Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Is Anyone Living “The 4-Hour Work Week”?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 102 posts

Re: Ask HN: Is Anyone Living “The 4-Hour Work Week”?

#51

Post by tonyedgecombe »

blueyes wrote: post #38

For a lot of people, 4WW was a "think and grow rich" kind of pressure cooker. Sure, you may be able to do with if you combine the highly marketable skills of being a certain kind of programmer with a low-rent country. Those folks are corner cases. The main beneficiary of the book was Ferriss, who's just selling the dream, like a lot of people in the "information business".

I have a deep loathing for the whole self-help industry, 99% of it is nonsense and the majority of their customers seem quite vulnerable.

Re: Ask HN: Is Anyone Living “The 4-Hour Work Week”?

#52

Post by tome »

mchan wrote: post #23

A friend of mine is - she trained to become a Pilates instructor a number of years ago. Now she does 2 group classes a week (corporate clients) of 1 hour each, earns about $300 per class. That's enough for her to live on.

Where in the world can you change $300 an hour for pilates and live on $600 per month?

Re: Ask HN: Is Anyone Living “The 4-Hour Work Week”?

#53

Post by therebedragons »

isostatic wrote: post #49
gobengo wrote: post #9

I saw a flash of it once. I was in the middle of vagabonding in the philippines (Cebu) where breakfast on the corner was $1 and a private room $15/night. I got a contract for 8hrs at $120/hr = $960. So I rented a desk for $10 overnight (EST hours) and billed the hours after 2 nights. In Cebu, $960/month is more than enough to live comfortably. So I realized I made an entire months living (traveling) expenses in one d…

I'm fairly sure you'd have broken the terms of your visa doing that.

Yep, that's the lesson!

But seriously, what are the rules here? I went OS for 6 months once (started out as 1) and worked the whole time. I billed through my AU company, but still, was I allowed to work in those places?

Re: Ask HN: Is Anyone Living “The 4-Hour Work Week”?

#54

Post by therebedragons »

tome wrote: post #52
mchan wrote: post #23

A friend of mine is - she trained to become a Pilates instructor a number of years ago. Now she does 2 group classes a week (corporate clients) of 1 hour each, earns about $300 per class. That's enough for her to live on.

Where in the world can you change $300 an hour for pilates and live on $600 per month?

$600 per week.

Re: Ask HN: Is Anyone Living “The 4-Hour Work Week”?

#55

Post by dahoramanodoceu »

I work one hour or two every morning to pay the bills. I spend an additional 3-4 hours working on things I want to see happen in the world. The hardest part is self-discipline, so I cut out all social media (no reddit outside of work-related stuff and limit HN). No movies and no porn surfing.

No internet at home helps me stay on track. When I need internet I walk to the coffee shop with a to-do list.

Re: Ask HN: Is Anyone Living “The 4-Hour Work Week”?

#56

Post by soneca »

mstade wrote: post #39
ap46 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That turned dark real quick.

It definitely did. I feel for OP – my family has also had its issues with money. Particularly money grabbing individuals who don't mind walking over bodies, family or otherwise, to get what they perceive as "theirs" by some metric. Whether or not these people are technically correct doesn't really matter when in the end, people who truly used to love each other are now sworn enemies. Cliché as it may be, it's very sa…

My mother's family went through the same dispute over my grandparents' real state and destroyed the family. Keep in mind that it is a lower middle class family in a developing country (Brazil), not that much money. One of the most vicious aunts in the dispute had actually the same or more wealth than my grandparents.

Money has a way of being the perfect "excuse" for vicious people to expose their viciousness.

Re: Ask HN: Is Anyone Living “The 4-Hour Work Week”?

#57

Post by rficcaglia »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #44
troysk wrote: post #12

The book is about being "the new rich". The new rich is not about having a billion dollars in your bank. Its about having enough money and most importantly the time and brain space to enjoy your time. In the book Tim, emphasises that burning through 90 hour work weeks are pointless if you are not able to enjoy the $$$ it will bring in. Rather spend some money to reduce your workload and focus on things that excite yo…

I've never tried to work less tbf; I'm 31 years old and if I was given more free time, I wouldn't know what to do with it. I'm not the hipster adventurous type, traveling somewhere exotic doesn't appeal to me (I'd be more afraid of getting robbed and scammed), I'm not very social, etc. I prefer my 9-5 life so far. Just bought a house too.

wait until you have kids...they fill up a lot of your time (if you don't outsource the job to nanny, etc)

Re: Ask HN: Is Anyone Living “The 4-Hour Work Week”?

#58

Post by fsociety »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #44
troysk wrote: post #12

The book is about being "the new rich". The new rich is not about having a billion dollars in your bank. Its about having enough money and most importantly the time and brain space to enjoy your time. In the book Tim, emphasises that burning through 90 hour work weeks are pointless if you are not able to enjoy the $$$ it will bring in. Rather spend some money to reduce your workload and focus on things that excite yo…

I've never tried to work less tbf; I'm 31 years old and if I was given more free time, I wouldn't know what to do with it. I'm not the hipster adventurous type, traveling somewhere exotic doesn't appeal to me (I'd be more afraid of getting robbed and scammed), I'm not very social, etc. I prefer my 9-5 life so far. Just bought a house too.

Obviously spend your life however you like, I just want to put it out there that it sounds like you don't like to put yourself outside of your comfort zone (like pretty much everyone, even the hipsters).

There is nothing 'hipster' about doing something outside of your normal routine, like travelling or yoga. I'd recommend you try it more often, you'd be pleasantly surprised at what sort of things (good and bad) will happen.

I recently went on a trip, and when the plane landed my first thought was that I wished I stayed home. Good and bad things happened on this trip, but boy am I glad I did it.

Re: Ask HN: Is Anyone Living “The 4-Hour Work Week”?

#59

Post by Hnrobert42 »

isostatic wrote: post #49
gobengo wrote: post #9

I saw a flash of it once. I was in the middle of vagabonding in the philippines (Cebu) where breakfast on the corner was $1 and a private room $15/night. I got a contract for 8hrs at $120/hr = $960. So I rented a desk for $10 overnight (EST hours) and billed the hours after 2 nights. In Cebu, $960/month is more than enough to live comfortably. So I realized I made an entire months living (traveling) expenses in one d…

I'm fairly sure you'd have broken the terms of your visa doing that.

Yes, but so would checking work email on vacation abroad. It's all a matter of risk tolerance.

Re: Ask HN: Is Anyone Living “The 4-Hour Work Week”?

#60

Post by Hnrobert42 »

tome wrote: post #52
mchan wrote: post #23

A friend of mine is - she trained to become a Pilates instructor a number of years ago. Now she does 2 group classes a week (corporate clients) of 1 hour each, earns about $300 per class. That's enough for her to live on.

Where in the world can you change $300 an hour for pilates and live on $600 per month?

Same question, except $2400/mo.
Post reply on HN