Slacker goes pro.

AuthorBrown, Greg
PositionRese

The 4Hour Workweek By Timothy Ferriss Crown US$19.95

Time and again, researchers have found that the size of one's paycheck is no indicator of happiness. In fact, they report, once the basics of food, shelter and the like are covered, we're all pretty much equally happy, or unhappy, depending on whom you ask. (In case you're wondering, money can't buy you love, either.)

It seems counterintuitive to suggest that gazillionaires like Bill Gates or Carlos Slim might be unhappy sometimes. They sit on billions! People are at their beck and call! What's to be unhappy about? Time, for one. Gates recently stepped down from running Microsoft, but he still shows up at the office, travels for the company, and thinks about software constantly, of course. All the while, he's taken on the problems of Africa. Imagine the stress that must create, even if you have the financial means to make a difference.

Time is the center of life for entrepreneur, shark diver, tango dancer, Ivy League lecturer and martial arts master (this list is a partial resume) Timothy Ferriss. His fundamental argument is pretty simple: We're wasting our lives on innumerable and pointless details that create the illusion of productivity. We need to make more money in less time and try to get out and see the world.

Driving all this nonsense is the structure of modern work life, Ferriss argues. Nine to five hours, meetings, e-mails, commuting. Huge amounts of what we consider relevant work, he writes, is simply taking up the time between nine and five. Part of the U.S. economic miracle of the late 1990s was, and still is, productivity, largely driven by computers and the Internet. People were suddenly empowered to do things that once took much longer, like research, and financial analysis. Even writing got faster. Unfortunately, they were also empowered to waste time doing things they shouldn't be bothering with, according to Ferriss. Like scheduling sales calls or arranging...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT