The Lie Of The Lie Of The 4-Hour Workweek
March 29th, 2009
Email this article to a friend
Photo by azrainman
Tim Ferriss wrote The 4-Hour Workweek
Just like Jonathan isn’t really accusing Tim of lying, I’m not really accusing Jonathan of lying. It just makes for a nice title. Plus, it sets up my critics to call their rebuttal post The Lie of the Lie of the Lie of the 4-Hour Workweek.
Tim says that we should find a way to not have to work so much, so we can do what we want. Jonathan says we shouldn’t think of work as something to avoid, but something that’s sacred, that lets us provide value and make a difference.
I agree with much of what Jonathan said. In fact, the only thing I really disagree with is his contention that what he and Tim are saying is really all that different.
We have a semantics problem here, in that people don’t really agree on what constitutes “work.” How can Tim not consider writing and marketing a best-selling book as work? What about doing his own TV show, being a champion tango dancer, building schools in Vietnam, etc? Don’t these things take a lot of effort? Yeah, but none of it is “work” to him.
I’m guilty of using the word “work” to mean two completely different things:
1. slavery, drudgery, tedium, burden, toiling, punishment, monotony
2. freedom, purpose, contribution, self-expression, making a difference, fulfilling your dreams
People are sometimes confused when I say something like “I want to retire so I can get my work done.” It’s because we have two definitions of work that are as different as night and day.
While I don’t feel like starting a movement to get the dictionary updated, let’s see if we can paraphrase Jonathan and Tim in terms of the definitions above.
Jonathan says: “Don’t think of what you do as work1, think of it as work2.”
Tim says: “Get your work1 done in just four hours a week, so you have more time for work2.”
These sound very similar to me!
While I agreed with much of what Jonathan said, some of his commenters really got to me. I’m going to quote them anonymously not because I’m stingy with link love, but because I’m going to be mean to them. Not just for the sake of being mean, but because they’re spewing nonsense like this:
“I actually had the four hour work week for about 18 months… I got so bored that I went and found a real job that paid me much less than I was earning from my four-hour work week business just because I wanted something to do.”
and this:
“I don’t believe he works 4 hours a week. I don’t believe anyone on their death bed will be satisfied with a life like that. That isn’t authentic happiness.”
and this:
“Most people would freak out with all the ‘psychic entropy’ if they had a 4-hour workweek. I know several rich entrepreneurs who did exactly that.”
and this:
“Tim Ferriss has some interesting ideas, but the key is NOT working LESS, but instead working MORE on things you LOVE.”
and this:
“I was a stay at home mom for while and could not take it after about 6 months. The lack of people interaction was mind numbing and I missed going to the office and taking trains. Nothing like a cup of joe from a cart on the corner. For those who like to go out, meet people and feel passionately about everything they do, that lifestyle would not be ideal.”
Did anybody actually read the book? Where is everyone getting the idea that Tim prescribed a life of sitting around and doing nothing all day? Is there some law that jobless people are not allowed to ride trains, get a cup of joe from a cart on the corner, go out, meet people, and feel passionate about everything they do? Tim specifically suggests pursuing a life of excitement and service, and his life is far from boring.
What bothers me the most about these comments is the insinuation that life is inherently worthless unless you have a master giving you assignments. Newsflash: if you can’t figure out what to do with your time, THE PROBLEM IS YOU.
Say you suddenly had complete time freedom. In this world of countless wonders, unprecedented technological advances, and critical problems to be solved, could you really not figure out a way to keep yourself occupied? I can’t imagine ever being bored with life no matter how long I lived, as long as I had the freedom to do what I wanted.
If you ever run out of things to do, you’ve overstayed your welcome on this planet. If you’re bored, I’m happy to give you some sacred work to do. But really, if you have nothing to live for until your boss tells you what to live for, you’re done. You’re already emotionally dead, so as a formality, you just need to complete the process by becoming physically dead. It should be a seamless transition for you.
I agree that one’s work should be sacred. Freud said “Love and work…work and love, that’s all there is.” But Freud’s work was a lot more exciting than putting cover sheets on TPS reports. Most people aren’t so fortunate, and it’s much more of a challenge for them to make a living from work that’s meaningful to them.
The commenter who missed going to the office actually touched on a good point. What if the job you already have is meaningful to you? Great! You don’t need to avoid your work because you like it. Do your work and be happy.
I agree that a job can be great. I’ve even been there myself. But in my experience, things always change. If you like your job now, will you still like it when you have a new manager, or they transfer you to another department, or the company goes out of business? I’d rather be in control so that I know I’ll like my work every day.
And yeah, Tim and I are a little more job-averse than most. I came across a very interesting study through @phdbre and @thembti on Twitter, in which job dissatisfaction was compared among different Myers-Briggs types.
The study found that the types most likely to be very dissatisfied with their job are ISTP (like Tim), INTP (like me), and ENFJ. None of the INFJs, INTJs, ENTJs, or ESTPs were very dissatisfied with their job.
What ISTP and INTP have in common is that they’re the two types whose dominant function is introverted thinking. I’m not sure why the ENFJs are in that group. They’re called “the great communicators;” maybe there aren’t a lot of jobs for great communicators out there.
Anyway, people all want to do different kinds of work, including kinds that might not be readily available in a traditional job. And the point of the 4HWW is to put your income generation on auto pilot so your time is freed up to do what you want…which in many cases will be work, just work that doesn’t pay so much (or you’d already be able to do it).
Let’s take a look at one more comment:
“My dream job would actually require working probably 60 or more hours out the week since I would like to manage a hotel. Someone like myself would find the book and that lifestyle very unsatisfying.”
Well, if that’s her dream job, why isn’t she doing it? There must be something that’s stopping her, and I don’t know what that would be other than time or money. So if she had enough time and money to manage a hotel, then she could be doing the work she wanted to, right? THAT’S WHAT THE 4HWW IS ALL ABOUT! So why are we disagreeing?
March 29th, 2009 at 10:02 pm
“If you’re bored, I’m happy to give you some sacred work to do. ”
Really? Do tell!
Hayden Tompkins´s last blog post..Magically Meme-Licious!
March 30th, 2009 at 4:39 am
As a writer, there’s a lot of work2 – writing, editing, submitting and all of that repeated over and over again. And a lot of it is hard work, and yet I gave up everything else in my life to pursue it.
Alex Fayle | Someday Syndrome´s last blog post..Fear of an office job: Allison Day interview
March 30th, 2009 at 11:54 am
Of course those commenters never read 4HWW. Most commenters comment without reading even a 1000 word post, not to mention a whole book. As a blogger, you know that
And BTW what is “psychic entropy”? As a professional psychic, I’m concerned!
Your point on the word “work” having two meaning is great. There are actually many such words with double meanings. In my recent post on the Law of Attraction, I pointed out “thinking” is one of those. “Love” is another biggie, and I have to write about it in my next post because I promised so…
Quite frankly, many people have the slave mentality. They do what they are told to do and they have no idea how to create their own life with their power and creativity. They don’t even know they have such power. (Some act out saying NO to everything they are told, but you know rioting slaves are still just slaves.)
Excellent post, clearing written. Go save the world, Hunter!
Akemi – Yes to Me´s last blog post..Light Ascension 2012 Resources
March 30th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
Oh, and for the spiritually enslaved people — I suggest educating and enlightening them, rather than giving them the death pill. I’m nice ^_^
And I read 4HWW, but not your ebook nor Jonathan’s book. Having said this, I think the only caveat of 4HWW is his preoccupation that we have to find a “muse”, the money maker, to free ourselves. Which means we have to spend some time and energy to get this money making system going, and I think this is a waste. Why not go directly to what we like doing and make good money with it? Time is accelerating, you know.
Akemi – Yes to Me´s last blog post..How Darkworkers Control You And The World
March 30th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
Great post! I haven’t read the book, but wanted to add support to your point about things changing…at one time I worked 60 hour workweeks as an IT consultant, and actually I really loved it for awhile. I loved the goals, the urgency, the comraderie, and the money, and I had to develop many aspects of myself, mostly related to drawing on personal power, that I now see very clearly I needed to develop in order to grow. But eventually the passion went out of that, and I burnt out. Now I split my time between raising my kids, doing some paid freelance work and meditation teaching that I love, and doing volunteer work that I also love but that doesn’t pay. It’s all good. And that combo is my version of the ‘four hour workweek’.
Lisa (mommymystic)´s last blog post..What is Spiritual Parenting?
March 30th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
as a fellow intp, who is currently averaging a job a year (including those first 14 jobless years!), i agree with your assessment. have pity on these ferriss hating fools, however. they were probably all educated in a system designed to addict people to external direction, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, with homework on top of that! look familiar?
chas´s last blog post..monday morning motivator!:18, the energetics of mood
March 30th, 2009 at 9:58 pm
@ Hayden, OK, your sacred work is to wash my dishes. But this is probably a better task for somebody who needs to be told what to do. Somehow I think you can come up with better things to do!
@ Alex, I think you’ve got the right idea there! Enjoy your work2.
@ Akemi, not sure what psychic entropy is, but I don’t think you have to be concerned. Language can get confusing, so that’s why it’s important to know what we really mean. OK, I guess educating and enlightening is OK. What does “time is accelerating” mean?
@ Lisa, I think coming up with your own version of the 4HWW is a great idea!
@ Chas, wow, that’s a lot of jobs! Hmmm…you’re talking about school, right? But it wasn’t 8 hours a day, was it?
March 30th, 2009 at 11:01 pm
Oh, cool, you caught it.
This is another thing like 2012 that I’ve been trying to drop a hint…
As a starter, pay attention how time feels. I know this sounds crazy, but does time (say, one hour) really feel the same it was, say, two years ago?
Akemi – Yes to Me´s last blog post..Developing Lightbodies In Light Ascension
March 31st, 2009 at 12:32 am
I enjoyed reading this article. It never occurred to me that Tim and Jonathan are actually saying very similar things. But I think you’re right. They are.
March 31st, 2009 at 2:20 pm
hunter, i really hate sycophant pseudo-geeks. But you frackin rock!
@Akemi, are you talking about getting old?
March 31st, 2009 at 8:57 pm
@ Akemi, I don’t know…I guess I’ll have to read about it on your blog!
@ Vered, yeah, I think they’re both saying “do something meaningful with your life.”
@ Lorrie, um, OK.
March 31st, 2009 at 10:41 pm
Good stuff and good points.
It’s funny how simply shifting the lens, mindset or model opens up new possibilities.
For example, I’ve been thinking in terms of “funding my lifestyle” … how much do I need to make and what’s the best personal product line/service to accomplish that? (really, it’s just using my lessons from software / performance engineering).
The other shift for me is “living my values” and focusing on “strong weeks.” I try to compartmentalize and compress the crap I like the least into the first hour of each work day to create a glide path and spend the rest of the day on my strengths. Rather than spend 75% of the day on my weakness and 25% on strengths, I trip to flip it, so it’s 25% weakness, 75% strengths and I push for more power hours. I’ve made great strides and rather than end the day with less energy, my energy cycle continues throughout the day.
I still think it’s about finding the minimal required work time to fund your life style. Just thinking in those terms means figuring out whether you should sell your tine or productize yourself. Personally, I’m a fan of productizing and pay for incremental experience (free html, pay more for PDF, pay more for print, pay the most for in person/event.)
J.D. Meier´s last blog post..Finding Your Values
April 1st, 2009 at 11:04 am
@lorrie,
No. I’m talking about time itself, and the change is probably related to Ascension.
I’ll think about writing it on my blog — it’s pretty tough to “prove” it, but intuitive types may understand.
Akemi – Yes to Me´s last blog post..Light Ascension 2012 Resources
April 1st, 2009 at 9:40 pm
@ J.D., I think it makes sense to find the minimal required work time to fund your life style. Having that goal keeps you focused. Of course, if you like your work, you can always choose to do more than the minimum.
April 11th, 2009 at 3:19 am
[...] all the wrongs in your life is a lie. To complement this, however, Hunter Nuttel has also done a counter-arguament. That should cover all bases! A lot of attention goes onto cutting back your work hours, but what [...]
April 15th, 2009 at 8:18 pm
To be honest. I don’t want to work 4 hours a week. I want to work my ass off at buying and running businesses. Mainly because I have struggled for years to do something I really enjoy doing and I am still climbing.
Since I’ve worked so hard I don’t want to stop. That’s how I’ll give back to the world. The world needs guys like me. I want to use my success as a serial business owner to give something back to the world that has provided me with abundance.
It seems I read a lot of “warm and fuzzy” stuff when folks talk about how they want to spend the other 164 hours ( there are 168 hours in a 7 day week).
To be honest even if I pursued all of my hobbies I’d still get bored. I could settle for working my ass off 9 or 10 months a year and taking 2 or 3 months off, but not all at once. Something like a mini vacation evey 4 or 5 months.
Yes, I enjoy working long hours and solving problems related to businesses especially learning how to run businesses and I don’t plan on letting up. Hopefully I’ll be the 90 year old guy that dies while I am in the middle of doing my next acquisition.
Maybe I’ll create a blog: “The 4 hour work week sucks”….just kidding.
Hunter your blog is the only blog I follow. You actually add value and a good perspective. Although, IMO bloggers only offer opinions of things that have already occured. You have somewhat of a cutting edge perspective. Keep it up.
April 16th, 2009 at 10:52 pm
@ Ron, when you’re working on something that you couldn’t stop if you tried, that’s when you’ve got it made.
September 29th, 2009 at 3:28 pm
Tim’s book is about lifestyle, the process of filling your life with more of what you want to do…and emptying it of that which you don’t want to do.
Great post Hunter.
This is my first time really reading your blog, and enjoyable it is.
September 30th, 2009 at 7:28 pm
@ Joseph, thanks for visiting. I agree, Tim’s book is about filling your life with what excites you.
May 9th, 2010 at 8:04 am
I’ve always seen Tim Ferriss as one of the ENTP poster boys – I can’t imagine an I being labeled “Greatest Self-Promoter of All Time” or an S being one of Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Business People of 2007.”
May 9th, 2010 at 4:12 pm
@ RCRM, I don’t know who called Tim Ferriss the “Greatest Self-Promoter of All Time,” but I certainly wouldn’t call him that. (Just off the top of my head, Donald Trump and Gary Vaynerchuk would be much better choices.) I’m basing my “I” opinion on his appearance in the videos I’ve seen, which admittedly is not a lot of data.
I definitely see him as an S, and particularly an SP (“experiencer”). He loves raw data and extreme physical feats, he’s very down to earth, and he lives for the moment. Remember that you see all types in all fields, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see any type winning a particular award.