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I recently discovered Tim with his podcast. While I usually like the podcast, I'm curious, what are the arguments against Tim? What opinions do you strongly dis

by BenderV 10y ago

I recently discovered Tim with his podcast. While I usually like the podcast, I'm curious, what are the arguments against Tim? What opinions do you strongly disagree with him? I'm also looking for others thinkers that have usually different opinions with him.

rmason 10y ago
While I am most decidedly not a fan of his books the podcasts are excellent. In the last two weeks he's had Mark Andreessen and Kevin Kelly and for me that is as good as it gets. I'd also recommend checking out the Naval Ravikant one which has become almost legendary.
CuriouslyC 10y ago
One thing that I dislike about Tim is that he claims to be very accomplished. If you look at most of his accomplishments, he basically is exploiting a flaw in the rules to achieve a very narrow definition of "success." For example, his "kickboxing world championship" was actually a small san-shou (a fairly low popularity Chinese version of kickboxing) federation's "championship". In addition, the way he won was by clinching with his opponents and pushing them out of the designated combat area; basically, exploiting the letter of the rules. This was facilitated by the fact that competitors weren't very athletic, and didn't typically cut weight for competition, so by aggressively cutting weight he was able to come in 15-20lbs heavier than his opponents. Additionally, he claims to have gone from a 300lb deadlift to being able to deadlift 650lbs in an incredibly short period. Buried away in the notes he mentions that this 650lb deadlift is actually done in a smith machine, with the weight starting just above his knees - so missing the hardest three fifths or so of the movement. Don't get me wrong, some of Tim's accelerated learning techniques are legit, but in general he is more interested in doing something that he can brag about at cocktail parties than legitimately mastering things.
- 55555 10y ago
  I was going to defend him by pointing out that he holds a world record in Tango, but then I watched the video and now I realize he basically just paid $10,000 for an honorable title. But then I remembered that he competed in the Tango world championships, but then I watched _that_ video and it's equally unimpressive. It's like competing in the world series of poker... I like the guy, but he's a hell of a marketer.
  - daveguy 10y ago
    Was he the guy who made a video titled "impossible is nothing" or something like that?
yosyp 10y ago
Tim is becoming more like the Robert Kiyosaki of the startup/techie crowd, rather than a store of knowledge about strange and obscure ways scoured from unconventional or overlooked sources like in the early days of the four hour work week His early audience was attracted to his deep research into geeky things and hacking his way into things, but that has been heavily watered down as he expanded into writing multiple books [1], a mailing list, a TV series, a podcast, ... the list goes on. Although given his growing audience I wouldn't blame him for this. Another criticism is that Tim is by far not a primary or even secondary source for any of the things talks about religiously. He often touts books that fail to cite sources themselves, which just snowballs into misinformation. And this isn't about highly opinionated issues, it's usually about well studied regiments like weight lifting, nootropics, sleep, and memory. Why keep relying on Tim if I can go to bodybuilding.com, longecity, or bluelight and read cited reports firsthand? [1] There was also added controversy to his character with speculation that Tim heavily relied on ghost writers, and even "hacked" his way to Best-Sellers lists [2] [2] http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887323864304578316143623600544 http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB100014241278873238643045783161...

by BenderV 10y ago

rmason 10y ago

While I am most decidedly not a fan of his books the podcasts are excellent. In the last two weeks he's had Mark Andreessen and Kevin Kelly and for me that is as good as it gets. I'd also recommend checking out the Naval Ravikant one which has become almost legendary.

CuriouslyC 10y ago

One thing that I dislike about Tim is that he claims to be very accomplished. If you look at most of his accomplishments, he basically is exploiting a flaw in the rules to achieve a very narrow definition of "success." For example, his "kickboxing world championship" was actually a small san-shou (a fairly low popularity Chinese version of kickboxing) federation's "championship". In addition, the way he won was by clinching with his opponents and pushing them out of the designated combat area; basically, exploiting the letter of the rules. This was facilitated by the fact that competitors weren't very athletic, and didn't typically cut weight for competition, so by aggressively cutting weight he was able to come in 15-20lbs heavier than his opponents. Additionally, he claims to have gone from a 300lb deadlift to being able to deadlift 650lbs in an incredibly short period. Buried away in the notes he mentions that this 650lb deadlift is actually done in a smith machine, with the weight starting just above his knees - so missing the hardest three fifths or so of the movement. Don't get me wrong, some of Tim's accelerated learning techniques are legit, but in general he is more interested in doing something that he can brag about at cocktail parties than legitimately mastering things.

55555 10y ago
I was going to defend him by pointing out that he holds a world record in Tango, but then I watched the video and now I realize he basically just paid $10,000 for an honorable title. But then I remembered that he competed in the Tango world championships, but then I watched _that_ video and it's equally unimpressive. It's like competing in the world series of poker... I like the guy, but he's a hell of a marketer.
- daveguy 10y ago
  Was he the guy who made a video titled "impossible is nothing" or something like that?

yosyp 10y ago

Tim is becoming more like the Robert Kiyosaki of the startup/techie crowd, rather than a store of knowledge about strange and obscure ways scoured from unconventional or overlooked sources like in the early days of the four hour work week His early audience was attracted to his deep research into geeky things and hacking his way into things, but that has been heavily watered down as he expanded into writing multiple books [1], a mailing list, a TV series, a podcast, ... the list goes on. Although given his growing audience I wouldn't blame him for this. Another criticism is that Tim is by far not a primary or even secondary source for any of the things talks about religiously. He often touts books that fail to cite sources themselves, which just snowballs into misinformation. And this isn't about highly opinionated issues, it's usually about well studied regiments like weight lifting, nootropics, sleep, and memory. Why keep relying on Tim if I can go to bodybuilding.com, longecity, or bluelight and read cited reports firsthand? [1] There was also added controversy to his character with speculation that Tim heavily relied on ghost writers, and even "hacked" his way to Best-Sellers lists [2] [2] http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887323864304578316143623600544 http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB100014241278873238643045783161...