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

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

#71

Post by ShirsenduK »

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.

I am 31 too! :D And although I like travelling I haven't done much of it in the past year because guess what, I am getting a house too. But I am getting it built which prevents me from moving until its completed. So, I did the layout, interiors, etc. I enjoy it!

Working on an automation system for the house using ESP8266 behind every socket and learning Elixir, React Native, etc. along the way.

I also get to work on Self-Driving Cars, Hydroponics and other stuff I like.

This would not have been possible if I was stuck at a 9-5. I work remotely and independently.

Tim did Tango and Vagabonding because maybe thats what made him happy. Being a te(/a)cky guy I am doing all things geeky to make me happy. :)

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

#73

Post by moat »

_jdams wrote: post #61
moat wrote: post #33

I lived it for a couple of years based on the framework from the book. Living on an island in Thailand diving everyday, hanging out in Bali or Barcelona. Eventually I got a little bored with it and wanted to create bigger companies so I dove back in, but I still attribute a lot of my success to stumbling across that book one day.

As a somewhat obsessive relationship with that book, I'm looking to get into entrepreneurship soon. From everything I've read and researched about the 4HWW, people say its better to first have a working business and/or income stream, then focus on ways to automate or make single processes more efficient; As opposed to trying to start a business using the 4HWW from the 'get-go'. What would your advice be? As someone w…

No I don't think that is usually possible. I think your first idea is correct. Work like crazy to get something working and profitable, and then work to automate it (which is frequently harder than you might think).

Doing this has helped me create bigger things as well. I create a business, more or less automate it, and then use that cashflow to work on other businesses. Eventually creating a portfolio of cashflow businesses, with a few exits in the middle.

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

#74

Post by java_script »

4hwwperson wrote: post #15

I have lived the 4 hour work week for the last 2 years. I created a course online and earned half a million dollars from it in the first year alone, after spending 3 months creating it (I was 29 when I created it). Many of the ideas from that book (4hww) were ideas that came naturally to me prior to reading that book. I think anyone who considers themselves resourceful (particularly with utilizing Google search) woul…

A digression straight out of r/iamverysmart.

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

#75

Post by BjoernKW »

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".

While he probably indeed was the single biggest beneficiary of his book Tim Ferriss likely also helped a lot of people to change their respective lives for the better.

Who cares if you're not "living the dream" as long as you're doing better than before? 4HWW can be a real eye-opener in many respects and it's certainly not just about selling cheap info products while making use of cost of living arbitrage.

In fact, Ferriss has stated several times that the 4HWW is neither about literally just working 4 hours nor is it necessarily about constantly travelling through low-rent countries (though that certainly can be a beneficial option). It's much more about making efficient use of your time and doing so according to your own standards instead of somebody else's.

Some of the comments here depict him as some kind of snake oil salesman. I think he genuinely wants to teach and help people but that's just my personal opinion.

Consider this though: Who are the real snake oil men here? The one who tries to teach you to live a better life by your own standards or the ones that try to sell you a "> 40 hrs of work per week; consume as much as you can; don't enjoy life until you're too old to actually enjoy it;" lifestyle as the 'proper' way of living your life?

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

#76

Post by soneca »

mstade wrote: post #70
soneca wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

My case isn't very different from yours, except we're in a well off country and individually pretty well off also. Goes to show vicious greed isn't necessarily a class thing. In my case, a certain person did things so despicable that in my view until they atone for their crimes (actual crimes, not just wrongdoings) in prison, I will never be able to even start forgiving them. Instead, they're living the high life. It…

At the end it was for the better (except for my mom's and grandmother's - when she was alive - deep suffering of course). We divorced from the vicious part of the family, no contact at all with a few aunts and cousins, my parents fortunately could afford to give up of their part of the inheritance and it was totally worth to buy our freedom of any need for future contact with them.

For me, it was a lesson that absurd unethical behavior within a family happens in real life, it is not a thing of soap opera.

Fortunately, there was no crime committed in my case. "Only" obnoxious behavior, greed, and extreme selfishness.

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

#77

Post by e59d134d »

vbsteven wrote: post #40

I'm not living the 4HWW but that book kickstarted my journey from employee -> full time freelancer -> part time freelancer + working on my own products -> 100% my own products. I'm currently transitioning into the part time freelancing phase.

Why are you transitioning in to freelancing phase? Products business is slowing down?

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

#78

Post by Ilurkyeahsowat »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #46
nyukid97 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of curiosity, what was the topic of the PDF?

And how were payments handled? Taxes? I find that to be the most daunting part, I mean there's distributors like leanpub and co but I'm afraid they take a huge cut.

Payments were through paypal at the time. I'm fairly sure he didnt pay taxes on it. Actually, Im 100% sure he didnt pay taxes. I think if you get wound up in the VERY beginning (not that you shouldnt think about it at all), it will be very hard to create any income.

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

#79

Post by stealsomesteel »

filipm wrote: post #31
stealsomesteel wrote: post #26

I’m living 4 hour work week and it’s one of the best books that ever helped me. Just use the advices in the book, pretty simple. I spend most of these days working on side projects, feels great! This also allowed me to earn a lot of money, so definitely not downshifting. Actually kinda amazed that there aren’t many similar people in the thread...I can email you from a public address, it would prove I have a real repu…

What kind of business do you have?

A software development consultancy.

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

#80

Post by stealsomesteel »

_jdams wrote: post #63
stealsomesteel wrote: post #26

I’m living 4 hour work week and it’s one of the best books that ever helped me. Just use the advices in the book, pretty simple. I spend most of these days working on side projects, feels great! This also allowed me to earn a lot of money, so definitely not downshifting. Actually kinda amazed that there aren’t many similar people in the thread...I can email you from a public address, it would prove I have a real repu…

As the other request said, please post more information. I want your lifestyle and hope one day I can come up with an idea and put it into action to achieve it.

Dig deeply into some area, become a professional.

Then hire other people and try to optimize your business to work without your control. It's very important to be able to manage the company remotely.

A lot of people are trying to get to some huge expertise to achieve "bigger salary" or something. But no one really focuses on earning a small regular no-hassle income.

That's mostly it...Focus on 20% of stuff which gives 80% of results, like the book said.

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