Impossible Is Possible For Armies of Outsourced Assistants
When we first took notice of Timothy Ferriss (P '00), he came across as an Aleksey-Vayner-esque megalomaniacal fraud. After all, his website was full of outlandish claims of personal accomplishment, and his book The 4-Hour Work Week (Amazon), or "4HWW" to those in the know, boasts that it will show you, "How to outsource your life to overseas virtual assistants for $5 per hour and do whatever you want."
But it seems we may have to amend our initial impression of Ferriss from "spectacular charlatan" to "oddball entrepreneur" and maybe, just maybe, "lifestyle pioneer." For one thing, as this incredible New York Times article explains, his book has become a huge hit with the nerds of Silicon Valley, and these guys are immune to gimmicky trends (except that one time)
From the Times article:
HIS methods include practicing "selective ignorance" - tuning out pointless communiqués, random Twitters, and even world affairs (Mr. Ferriss says he gets most of his news by asking waiters). Work crisis? Pay someone else to worry about it - ideally in Bangalore. On a bet, Mr. Ferriss even hired low-paid, high-skilled workers abroad to find him dates online. (It worked.)
Fact: I paid someone in Bangalore in to write this post for me. I am actually scuba-diving in Belize. Read the article, it's pretty interesting, and check out his blog.
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November 12th, 2007 at 7:00 pm
So does he plan to outsource his sex life? “Not tonight, honey, but I have a small Asian man who is willing to satisfy you.”
November 12th, 2007 at 9:01 pm
This is why people in the rest of the world hate Americans.
–> Don’t feel like doing a menial task? Get some poor underpaid minion in a country that you don’t care in the least about to do it for you.
Good old American capitalism.
November 12th, 2007 at 9:48 pm
This is ludicrous. If it really is possible to outsource part of the work week (thereby rendering one’s self irrelevant) then the company would be better off outsourcing to begin with. If Ferris is just talking about forwarding one’s emails to Bangalore then this seems to run counter to his thesis. After all, why pay someone to do such a remedial task if it’s only net effect is to delay one’s “mini retirement” through the depletion of funds?
Conclusion: Even douche bag charlatans can become best-selling authors.
November 12th, 2007 at 10:37 pm
Please don’t lose the skepticism!
His “outlandish claims of personal accomplishment” deserve serious inquiry. On the two that I know about:
He may have given guest a guest lecture or two at Princeton, but that’s not the same as being regularly employed by the university.
He claims to have competed in the world tango championships, but it’s clear from watching his video that he’s a beginner. Why is merely having signed up for a competition an accomplishment?
He holds the world record for “most tango spins in a minute”, but this is clearly a record invented for the purpose of creating a world record.
November 12th, 2007 at 10:51 pm
is it just me or does he actually look strikingly similar to vayner? even the ballroom and athletic shots look identical
November 12th, 2007 at 11:03 pm
Ferriss’s lifestyle is a clever hack, and not everyone can pull it off. (You, Absurd, are clearly not one of those people.) He started his own business, and the outsourcing is simply a means to run it without running himself into the ground. Think of it this way — if your time is worth $50/hour when you’re doing business development, why do $10/hour data entry? And come off the high horse; companies use this kind of logic all the time.
Finally, I should add that Ferris’s outsourcing is to save time, not money. You probably already outsource aspects of your life and haven’t even realized it. Do you do make your own clothing and soap? I didn’t think so. Is there really much difference between that and checking your e-mail? If your time’s not valuable enough to save, then you’ve got problems his book can’t help you with.
November 12th, 2007 at 11:09 pm
Skeptical: Whether or not you deem his accomplishments meaningful… I’m willing to bet his life’s a heck of a lot more interesting than yours.
November 13th, 2007 at 12:05 am
A: are you from Bangalore? Because I get the distinct impression Ferriss would even outsource his blogosphere PR. Please don’t lecture me about the economics of outsourcing as it is a subject I already understand. Of course businesses do it. My point is that it is stupid to posit that such a thing is practical when it comes to email. If your time is worth $50/hr then checking your email must cost, what, 80 cents. Are you really going to pay someone in Bangalore an hourly wage to do this? Because if so, you should also pay them to read this post.
I declare that the absurdity doesn’t stop there, A, for your position to defend Ferriss is highly ironic. Any person who stumbles upon this site and thinks to herself, “what a great idea,” instantly confutes the need for an information filter that Ferriss so highly endorses.
November 13th, 2007 at 2:03 am
If everyone tried to live in general ignorance and have other people do all their work for them, nobody would know anything, and nothing would ever get done.
November 13th, 2007 at 2:05 am
back in May: http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2007/05/09/news/18434.shtml
I guess the NYT profile somewhat legitimizes a dude who I did not think was at all legit.
November 13th, 2007 at 2:11 am
Aleksey was right. If you can conceive it and believe it, you can achieve it.
As part of his self-promotion when he released the book, Ferriss claimed he had been profiled in the NY Times. Check out the actual article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/17/fashion/17Physical.html. He is quoted, posing as a neuroscientist. He is neither a neuroscientist (he took some classes in it at Princeton but switched majors), nor had he been profiled in the NY Times before publishing his book.
But now he has.
Impossible IS Nothing.