The 4-Hour Work Week

Metadata

• Author: [[Timothy Ferriss]]
• Full Title: The 4-Hour Work Week
• Category: #books

Notes

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one. —ALBERT EINSTEIN (Location 410)

Different is better when it is more effective or more fun. (Location 604)

Alternating periods of activity and rest is necessary to survive, let alone thrive. (Location 635)

By working only when you are most effective, life is both more productive and more enjoyable. (Location 638)

“Someday” is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you. Pro and con lists are just as bad. If it’s important to you and you want to do it “eventually,” just do it and correct course along the way. (Location 657)

Focus on better use of your best weapons instead of constant repair. (Location 672)

Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action. (Location 778)

Uncertainty and the prospect of failure can be very scary noises in the shadows. Most people will choose unhappiness over uncertainty. (Location 781)

Fear itself is quite fear-inducing. Most intelligent people in the world dress it up as something else: optimistic denial. (Location 830)

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. (Location 911)

“What do you want?” is too imprecise to produce a meaningful and actionable answer. (Location 958)

The opposite of love is indifference, and the opposite of happiness is—here’s the clincher—boredom. (Location 965)

‘Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.’ You won’t believe what you can accomplish by attempting the impossible with the courage to repeatedly fail better.” (Location 1047)

Perfection is not when there is no more to add, but no more to take away. (Location 1174)

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. (Location 1212)

What you do is infinitely more important than how you do it. Efficiency is still important, but it is useless unless applied to the right things. (Location 1222)

Being overwhelmed is often as unproductive as doing nothing, and is far more unpleasant. Being selective—doing less—is the path of the productive. Focus on the important few and ignore the rest. (Location 1305)

Parkinson’s Law dictates that a task will swell in (perceived) importance and complexity in relation to the time allotted for its completion. (Location 1342)

Dedication is often just meaningless work in disguise. Be ruthless and cut the fat. (Location 1391)