Post deleted by Mat Sklansky
 

Re: Timothy Ferriss and the Four Hour Work Week
 

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I see this working for certain types of jobs that have a lot of administrative crap (booking flights, schedules, etc), but a lot of my work is client management/networking/etc that can't really be outsourced. The stuff that can be done at a computer is privileged and confidential.

What I would consider this for is

a) paying some guy to be my pokertracker at sites without poker tracker (ie sifting through hand histories, recording date and time, + or - $ on session, limit, number of hands, etc)

and

b) keeping track of friends' and families' special occasions, sending cards and gifts, etc., making sure I keep in better touch with people.

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c. setting up a simple online business that would require none of your time that spits off enough money so both poker and your job would be optional

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I see this working for certain types of jobs

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Re: Timothy Ferriss and the Four Hour Work Week
 

Has anyone attempted to contact these companies? Can I hire someone in small intervals, like five hours of work, or do I have to get some sort of long-term deal?

I'd imagine using these services to gather research/data for papers would be hugely +EV.

Re: Timothy Ferriss and the Four Hour Work Week
 

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It just flips a huge bird to the notion that one needs to come in a 9 and leave at 5 in order to be a good and productive worker.

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I would imagine the fact that I come in and surf 2+2 for roughly six hours a day at work does the same thing.

Post deleted by Mat Sklansky
 

Re: Timothy Ferriss and the Four Hour Work Week
 

Wow thanks blueman!

Re: Timothy Ferriss and the Four Hour Work Week
 

fwiw, I got this book a few months ago and used some of the methods to save myself some time with basic stuff, automate some stuff, and get things done faster. He comes off as a typical self-agrandizing self-help guru douche at times, but I think almost everyone here could work better if they implemented a few things.

I've got some stuff I'm working on right now and I think blueman has done an ok job explaining it, but if anyone has any more specific questions I'll come answer some questions later tonight.

Re: Timothy Ferriss and the Four Hour Work Week
 

I don't get how having someone else read my emails saves me time. Don't I still need the contents conveyed to me somehow? That would take more time than me reading it myself.

Post deleted by Mat Sklansky
 

Re: Timothy Ferriss and the Four Hour Work Week
 

Ok, let me fire off a few things b/c I think blueman is taking some of the book too literally and going a little too gung ho on parts.

blueman
"If you were a business owner..."

If this is how you approach the book you won't get the most possible out of it. I don't own any businesses but have been in the processing of formulating one since before hearing of this book. Either way, I can and have used stuff from the book in my current normal employee job and general life situations with good effects.

Yes it may be the ultimate goal for many people, but there is plenty to get from the book without taking it to that extent.


"He advocates hiring indian virtual assistants to handle EVERYTHING about your life. Everything."

No, he doesn't do anything close to this. He tells you about what they CAN do and says what he does, but never says that is somehow the only path to riches or free time.


"setting up a simple online business that would require none of your time that spits off enough money so both poker and your job would be optional "

Again, this book isn't about starting up internet businesses. If that's what you get from it then you just put yourself in another type of rat race. The book is about finding what you enjoy and what excites you and showing you how to realize those goals and dreams without having to wait until retirement. It's much more of a "here's a way to live happier" book than a "make money fast!!!" book.


KKF
"How is that different from running a business? I will look into the book, but I am skeptical of this genre. "

I don't think you would get much out of this book, tbh. You and Metetron, however much I dislike you both from time to time, would fit very well into the kinds of thing he preaches in the book. You might be able to get something out it, but nothing major like I was.


PITTM
"I don't get how having someone else read my emails saves me time. Don't I still need the contents conveyed to me somehow? That would take more time than me reading it myself. "

He never says to get someone else to read your emails for you. The only way I can figure blueman got to this point was his story about outsourcing his customer service out to India. Not nearly the same as having an assistant answer e-mails on your behalf for anything.

In fact, he specifically talks about how he does read his own e-mail but only once a week or less.


As for the virtual assistants, I haven't had any reason to hire one. The menial tasks that I do I do because I enjoy them. I wouldn't want to hire most of my analysis out to someone in India. However, I do have some friends who recently started a trivia company and I have recommended farming out generating a few thousand questions to assistants who have a good grasp on American culture. It would probably require a few 20-30 question trial runs to see if the assistant actually was able to do topics like "Movies" and "Music" rather than just "World History" but it's cheap labor and a lot better than scouring the web youself.