By: Tim Ferriss
Intro:
The 4-Hour Workweek is an inspiring shake-up of the status quo. It's full of great ideas that add up to a lifestyle that allows for travel, unique experiences, and serious increases in your productivity. Initially, some might be put off by a bit of a gimmicky feel, but there is much lifestyle enlightenment inside: traveling can be cheaper than living at home, you can decouple time and money, your greatest fears aren't all that scary, the competition for greatness is less than that for mediocrity, productivity and busyness are unrelated. It's many brilliant ideas and concepts rolled into a single book.
My 10 Favorite Index Cards:
“People don’t want to be millionaires—they want to experience what they believe only millions can buy.”
“I’ve chartered private planes over the Andes, enjoyed many of the best wines in the world in between world-class ski runs, and lived like a king, lounging by the infinity pool of a private villa. Here’s the little secret I rarely tell: It all cost less than rent in the United States.”
“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
“It’s lonely at the top. Ninety-nine percent of people in the world are convinced they are incapable of achieving great things, so they aim for the mediocre. The level of competition is thus fiercest for ‘realistic’ goals, paradoxically making them the most time and energy-consuming.”
“Effectiveness is doing the things that get you closer to your goals. Efficiency is performing a given task (whether important or not) in the most economical manner possible. Being efficient without regard to effectiveness is the default mode of the universe.”
“What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence, a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it.”
“Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure.”
“That’s precisely the question everyone should be asking—why the hell not?”
“The average man is a conformist, accepting miseries and disasters with the stoicism of a cow standing in the rain.”
“To be free, to be happy and fruitful, can only be attained through sacrifice of many common but overestimated things.”