The First Time Online – Enjoy While You Can

4HWW by Tim Ferriss has beat ‘The Tipping Point’ by Malcolm Gladwell (1154 reviews vs 1081 reviews at 12:46 pm EST, 1/8/2010). Congratulations!

I’m somewhat embarrassed to say that I actually cheered when you hit the first target – out loud, in my office, go figure – but was really inspired to see you pull it off. You didn’t mention anything in the show about jet lag or whether or not you felt any gaijin resentment from any of the sensei or other yabusameka. Did that happen?

Good stuff Tim.

Was a bit gripping at the end, hoping that you could hit the targets

Tim-

Are you familiar with the Six Sigma method of deconstructing a process, streamlining it and implementing those changes?

-Shaun

WOW! Awesome challenge and even more awesome achievement.

I was particularly intrigued by your brief mention of memory mapping and process to etch into memory what you were learning by leveraging your sleeping patterns. A book about those processes and models in laymans terms would be a great idea to build upon for aspiring “lifehackers” Love your book, best wishes to you.

May many scream like a warrior to dominate their endeavors.

Danny

Review complete. I do love all things Malcolm Gladwell, but Tim is the one author I’d like to see pass him up. Not just because he’s been an excellent role-model for me, but because I think the principles in the 4HWW can really improve peoples’ lives. Thanks for everything Tim (and thank you 4HWW community for all the additional advice and inspiration).

Hi Tim,

Bought both books, excellent, and thank you so much, life-changing!!

Can we do a trade? I’ll write a review if you can have a quick look at my company/muse (click my name to see it) and tell me the top 5 ways to market this and get some clients?

Cheers,

Zi

Great video, well done.

If you had a bigger budget, some 3D model comparisons for alignment and posture between the master and student would have looked cool.

The rubber band trainer was a very good idea and a well done overlay.

I loved this show when it aired on the History Channel, it was actually that show and lifehacker.com that led me here. I’ve been following ever since.

Done! Here is my 5 star review.

Tim Ferriss has written the definitive book on work/life balance for the new decade and beyond. Tim embraces technology to the point where it makes him most effective at achieving his goals. He uses advances in communication, software as a service, and a term he calls geoarbitrage to realize his dreams which often have nothing to do with technology. His thoughts on the concept of work and personal identity (think, “not to have but to be or do”) are reenergizing to someone who might think they’ll be facing another 25 years in a cubicle jail.

Most importantly he gives extrememly detailed examples of living the “Four Hour Work Week” life from his own experience, but now from many of his readers and fans (from the first edition of his book and his blog)who validate much of what Tim has to say. It would be a mistake to dismiss Tim as a new digital-age huckster as some have done. His words and life will challenge you to rethink your life and to ask yourself the all important question, “Why don’t I deserve the life of my dreams?”

Wow great job on the show! Although I wish you would put up a bullet list or even a blog post on recovery methods (such as the hot-cold bath).

Great Stuff

Dave

I’m utterly confused why this show didn’t get picked up. Yesterday I caught a few minutes of Junior Seau’s new show “Sports Jobs.” In the episode he was being taught how to mow the greens on a golf course… Compared to “Trial by Fire” it looked like one of those VHS tapes chain restaurants force you to watch at a new job. How did producers conclude this what people want to see?

At least we have this one episode. Riveting stuff, informative, and very good editing. Looking forward to whatever Tim comes up with next.

I didn’t buy the updated book but I left you a good review on amazon just now based on my impressions of your original book which I have read many times. 🙂

Now, I’m just waiting impatiently about your book about superhumans which you mentioned a while ago.

Any updates on that?

Tim,

That was a fantastic video. I think that everyone can learn a thing from the way you overcame various obstacles and reached your goal. Your determination, confidence, and focus is nothing short of impressive. Thanks for posting!

Mike

Loved the video, I agree with some of the other comments, should have been a tv series. You tv/camera manner is great.

Definately inspiring and you’ll obviously be delighted that I’ve been inspired to buy and have a read of your book. I can’t believe I’ve not read it already.

Good Stuff Tim.

Robert

That was seriously awesome.

I am a trained actor, writer, and director so I don’t often get swept up in production storytelling. However, I literally cheered when you hit the first target, and it was because of your honesty and transparency about your fear. I wanted you to succeed.

Very well done. Major kudos to your production team. What a great way to spend 45 minutes.

Speechless!

I can hardly say how much I enjoyed that video. I love Japan and Japanese culture, and getting “inside” like that and getting to participate must have been such an incredible experience. I loved watching the ritual that went into the activity — and I loved all your instructors. Such elegance and humility combined with incredible skill. Of course, it was also fascinating watching how you prepared for the challenge. One special treat for me was seeing the samurai stirrups in use. I have one that was given to me by my father when I was in high school, and I use it as a book end. Seeing it attached to a saddle gives it context.

Having been injured a number of times in riding accidents, I can appreciate your working through the fear of falling during your training. It is not a pleasant experience. I’m pleased that your ability to break tasks down enabled you to succeed at the task and still, as you wished, be able to walk away on your own two feet.

Now I need to start saving up for my next trip to Japan.

Again, thanks for sharing.

Done!

What’s with the over intellectualized responses to this blog post? Do the guy a favor, write a review on amazon – it will take 2 minutes, you spent 30 minutes dreaming up your whiny comment. He’s not asking you to write a 5 star review, he’s asking you to write “a” review. It’s the least you could do given the value of the FREE content you get through the blog.

1250 odd reviews now Tim…looks like you smashed your 1k target, good work!

Merry Christmas, Tim. haha

Man, I love this book. It affects every day, and no doubt, it will for the rest of my life. Especially when my muse takes off.

Tim, do you think that if a person can just get a financial foothold with his muse, then his subsequent creative projects can actually become his next muses? If a muse has REAL value, then it should last long enough anyway.

Mark

Toshiro Mifune practiced this art, I am told. If you watch “The Hidden Fortress,” you’ll see one sequence when Mifune rides the way John Wayne wished he could ride.

I remember an exhibition of Japanese martial arts masters years ago at Boston University. Just watching the way the archers walked into the arena was breath-taking. I could see their discipline and commitment in just one step. That’s what a lifetime of practice can do for you.

Tim, there is something to be said for daily practice over time. Hacking the process and accelerated learning are not necessarily bad but developing a discipline day after day has deep value that intensive learning for short periods will not get you.

For instance, I go to concerts at NE Conservatory and the students there have talent and chops beyond my imagination but they are invariably put to shame when the visiting professionals take the stage. Years of work on the craft are immediately evident. I recognize the same easy precision in the way they handle their instruments as I saw in the step of those aged Japanese archers.

Letting go of the reins is a great metaphor letting go of control for outsourcing.

When you do let go, you can accomplish far more.

Great video, you inspire as always.

Practical, Proven Approach to Living a Bigger Life

As an extremely reluctant and late fan to Tim Ferriss’s ideas (those who make their living as paid speakers have seen alot of hype) I have gone to the other end of the spectrum in admiration for the practicality and specificity of Tim’s methods to streamline one’s life to live it bigger.

Outsourcing. Automating. Focus on getting better at what you do best by spending more time doing it. Planning for play – or perhaps seeing life as a continuum of living fully- rather than dividing it up into always-separate categories. Stay curious. Learn and do the things that draw you – not “just” to be productive.

He has honed his methods, added to and crowdsourced more – rewarding those who support him with visibility and other value.

In this ever more connected world where, next to your top talent, your capacity to collaborate – especially with people who are unlike you – to accomplish greater things than you can alone Ferriss is tops in continuing to offer, in this expanded book and elsewhere – actionable methods to improve oneself, one’s work and one’s life. Now i will get off my soapbox.

Tim! That was awesome. Gave me chills at the end!

Totally appreciated the reference to the 37Signals podcast / David Heinemeier Hansson presentation… His off-handed comment about Zappos not being first in the shoe-selling business has inspired me to think about Swim Kitten in a whole new way, and not sweat the non-uniqueness of it so much.

I’ve also decided to lay off of AdWords a little bit for a while in order to reduce the financial pressure for it to perform while I figure out why my long tail organic traffic is bouncing at 3x the rate that the AdWords traffic is. I need to upgrade many things on the site itself, and am looking into affiliate campaigns as an alternative/complement to AdWords. Since I don’t have a statistically predictable conversion rate yet, paying out a known commission is much safer than feeding AdWords with my fingers crossed.

I’ll be cross-posting this in the Shopify forums. Hoping more people will come and play there! Off to the Crunchies tonight!

The vid is great. If stuff like this was on television, I would actually have a use for the glass tit. Sorry Tim, the networks only like shows about people who’ve become morbidly obese and then shed a few pounds and cry a lot.

Congratulations Tim on completing such a tough challenge.

You had me on the edge of my seat for that last run!

It is truly inspiring to witness you putting what you teach into practice.

We just posted our positive review of 4HWW.

That is the least we can do…you helped us make the bold move to start a new business in a down economy. We’ve never looked back…thanks again!

Haha, “Excuse the adjustment”. @ 14min

That was seriously cool to watch! Added my review. I love Gladwell too, don’t get me wrong. I can also understand having abstract goals though. Ignore anyone giving you a hard time about “needing” to beat him. We all have our benchmarks. You simply have the courage to let people in on some of yours!

Have a great time in Africa!

Great episode! It’s a shame that the show wasn’t picked up.

Love the show, great concept. For what it’s worth, assuming you’ve never played golf before(you actually mentioned this when responding to my question on Ustream), if you could figure out how to break 85 in 5 days after picking up the game you would go viral really quickly in the U.S. Just get the feeling that people don’t grasp how hard shooting a target off a horse is, but I can assure there are millions of golfers who know how hard it is to break 85.

Reviewed the book, congrats on breaking 1k

Love you book. Testing the muse as we speak.

Completed a review. It should post in the next 24hrs.

I wish everyone a Happy New Year!

Thats wiked Tim; nice work. I wonder if the warrior yelling sealed the deal; it must have been a bit wild and liberating to let that sound out. Awesome.

Can you or any readers please explain and provide a learning reference to the practice/sleep/wake@4.5hrs(pre-rem?)/practice/sleep method?

Is that an NLP thing? I’m all for hyper learning and efficiency, just need a good book to understand and apply the process in detail.

Have fun on your next adventure.

ps: I think you are what career coach Barbara Sher refers to as a “scanner”. Also known as renaissance people.

Best-Natalie

That was pretty cool. Have you heard of the “Worst Case Scenario” handbooks? It might be interesting to try a few things out of those.

Btw. Hyperclocking => Overclocking

Hey Tim, Added a comment to Amazon, i know you’ll make the list!! Congrats!

Finally I see the kitchen timer mentioned in previous posts! Awesome.

I like how everything is broken down, especially the part about doing it before sleep and before the next REM cycle.

These concepts are great and very simple in this video. I’m going to apply a lot of these ideas you showed in this video into learning a lot of different things.

Thanks Tim! My review for the book on amazon will be up soon.

I’ve been waiting for that video – thanks so much for sharing it. Really, really amazing how you put all that together. I was so relieved at the end that you hadn’t crashed/cracked your head open/spilled your guts everywhere. That fear was there for a reason, even if it was worth overcoming!

Man that ending was intense… thank goodness you hit those targets 🙂 This gets me more excited for your fitness/diet/health book.

How the HELL did this show not get picked up?

as you wish.

Great video Tim!

Took all night to download from my hotel room but was worth it.

I remember spending an hour or so looking for it over the internet a few months back with no luck so great to finally see it.

Too bad about your issues with the producers as the series would have been very interesting. Lots to learn.

Thanks again

V

THANK YOU! It’s official. Surpassed The Tipping Point. I’d love to answer a few questions that came up:

“Gaijin [foreigner] resentment from the Japanese?”

None whatsoever. Major point of conflict with the production company, as they wanted me to show I was ‘proving my teacher’ wrong, etc. for manufactured drama. Total bullshit. They were some of the most gracious and generous people I’d ever met. The Japanese get a bum rap for xenophobia, mostly by Americans who go over, speak to them in English, and them call them ‘inscrutable’ when they don’t respond in fluent, idiomatic English. Learn some Japanese and they are 100% A-OK outside of a business setting. Business = negotiating = not a representative interaction. Get with the people and interact, preferably with something physical. I’ve never felt this artificial insider/outsider wall people talk about.

“Pre-bed and other preparations for physical only or also mental?”

Also for mental and learning. Pre-bed and mid-night language review is incredibly effective.

“How much story arc vs. real issues?”

It was real. The fear of falling off was real. It came up only after arrival that injuries were much more common and severe than expected. The editing didn’t do justice to the drama. We had 100+ hours of footage, and there were some gems that could have replaced other bits in this 45 minutes. It rained for 2-3 days of the practice time, for example, and we couldn’t use the horses. The non-yabusame human-to-human interactions with the Japanese were also missing. Some hysterical moments.

“Have I been back to train?”

Not yet. I love Nikko and would love to go back. I have spoken with both my teacher (Takahashi) and some of the Japanese crew. Truly great people.

“Superhuman book to include cooking?”

The way I do it, yes. Simple stuff that tastes great and works. Boys, don’t worry — it’s bachelor screw-up proof.

“Doing a traditional Japanese martial art myself for many years do you ever get frustrated when you learn a skill and then to a certain extent ‘move on’ that you’re just scratching the surface?”

A few people asked this. I don’t try and “hack” everything and move on. I do believe in the enjoyment of constant practice as an exercise, almost like meditation. It’s important to balance achievement with appreciation, and there are skills that I continue to practice without abandoning them. In fact, I don’t feel like I abandon much. Even if I haven’t really practiced tango since 2006, for example, the skills and awareness I developed in tango are applicable to other things, even yabusame. I feel like each is intertwined with the next, so I’m — on a macro-level — constantly working on a process of skill-development that spreads across these various experiments.

In simpler terms, I’m just having fun and doing what makes me most excited. I see nothing wrong with this. For some, that will mean 1 skill a year, others 1 skill a month, and others still, one skill a lifetime.

All are fair.