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Wow. >Here’s a better analogy: “The 4-Hour Body” reads as if The New England Journal of Medicine had been hijacked by the editors of the SkyMall catalog. Some

Wow. >Here’s a better analogy: “The 4-Hour Body” reads as if The New England Journal of Medicine had been hijacked by the editors of the SkyMall catalog. Some of this junk might actually work, but you’re going to be embarrassed doing it or admitting to your friends that you’re trying it. This is a man who, after all, weighs his own feces, likes bloodletting as a life-extension strategy and aims a Philips goLite at his body in place of ingesting caffeine. Just... wow. The book sounds ridiculous, and the review is fantastic.

aik 16y ago
Funny review overall through not very telling about the book (more about Ferriss himself). I've only read small snippets of the book (and don't intend to read much more), but it's pretty clear that the writer is outside of Ferriss' target audience for this (especially if the author is afraid of becoming embarrassed in front of some friends for trying to improve his health). It sounds like he misunderstands the point of Ferriss' experiments a bit.
- jonhendry 16y ago
  "Ferriss' target audience" Also known as "marks".
  - aik 16y ago
    "...outside of Ferriss' marks for this"?
    - sorbus 16y ago
      The victim of a scam is often known as a mark[1]. It seems to me that jonhendry was implying that Ferriss is a con artist, using his book to defraud people of their money, by making them pay for something which is worth far less than they think. I am, however, not familiar enough with Ferriss or his books to pass such judgement myself; I'm just interpreting. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confidence_trick http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confidence_trick
      - aik 16y ago
        Thanks for the explanation - I didn't catch on. Every author has a target audience. Although I find Ferriss' marketing strategies unethical, I think his judgement on the book itself to be a bit unfair.
  - healsdata 16y ago
    I'm not sure why this comment got so many up votes when I can't even begin to see this book as any sort of con. Ferris released free content (at least two blog posts) that garnered a ton of responses, followers, etc. He built on that to make this book. In regards to the book, he makes the table of contents and a sample chapter freely available. Want to know if this book is for you? Read the table of contents, read the blog posts that came before the book and read the sample chapter. That should clearly let you know if this book is worth your $15 because it's just hundreds of pages of the same. I honestly cannot name one other advice book that's given me such a preview before I bought it. On top of that, with the low price point and pre-order give aways, I actually saved money on other things I had planned to buy because Ferris gave them to me for free with a pre-order.
SwellJoe 16y ago
Ferriss is a hacker...but the system he works on is his own body. I respect him for the experiments he does, and his willingness to share the results and the mistakes and embarrassing stuff, even if his science isn't always complete. To be fair, he generally admits when he's not discussing actual science and just correlation or limited data. I'd no more insult him for doing what he does than I would for someone releasing a new product in its minimal viable product form. Yeah, it's a bit on the hyperbolic side, as such things go...but, honestly, I think we as entrepreneurs could probably learn a thing or two about marketing from watching him.
- dools 16y ago
  I think you mean hack
- ericd 16y ago
  That's exactly the same impression I got, and with that mindset, it is a great read. He's doing something that I've always wanted to do, but haven't had the motivation or money to do systematically.
DenisM 16y ago
>Philips goLite at his body in place of ingesting caffeine So, he advocates using sunlight instead of drugs (such as caffeine). Why does that deserves a scorn in your opinion?
- ericd 16y ago
  I was confused at this too. The fact that a major manufacturer like Phillips is releasing a line of medical products around this very use case should tell the author that it's not ridiculous. Outside social norms, maybe, but the whole point of the book is that Ferriss is trying things that are unconventional and seeing what works. I got one of these lights as a gift, and it's been great. I was a bit skeptical/curious as to whether it was just placebo, but it turns out there's evidence that blue light helps the body schedule melatonin release.
- driverdan 16y ago
  Because they are completely unrelated and work though entirely different mechanisms. I'd use an "apples and oranges" analogy but apples and oranges are more similar than sunlight and caffeine.
healsdata 16y ago
The example "bloodletting as a life-extension strategy" refers to donating blood. In this section of the book (one page), Ferris references Drs. Eades who make the same recommendation. At that point, it becomes a matter of different writing styles for different audiences. Ferris writes short sections, as if the book contains hundreds of blog posts, while Drs. Eades' books are more scientific and verbose. The section on the Philips goLITE is the same way. Ferris spends 200 words telling us how he uses it and why. In his book, The Vitamin D Solution, Dr. Michael Holick spends pages covering the same material, Is it really "ridiculous" to make this information available to the public in different formats so people can choose the one that fits best with their reading style? It seems perfectly reasonable that some people just want a list of "try these things" while others will want to do extensive research.

aik 16y ago

Funny review overall through not very telling about the book (more about Ferriss himself). I've only read small snippets of the book (and don't intend to read much more), but it's pretty clear that the writer is outside of Ferriss' target audience for this (especially if the author is afraid of becoming embarrassed in front of some friends for trying to improve his health). It sounds like he misunderstands the point of Ferriss' experiments a bit.

jonhendry 16y ago
"Ferriss' target audience" Also known as "marks".
- aik 16y ago
  "...outside of Ferriss' marks for this"?
  - sorbus 16y ago
    The victim of a scam is often known as a mark[1]. It seems to me that jonhendry was implying that Ferriss is a con artist, using his book to defraud people of their money, by making them pay for something which is worth far less than they think. I am, however, not familiar enough with Ferriss or his books to pass such judgement myself; I'm just interpreting. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confidence_trick http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confidence_trick
    - aik 16y ago
      Thanks for the explanation - I didn't catch on. Every author has a target audience. Although I find Ferriss' marketing strategies unethical, I think his judgement on the book itself to be a bit unfair.
- healsdata 16y ago
  I'm not sure why this comment got so many up votes when I can't even begin to see this book as any sort of con. Ferris released free content (at least two blog posts) that garnered a ton of responses, followers, etc. He built on that to make this book. In regards to the book, he makes the table of contents and a sample chapter freely available. Want to know if this book is for you? Read the table of contents, read the blog posts that came before the book and read the sample chapter. That should clearly let you know if this book is worth your $15 because it's just hundreds of pages of the same. I honestly cannot name one other advice book that's given me such a preview before I bought it. On top of that, with the low price point and pre-order give aways, I actually saved money on other things I had planned to buy because Ferris gave them to me for free with a pre-order.

SwellJoe 16y ago

Ferriss is a hacker...but the system he works on is his own body. I respect him for the experiments he does, and his willingness to share the results and the mistakes and embarrassing stuff, even if his science isn't always complete. To be fair, he generally admits when he's not discussing actual science and just correlation or limited data. I'd no more insult him for doing what he does than I would for someone releasing a new product in its minimal viable product form. Yeah, it's a bit on the hyperbolic side, as such things go...but, honestly, I think we as entrepreneurs could probably learn a thing or two about marketing from watching him.

dools 16y ago
I think you mean hack
ericd 16y ago
That's exactly the same impression I got, and with that mindset, it is a great read. He's doing something that I've always wanted to do, but haven't had the motivation or money to do systematically.

DenisM 16y ago

>Philips goLite at his body in place of ingesting caffeine So, he advocates using sunlight instead of drugs (such as caffeine). Why does that deserves a scorn in your opinion?

ericd 16y ago
I was confused at this too. The fact that a major manufacturer like Phillips is releasing a line of medical products around this very use case should tell the author that it's not ridiculous. Outside social norms, maybe, but the whole point of the book is that Ferriss is trying things that are unconventional and seeing what works. I got one of these lights as a gift, and it's been great. I was a bit skeptical/curious as to whether it was just placebo, but it turns out there's evidence that blue light helps the body schedule melatonin release.
driverdan 16y ago
Because they are completely unrelated and work though entirely different mechanisms. I'd use an "apples and oranges" analogy but apples and oranges are more similar than sunlight and caffeine.

healsdata 16y ago

The example "bloodletting as a life-extension strategy" refers to donating blood. In this section of the book (one page), Ferris references Drs. Eades who make the same recommendation. At that point, it becomes a matter of different writing styles for different audiences. Ferris writes short sections, as if the book contains hundreds of blog posts, while Drs. Eades' books are more scientific and verbose. The section on the Philips goLITE is the same way. Ferris spends 200 words telling us how he uses it and why. In his book, The Vitamin D Solution, Dr. Michael Holick spends pages covering the same material, Is it really "ridiculous" to make this information available to the public in different formats so people can choose the one that fits best with their reading style? It seems perfectly reasonable that some people just want a list of "try these things" while others will want to do extensive research.