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“The author didn’t actually work for four hours” is the most tired argument and seems to come up repeatedly. The point of the book is getting you back as much t

“The author didn’t actually work for four hours” is the most tired argument and seems to come up repeatedly. The point of the book is getting you back as much time from work as possible so you can then focus it on things you enjoy - which could be leisure or some other type of work. The point is efficiency. It also has nothing to do with getting rich. Sure Ferriss got rich from the book but he was running a successful business before hand. The book is quite clear that “getting rich”’should never be a goal you should look at the things you want (inc. material things) and figure out how much money you need to achieve those (usually it’s less that you think - e.g. you don’t need $250k to buy a Ferrari when you can lease one monthly).

simonebrunozzi 5y ago
> Sure Ferriss got rich from the book but he was running a successful business before hand He was nowhere near rich before the 4-hour workweek success.
LittlePeter 5y ago
Then maybe it should have been named "How to work more efficiently" instead of click-baity "The 4-Hour Workweek"?
- foogazi 5y ago
  This reminded me of how the early novels had incredibly long titles that correctly summarized the plot For example Robinson Crusoe’s title was: “ The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an un-inhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but himself. With An Account how he was at last as strangely deliver'd by Pirates ”
- basisword 5y ago
  What a boring world we'd live in if media products weren't allowed to use catchy titles.
- playpause 5y ago
  It might be more comfy for HN/engineering types if all book titles were completely dry and precise like that, but most 'real' people enjoy a bit of hyperbole, and have no trouble seeing straight through it. It's all part of a game that helps engage them, and they are willing participants in that game – if you can't differentiate this from deception, it's you who has an incomplete picture of things. To most people, the fact that the title "4 hour work week" is a bit of attention-grabbing hyperbole is completely obvious, including those who actually read it and got some value from it. If you think anyone who reads a book like that must be some kind of idiot who takes a literal interpretation of an obviously hyperbolic title, then you probably have a cynical and incomplete understanding of how smart most people are. The truth is, identifying the most literal possible description for something is usually just an aspy trick we engineers like to pull when we are confused by something nuanced.
xiphias2 5y ago
Actually one of the main takeways from the book is that efficacy (elimination of non-critical tasks) is more important than efficiency (optimizing a task). I have been doing this since reading the book, and helped my life tremendously (also went into early retirement). When Elon Musk was interviewed at SpaceX about Starship, he said the same thing actually: they are launching non-optimized vehicles and iterating by simplifying the design. Also Tesla almost went bankrupt through the Model 3 ramp up phase because he was trying to make manufacturing more efficient instead of simplifying it. Or in Knuth’s words: early optimization is the root of all evil.
- basisword 5y ago
  Thanks for clarifying. That was very poor use of the word 'efficiency' on my part.

simonebrunozzi 5y ago

> Sure Ferriss got rich from the book but he was running a successful business before hand He was nowhere near rich before the 4-hour workweek success.

LittlePeter 5y ago

Then maybe it should have been named "How to work more efficiently" instead of click-baity "The 4-Hour Workweek"?

foogazi 5y ago
This reminded me of how the early novels had incredibly long titles that correctly summarized the plot For example Robinson Crusoe’s title was: “ The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an un-inhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but himself. With An Account how he was at last as strangely deliver'd by Pirates ”
basisword 5y ago
What a boring world we'd live in if media products weren't allowed to use catchy titles.
playpause 5y ago
It might be more comfy for HN/engineering types if all book titles were completely dry and precise like that, but most 'real' people enjoy a bit of hyperbole, and have no trouble seeing straight through it. It's all part of a game that helps engage them, and they are willing participants in that game – if you can't differentiate this from deception, it's you who has an incomplete picture of things. To most people, the fact that the title "4 hour work week" is a bit of attention-grabbing hyperbole is completely obvious, including those who actually read it and got some value from it. If you think anyone who reads a book like that must be some kind of idiot who takes a literal interpretation of an obviously hyperbolic title, then you probably have a cynical and incomplete understanding of how smart most people are. The truth is, identifying the most literal possible description for something is usually just an aspy trick we engineers like to pull when we are confused by something nuanced.

xiphias2 5y ago

Actually one of the main takeways from the book is that efficacy (elimination of non-critical tasks) is more important than efficiency (optimizing a task). I have been doing this since reading the book, and helped my life tremendously (also went into early retirement). When Elon Musk was interviewed at SpaceX about Starship, he said the same thing actually: they are launching non-optimized vehicles and iterating by simplifying the design. Also Tesla almost went bankrupt through the Model 3 ramp up phase because he was trying to make manufacturing more efficient instead of simplifying it. Or in Knuth’s words: early optimization is the root of all evil.

basisword 5y ago
Thanks for clarifying. That was very poor use of the word 'efficiency' on my part.