The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss

The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss is a thought provoking book and useful although not as great as its title suggests.  This book is a tutorial on how to escape the rat race of modern life.  The plan it lays out is as follows: first become more efficient in everything you do gaining spare time to generate an alternative stream of income.  Next you withdraw from your daily job and either replace it with your alternate income stream or do it remotely.  You are then free to pursue your passion in life.

The main problem I had was with the the streamlining of your main job.  I could do it for a short period of time, but I couldn’t keep it up over the long haul.  I also found that when I added additional activities to my life I became too distracted to do as well as I needed at my job.  I think I could do this once I finish school, but I don’t think it is practical until then.

Several of Tim Ferriss’s ideas seems to be invented for people with much more mental acuity or independent mindedness than myself.  I found that I didn’t really have the inspiration or capability to follow through with some of the tasks.

For me the book was useful for two reasons.  The first is inspiration.  It showed me what is possible.  I saw that I could make some of these plans work, but I will just have to move more slowly and downscale my expectations.  Second, it taught a process which I will be able to do in the future (hopefully).  I can plan to put myself in a situation where I will be able to accomplish something like this.