Nobody needs this book.



Barbara (USA: OR) (2009/08/24):
Author Tim Ferriss makes SOME good points in this book, but I had such a visceral negative reaction to his whole attitude that it is difficult for me to evaluate the content objectively. His brash, egotistic, in-your-face, know-it-all personality gets in the way of his message.

Plus, he comes across as being quite amoral. For instance, he admits he won a kickboxing championship by dehydrating 'til he lost enough weight to be placed in a lighter class of fighters, then rehydrated enough to greatly outweigh his opponents. "Poor little guys," is his self-satisfied conclusion.

Is this the person I want to take life or business lessons from?

I also have to question his advice that we can outsource work by hiring third-world workers to do our jobs for us, and then charge our clients big bucks for "our" work. His chapter on "outsourcing life" actually points to Howard Hughes for examples!

Finally, his idea of great vacations is to spend time on "adventures" in countries where the dollar stretches further seems unrealistic to me. Maybe he knows a lot of people yearning to -- as he put it -- live like a rock star -- in a penthouse apartment in Buenos Aires, but most of us seek a more meaningful existence.

The book is splattered with the kind of self-congratulatory "wit" (e.g.: "walking on my legs and keeping my thong on the inside have worked just fine thus far...") that makes the author come across as a spoiled, self-centered and obnoxious 30-something who has a lot of growing up to do.