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<![CDATA[Jonathan added 'Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby']]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/73227255
to: Why's (Poignant) Guide to RubybyWhy The Lucky Stiff
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<![CDATA[Jonathan added 'The Scramble for Africa']]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/72145331
to: The Scramble for Africa (Paperback)byThomas Pakenham
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<![CDATA[Jonathan added 'The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich']]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/57675367
to: The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich (Hardcover)byTimothy Ferriss bookshelves: business,
productivity-creativity
I hesitantly recomend this book. The reasons why are towards the end of the review.
The douchebaggery and straight up disengenuity espoused almost drips off the pages: quite remarkable even in the self-help, think-outside-the-box, start-your-own-business genre. Much of what Ferris recommends just plain doesn't work (I'm talking from experience). Other things are slightly ridiculous: an entire chapter is spent discussing how one can get people to stop bugging you at your cubicle by lying to their faces about how busy you are, or using other, more passive-aggressive methods to avoid them.
Yet more suggestions are even more unethical and unsound: how to get your boss to sign you up to work at home, so you can go off and get your job 'done' in an hour a day and then get on with pursuing your just rewards. Apparently, as long as no one realizes what useless timewaster you >used< to be, Ferris thinks it is perfectly acceptable to use this new found time to your own ends, as long as no one catches on.
According to Ferris, we should all use methods to arbitrage the actual productivity of others - such as email friends and colleagues for information rather than finding it ourselves, despite the fact he also espouses avoiding all such requests from others, getting them to 'channel' their communications into forms that you can either ignore or answer as quickly as possible, preferably through an executive assistant. As far as that secret 'get rich quick, live on the beach' lifestyle he promises? It involves the same arbitrage, only commercially. In other words, we should all start websites that dropship stuff and by google adwords and we'll all be rich. Life doesn't work like that: someone has to make shit, and the web is already saturated with stores.
Why do I recomend this book anyway? Well, despite the shitloads of pie in the sky bad advice, and the loads of leeching & douchebaggery that Ferris seems to think he is the original source for, there is a lot to be learned in regards to automating and simplifying one's life, and practicing and developing an enterpreneurial outlook to improving one's situation.
So, read between the lines, recognize the Ferris is an untrustworthy weasel frat boy out to promote himself and sell books. But, take note that while the lifestyle he espouses in his book just doesn't add up, his overall philosophy has served him well, and there is definitely utility in the tactics that serve this get-someone-else-to-do-it-for-you life strategy.
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<![CDATA[Jonathan
is on page 91 of The Scramble for Afr...
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http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/72145331
Jonathan
is on page 91 of 800 of
The Scramble for Africa
Trashy, cheap, and yet amazingly prescient, fascinating and awesome.
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<![CDATA[Jonathan added 'Lean Brain Management: More Success and Efficiency by Saving Intelligence']]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/60219046
Lean Brain Management: More Success and Efficiency by Saving Intelligence (Hardcover)
byGunter Dueck bookshelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[Jonathan added 'Big Book of Independent Thinking: Do Things No One Does or Do Things Everyone Does in a Way No One Does']]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/60219043
Big Book of Independent Thinking: Do Things No One Does or Do Things Everyone Does in a Way No One Does (Paperback)
byIan Gilbert bookshelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[Jonathan added 'Personality and Intelligence at Work']]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/60219038
Personality and Intelligence at Work (Paperback)
byAdrian Furnham bookshelves: to-read
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