What do you think of Tim Ferris?

King of the Wingers

The three books you described are completely different. The 4hWW may be outdated in the specific references, but the overall concepts are still the same and still make sense IMO. Tribe of Mentors is basically a book of interviews with his opinion of the "best" individuals in a field. He's still putting out content based on this book and while I don't connect with all of it, I don't think that is the intention. I've learned a few things from it and that is worth it for me. 4hChef, well this one is evergreen. The book isn't intended to be a cover to cover read, and a lot of the cooking hacks included are great. The trashcan clam bake alone is worth the price of the book as I've used that method several times and it is always a hit.

My opinion of TF as an individual is that he's a fascinating example of a true generalist. Again, I don't connect with every piece of content he has, and I'm not the target for some of his marketing practices so I ignore them. But, I do learn from him on a regular basis. I think the key to understanding someone like TF is to look at his motives before consuming the content. He is a product salesman. His products are based on knowledge he gathers from a combination of interviews and his own testing. He's very skilled at collecting revenue from multiple streams of the same piece of content, and he seems to genuinely care about his audience. There are others in the space that don't, and you can smell it on them from a mile away.

I really like him. He asks very detailed questions to his interviewees that aren't really generic, and the responses are much better due to that. I'm not sure about his other books but 4 Hour Work Week is still great in the general advice it gives, not necessarily the specific details and methods, which are from the 2000s and 2010s.

One piece of advice that is extremely useful is the Eliminate, Simplify, Automate, Delegate loop for tasks:

Q1 – Eliminate
Does this task need to be done?
Does it help me get to where I want to go?

If yes, go to Q2.
If no – don’t do it!

Q2 – Simplify
Can this task be simplified?

If yes, simplify it.
If no, go to Q3

Q3 – Automate
Can this task be automated?

If yes, automate.
If no, go to Q4.

Q4 – Delegate
Can this task be delegated?

If yes, delegate.
If no, identify what needs to happen in order to delegate it.

He is very smart in business

TF speaks Japanese, holds world records in tango dancing, is now a pretty accomplished chef and has a business empire that exceeds that of anyone on this site apart from Patrick Collison. I think he's pretty impressive...

Can we get back to shipping now? 😋

He is like Neil Patel. Generates a lot of content that is great to people in search of tips and tricks to get rich quick, rank quickly, or not do much work and get rich doing it. No doubt this is a massive motivator.

I looked up to them, but as I grew older and tried more experiments I obviously started to see the cracks in their armor. He is great for motivating you to take action, at the end of the day if you achieve a 4-hour workweek or not, you have probably put effort into a project, now you have some skills and experience and you will probably try again.

Tim is a motivational speaker that has found his niche. Like sales training courses are simply motivation classes. If it gets people motivated then I do not see any harm. If the chapters are bullshit, but it gives you a target that is above and beyond your normal level of effort, and you try, that is great.

He reminds me of a friend that took some meds for depression, but took too many and ended up so ridiculously happy all the time it was like everyday was the best day of his life.

He's a cool guy

I personally think books are fantastic and are still relevent.

He makes money off books and courses. Are you looking how to make money off those things, because he's a good businessman. Or are you looking to gain something from his books (rhetorical question)?

Take him or leave him.

I read his books way back in the day, and I sometimes listen to his podcast now. Seems like a pretty cool dude, but like others have pointed out, some of his advice seems a little antiquated or generalistic now.

I actually went as far as hiring a VA years ago based on his 4HWW book, but I felt his book didn't really go into the nitty gritty details. For instance he says in almost a throw away fashion that he set up an online health food company which paid for his ability to have a roving lifestyle and travel the world, but he never went into details about that business at all. His advise was tantamount to "Oh, just set up a highly profitable online business that basically runs itself and you can go and do all these fabulous things with your spare time...".

But as all of us here at Indie Hackers know - that is not such an easy task. Especially today. Back when Tim released the 4HWW over a decade ago that might have been a little easier to do due to less competition, but nowadays, the market and the audience has changed enormously.

I feel that he falls into the category of public speakers that preach "In order to get famous you have to knock on doors all the time, you have to find creative ways to get to meet people and you have to be persistent and 'in their face' in order to climb the ladder of success to the top and get your ideas heard.", but then now that they have made it to the top themselves, they keep saying "Oh, I hate it when unknown people just want meetings with me and won't stop bugging me or wanting to talk about their ideas all the time!". Hmmm.

I also feel he has just been riding the back of that first book success, but there is no doubt that he is a charismatic, engaging personality, and asks interesting questions from his podcast guests. His interview with Arnold Schwarzenegger is one of my favourites. I wish he would stick to more business oriented discussions though - he tends to prefer bio-technical talks, but I guess that is where his passions really lie - in trying to create the perfect super human.