5 ms·

Andrew, I think mixergy is one of the coolest things on the web. You've done great work bringing so much content to inspire us. So I'm surprised and a little

by edw519 16y ago

Andrew, I think mixergy is one of the coolest things on the web. You've done great work bringing so much content to inspire us. So I'm surprised and a little disappointed to see you interview the likes of Tim Ferriss. Don't get me wrong; I understand that you're a journalist and want to keep an open mind. No question about the popularity of this person and his subject. I just don't think that he or his message are very inspiring. While most of us here work hard building stuff for the benefit of others, this guy just hacks the system for personal benefit. Whether it's gaming the rules to win a martial arts contest, front loading phony book reviews, or making outrageous claims that spawn counterproductive behavior, I really don't want to know about it; I've read enough. The world already has enough hustlers, charletons, and posers. I'd rather see you spend your time continuing to bring us the real inspiration the has given mixergy such a great track record. Just my .02. [EDIT: Just a quick follow-up to those who have disagreed. I don't hate Tim Ferriss. I don't accuse him of lying or deceiving. And I don't question whether or not his methods are effective. (Spam is effective, something else I would never do.) When I read his last book, I was totally turned off when he claimed winning a martial arts contest by finding a loophole in the rules and shoving his opponent out of bounds. I have never done anything like that and have no intention of learning anything similar. There's so much inspiring stuff to read here and in books that I see no need to follow up on something I've already ruled out. I was just a little surprised to see Tim Ferriss and mixergy in the same post. That's all.]

poppysan 16y ago
Ive seen a few "Marketers" and such on Mixergy that I don't exactly trust their methods, but it does fit with the goal and purpose of the show.
FluidDjango 16y ago
I appreciate my life choices for not having such a fellow on my radar (spelling is Ferriss - I discover by searching on Amz). Yet I wonder how I could have become so cynical as to doubt the "socially redeeming value" of an ~author~ who gets a book published by including claims such as: > YOU WILL LEARN (in less than 30 minutes each): > How to lose those last 5-10 pounds (or 100+ pounds) with odd combinations of food and safe chemical cocktails. > * How to prevent fat gain while bingeing (X-mas, holidays, weekends) > * How to increase fat-loss 300% with a few bags of ice > * How Tim gained 34 pounds of muscle in 28 days, without steroids, and in four hours of total gym time > * How to sleep 2 hours per day and feel fully rested > * How to produce 15-minute female orgasms > * How to triple testosterone and double sperm count > * How to go from running 5 kilometers to 50 kilometers in 12 weeks > * How to reverse “permanent” injuries > * How to add 150+ pounds to your lifts in 6 months > * How to pay for a beach vacation with one hospital visit
- ArcticCelt 16y ago
  Ok, I though you were satirizing his content. I just want to confirm to other readers that the list of points you mentioned are verbatim from his web site.
  - callmeed 16y ago
    Yes, see: http://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Body-Uncommon-Incredible-Superhuman/dp/030746363X/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top http://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Body-Uncommon-Incredible-Superh...
- Bostwick 16y ago
  I'm apprehensive about Tim Ferriss. I've read 4HWW, and found it to have some good advice, as well a a significant amount of fluff. The announcement of "The 4-Hour Body", with lists like this on the book, have only increased my skepticism and apprehension. I enjoy fitness. I've worked out four to five days a week for the past seven years, first at a climbing gym, and then with Crossfit. I've competed in fitness competitions. I've know a number of well-respected high-level Crossfitters. I would call myself, at the very least, a fitness enthusiast. I think some of these claims are at best, laughable, and, at worst, will give false hope to people who might truly be interested in fitness. Fitness is hard work! > * How Tim gained 34 pounds of muscle in 28 days, without steroids, and in four hours of total gym time Muscle memory will allow people to gain significant amounts of muscle in short periods of time, if that muscle has been trained before. It's why athletes who take rest periods or have injuries are able to come back just as strong in only a few weeks. It's the source of many of the before/after pictures for "health foods" and supplements. If you're actually interested in gaining muscle and weight, the easiest way is to eat tons of food and do heavy, compound exercises three to four times a week. > * How to sleep 2 hours per day and feel fully rested http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleep http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleep Anecdotally, a friend of mine ended up in the emergency room for severe dehydration after trying the Uberman's Sleep Cycle for three weeks. > * How to triple testosterone and double sperm count I imagine he's be talking about various supplements here. Supplement science is sketchy, and should always be taken with a grain of salt. The best way to take supplements is to not take them, but rather, eat more fruits and vegetables. > * How to go from running 5 kilometers to 50 kilometers in 12 weeks Pretty simple, actually. There are progressive running plans in almost any running book. Also, the difference between five and 50 km, at least to your muscles, is much less than the difference between 400M and 5K. It's just training your aerobic system and converting more of your muscle tissue to slow-twitch muscle fibers. > * How to reverse “permanent” injuries Eat right and exercise correctly. If you read the forums for crossfit, or stronglifts, or a number of other fitness websites, or diet websites, you'll see people who miraculously cure their bad back, bad knees or diabetes, just by eating right and exercising correctly. > * How to add 150+ pounds to your lifts in 6 months This is almost guaranteed to happen when someone goes from an untrained state to the beginning of a trained state. It has to do with muscles learning to be used, rather than significant strength gains. When I started Crossfit three years ago, I could barely deadlift 135#. Three years later, my last 1RM deadlift was 455#. Going from 135# to 300# was _so_ much easier and faster than going from 300# to 455#, because my body had always been able to do it, it just didn't know it.
WillyF 16y ago
I realize that there is a lot of hate directed towards Tim Ferriss and his tactics, but you can learn a ton from him. Even if you ignore everything that he says and writes, just watching him in action will make you a better entrepreneur. I haven't watched/listened to the interview yet, but it seems like Tim is a great fit for Mixergy.
- MikeCapone 16y ago
  I have up-voted both you and the parent, because while you both have opposite points of view (more or less), I fall somewhere in the middle. My favorite thing about Tim Ferriss are the video podcasts that he does with Kevin Rose. They're posted on his blog ("Random episode X"), and they're usually pretty interesting (the one they did when traveling around China comes to mind), though not mind blowing. As for the rest, I try to be inspired by his energy at trying new things and being methodical about learning, but I don't really follow him on most of the specifics of what he does.
- hugh3 16y ago
  I realize that there is a lot of hate directed towards Tim Ferriss and his tactics, but you can learn a ton from him. Even if you ignore everything that he says and writes, just watching him in action will make you a better entrepreneur. I find that the best way to deal with self-promoting people is to ignore them. I have a limited amount of attention and brain space, and I really don't have time for Tim Ferriss trying to cram himself into every nook and cranny of it. Besides, Tim Ferriss is a cunt. If you try to learn from his example you'll become a cunt too. (Interesting: my spellcheck flags "cunt" as misspelled. How else would you spell it?)
steveklabnik 16y ago
Ed, I respectfully disagree. Tim Ferriss is a hacker. All of those things are _exactly_ the kind of "creative playfulness" that embodies the hacker spirit. I find Tim way more inspiring than "yet another discussion on how $TECHNOLOGY_X is {dead,the hottest thing since sliced bread}." YMMV.
- jonhendry 16y ago
  "Tim Ferriss is a hacker." So are the Chinese dudes who put melamine in the milk and formula they sold, poisoning untold numbers of children while increasing their profits by selling watered-down milk. (The melamine tested as protein, covering up the dilution.) That was a hack. Same with 'hackers' who use shoddy building materials resulting in buildings that collapse. Hackers like that are a dime a dozen. It's not anything I'd want to emulate. And I certainly wouldn't want to hire someone who thought along such lines.
  - steveklabnik 16y ago
    I think that comparing "I _actually_ read the rules to this boxing context" to "poisoning untold numbers of children" is just slightly hyperbolic, don't you?
gursikh 16y ago
One of the things I appreciate about HN is that when people shoot something down, they provide an intelligent and well-researched rationale to support their arguments. With that in mind: * Have you read the book? * Do you have thoughts of your own about why Tim Ferris's methods cannot be applied to exercise? If so, I would be genuinely delighted to read them.
3dFlatLander 16y ago
I've got a real love/hate thing going on with Ferris. He seems like he's got a lot of confidence and has done a lot of neat stuff. But at the same time, I can't help but feel that he uses his life experiences as ammo wrapped in exaggeration to fire at us plebs so we'll buy his books. The 4HWW had some useful bits of knowledge in it, but there was much fluff that came in the form of Tim pimping his lifestyle.
AndrewWarner 16y ago
You're the reason I'm on HN, so your feedback is always more than "just another comment" to me. WHY I INTERVIEW TIM: 1) Eric Ries once told me how a tiny change to a marketing page is worth hours of recoding. I believe there are little changes that have big significance and Tim is good at identifying and explaining them. 2) There are loads of books about health, but his is going to be a top seller. I'm curious about what it is about the way he presents & markets ideas that help him stand out. 3) Tim Ferriss gets a lot of attention. This response would be incomplete if I didn't admit that Tim's name got my other work a lot of hits, and it will continue to. He has fans that still tweet about an interview that I did with him over a year ago. WHAT I COULD HAVE DONE BETTER: 1) I should have addressed some of his health claims. It's outside the scope of my work to talk about health, but if we brought it up, I needed to talk about opposing research. 2) I might have been too fawning at the end. I always love my guests, but at the end of an interview, when someone sits for 1 hour and answers questions, I'm prone to gushing out of gratitude.
- edw519 16y ago
  Andrew, everything you said makes perfect sense, but when I read, "Tim's name got my other work a lot of hits," I just said "duh". Sometimes a long day in the trees makes me lose sight of the forest. Congratulations and keep up the great work.
detst 16y ago
> I was totally turned off when he claimed winning a martial arts contest by finding a loophole in the rules That's not really my style either but it is a bit amusing that he did it. I guess I just have a filter for those things. I'm mostly inspired by his unconventional thinking and the idea of non-conformity. Even if I don't agree with everything he says, I love that he's always looking for different and better (at least to him) ways of doing things.
DanielRibeiro 16y ago
Some people twitted me this book a few months ago, and I did not pay attention. After this post, I looked the author over. Not only did he funded a company, but he angel invested in quite a few startups, including twitter and a YC company like Posterous. Which is far more interesting than the interview itself. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Ferriss http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Ferriss
anthonycerra 16y ago
Though I don't agree with everything Tim advocates in his first book and feel, like yourself, that some of it is disingenuous, I do find a lot of value in it for the same reason I value any book: it got me to question the way I think. One line from the 4HWW "Ask for forgiveness, not permission," can change the way you address challenges for the rest of your life. I'm really looking forward to seeing what insights he's put into the new book.
- jonhendry 16y ago
  ""Ask for forgiveness, not permission," can change the way you address challenges for the rest of your life." But overdo it and people will think you're an asshole.
  - anthonycerra 16y ago
    Sure, depending on the context.
stcredzero 16y ago
Spam is effective, something else I would never do. Agree! Note this from the bottom of the page: cloudsponge – Your users have friends. cloudsponge gives you their address books. (Now get 3 free months by using this discount code: MIXERGY)

by edw519 16y ago

poppysan 16y ago

Ive seen a few "Marketers" and such on Mixergy that I don't exactly trust their methods, but it does fit with the goal and purpose of the show.

FluidDjango 16y ago

I appreciate my life choices for not having such a fellow on my radar (spelling is Ferriss - I discover by searching on Amz). Yet I wonder how I could have become so cynical as to doubt the "socially redeeming value" of an ~author~ who gets a book published by including claims such as: > YOU WILL LEARN (in less than 30 minutes each): > How to lose those last 5-10 pounds (or 100+ pounds) with odd combinations of food and safe chemical cocktails. > * How to prevent fat gain while bingeing (X-mas, holidays, weekends) > * How to increase fat-loss 300% with a few bags of ice > * How Tim gained 34 pounds of muscle in 28 days, without steroids, and in four hours of total gym time > * How to sleep 2 hours per day and feel fully rested > * How to produce 15-minute female orgasms > * How to triple testosterone and double sperm count > * How to go from running 5 kilometers to 50 kilometers in 12 weeks > * How to reverse “permanent” injuries > * How to add 150+ pounds to your lifts in 6 months > * How to pay for a beach vacation with one hospital visit

ArcticCelt 16y ago
Ok, I though you were satirizing his content. I just want to confirm to other readers that the list of points you mentioned are verbatim from his web site.
- callmeed 16y ago
  Yes, see: http://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Body-Uncommon-Incredible-Superhuman/dp/030746363X/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top http://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Body-Uncommon-Incredible-Superh...
Bostwick 16y ago
I'm apprehensive about Tim Ferriss. I've read 4HWW, and found it to have some good advice, as well a a significant amount of fluff. The announcement of "The 4-Hour Body", with lists like this on the book, have only increased my skepticism and apprehension. I enjoy fitness. I've worked out four to five days a week for the past seven years, first at a climbing gym, and then with Crossfit. I've competed in fitness competitions. I've know a number of well-respected high-level Crossfitters. I would call myself, at the very least, a fitness enthusiast. I think some of these claims are at best, laughable, and, at worst, will give false hope to people who might truly be interested in fitness. Fitness is hard work! > * How Tim gained 34 pounds of muscle in 28 days, without steroids, and in four hours of total gym time Muscle memory will allow people to gain significant amounts of muscle in short periods of time, if that muscle has been trained before. It's why athletes who take rest periods or have injuries are able to come back just as strong in only a few weeks. It's the source of many of the before/after pictures for "health foods" and supplements. If you're actually interested in gaining muscle and weight, the easiest way is to eat tons of food and do heavy, compound exercises three to four times a week. > * How to sleep 2 hours per day and feel fully rested http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleep http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleep Anecdotally, a friend of mine ended up in the emergency room for severe dehydration after trying the Uberman's Sleep Cycle for three weeks. > * How to triple testosterone and double sperm count I imagine he's be talking about various supplements here. Supplement science is sketchy, and should always be taken with a grain of salt. The best way to take supplements is to not take them, but rather, eat more fruits and vegetables. > * How to go from running 5 kilometers to 50 kilometers in 12 weeks Pretty simple, actually. There are progressive running plans in almost any running book. Also, the difference between five and 50 km, at least to your muscles, is much less than the difference between 400M and 5K. It's just training your aerobic system and converting more of your muscle tissue to slow-twitch muscle fibers. > * How to reverse “permanent” injuries Eat right and exercise correctly. If you read the forums for crossfit, or stronglifts, or a number of other fitness websites, or diet websites, you'll see people who miraculously cure their bad back, bad knees or diabetes, just by eating right and exercising correctly. > * How to add 150+ pounds to your lifts in 6 months This is almost guaranteed to happen when someone goes from an untrained state to the beginning of a trained state. It has to do with muscles learning to be used, rather than significant strength gains. When I started Crossfit three years ago, I could barely deadlift 135#. Three years later, my last 1RM deadlift was 455#. Going from 135# to 300# was _so_ much easier and faster than going from 300# to 455#, because my body had always been able to do it, it just didn't know it.

WillyF 16y ago

I realize that there is a lot of hate directed towards Tim Ferriss and his tactics, but you can learn a ton from him. Even if you ignore everything that he says and writes, just watching him in action will make you a better entrepreneur. I haven't watched/listened to the interview yet, but it seems like Tim is a great fit for Mixergy.

MikeCapone 16y ago
I have up-voted both you and the parent, because while you both have opposite points of view (more or less), I fall somewhere in the middle. My favorite thing about Tim Ferriss are the video podcasts that he does with Kevin Rose. They're posted on his blog ("Random episode X"), and they're usually pretty interesting (the one they did when traveling around China comes to mind), though not mind blowing. As for the rest, I try to be inspired by his energy at trying new things and being methodical about learning, but I don't really follow him on most of the specifics of what he does.
hugh3 16y ago
I realize that there is a lot of hate directed towards Tim Ferriss and his tactics, but you can learn a ton from him. Even if you ignore everything that he says and writes, just watching him in action will make you a better entrepreneur. I find that the best way to deal with self-promoting people is to ignore them. I have a limited amount of attention and brain space, and I really don't have time for Tim Ferriss trying to cram himself into every nook and cranny of it. Besides, Tim Ferriss is a cunt. If you try to learn from his example you'll become a cunt too. (Interesting: my spellcheck flags "cunt" as misspelled. How else would you spell it?)

steveklabnik 16y ago

Ed, I respectfully disagree. Tim Ferriss is a hacker. All of those things are _exactly_ the kind of "creative playfulness" that embodies the hacker spirit. I find Tim way more inspiring than "yet another discussion on how $TECHNOLOGY_X is {dead,the hottest thing since sliced bread}." YMMV.

jonhendry 16y ago
"Tim Ferriss is a hacker." So are the Chinese dudes who put melamine in the milk and formula they sold, poisoning untold numbers of children while increasing their profits by selling watered-down milk. (The melamine tested as protein, covering up the dilution.) That was a hack. Same with 'hackers' who use shoddy building materials resulting in buildings that collapse. Hackers like that are a dime a dozen. It's not anything I'd want to emulate. And I certainly wouldn't want to hire someone who thought along such lines.
- steveklabnik 16y ago
  I think that comparing "I _actually_ read the rules to this boxing context" to "poisoning untold numbers of children" is just slightly hyperbolic, don't you?

gursikh 16y ago

One of the things I appreciate about HN is that when people shoot something down, they provide an intelligent and well-researched rationale to support their arguments. With that in mind: * Have you read the book? * Do you have thoughts of your own about why Tim Ferris's methods cannot be applied to exercise? If so, I would be genuinely delighted to read them.

3dFlatLander 16y ago

I've got a real love/hate thing going on with Ferris. He seems like he's got a lot of confidence and has done a lot of neat stuff. But at the same time, I can't help but feel that he uses his life experiences as ammo wrapped in exaggeration to fire at us plebs so we'll buy his books. The 4HWW had some useful bits of knowledge in it, but there was much fluff that came in the form of Tim pimping his lifestyle.

AndrewWarner 16y ago

You're the reason I'm on HN, so your feedback is always more than "just another comment" to me. WHY I INTERVIEW TIM: 1) Eric Ries once told me how a tiny change to a marketing page is worth hours of recoding. I believe there are little changes that have big significance and Tim is good at identifying and explaining them. 2) There are loads of books about health, but his is going to be a top seller. I'm curious about what it is about the way he presents & markets ideas that help him stand out. 3) Tim Ferriss gets a lot of attention. This response would be incomplete if I didn't admit that Tim's name got my other work a lot of hits, and it will continue to. He has fans that still tweet about an interview that I did with him over a year ago. WHAT I COULD HAVE DONE BETTER: 1) I should have addressed some of his health claims. It's outside the scope of my work to talk about health, but if we brought it up, I needed to talk about opposing research. 2) I might have been too fawning at the end. I always love my guests, but at the end of an interview, when someone sits for 1 hour and answers questions, I'm prone to gushing out of gratitude.

edw519 16y ago
Andrew, everything you said makes perfect sense, but when I read, "Tim's name got my other work a lot of hits," I just said "duh". Sometimes a long day in the trees makes me lose sight of the forest. Congratulations and keep up the great work.

detst 16y ago

> I was totally turned off when he claimed winning a martial arts contest by finding a loophole in the rules That's not really my style either but it is a bit amusing that he did it. I guess I just have a filter for those things. I'm mostly inspired by his unconventional thinking and the idea of non-conformity. Even if I don't agree with everything he says, I love that he's always looking for different and better (at least to him) ways of doing things.

DanielRibeiro 16y ago

Some people twitted me this book a few months ago, and I did not pay attention. After this post, I looked the author over. Not only did he funded a company, but he angel invested in quite a few startups, including twitter and a YC company like Posterous. Which is far more interesting than the interview itself. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Ferriss http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Ferriss

anthonycerra 16y ago

Though I don't agree with everything Tim advocates in his first book and feel, like yourself, that some of it is disingenuous, I do find a lot of value in it for the same reason I value any book: it got me to question the way I think. One line from the 4HWW "Ask for forgiveness, not permission," can change the way you address challenges for the rest of your life. I'm really looking forward to seeing what insights he's put into the new book.

jonhendry 16y ago
""Ask for forgiveness, not permission," can change the way you address challenges for the rest of your life." But overdo it and people will think you're an asshole.
- anthonycerra 16y ago
  Sure, depending on the context.

stcredzero 16y ago

Spam is effective, something else I would never do. Agree! Note this from the bottom of the page: cloudsponge – Your users have friends. cloudsponge gives you their address books. (Now get 3 free months by using this discount code: MIXERGY)