be fixed now.

[drsaddam.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I posted in detail about Tim here. Have you seen his blog? Amazing. He even danced tango on "Live with Regis and Kelly" to set a Guiness World Record.

http://drsaddam.livejournal.com/359837.html

[deftly.livejournal.com]

How to make money with very little work:

Write and sell a book on how to make money with very little work.

Re: The 4-Hour Work Week, a great book!

[crasch.livejournal.com]

Hey Samatha,

Your comment reads like a spamvertisement. And your user info does nothing to alleviate that suspicion--you have no friends, no interests, and your account was created yesterday. Are you being paid to make comments?

Re: The 4-Hour Work Week, a great book!

[samantha-816.livejournal.com]

No, I'm not paid for this.

Re: The 4-Hour Work Week, a great book!

[crasch.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Even so, I'm going to delete your comment. I detest spammers, and I'm not persuaded that you are not connected in some way to Tim, and are spamming comments on his behalf. However, I'm not going to ban you. If you want to make the comment again, with more information about why I should believe you're not a spammer, you can do so.

Re: The 4-Hour Work Week, a great book!

[samantha-816.livejournal.com]

Ok, no problem for me. I will respect your decision.:-)