I read the first few chapters of the 4-Hour work week, it's written like one of those cheesy, scummy, get rich quick commercials. Is the rest of the book worthwhile? I got sick after about 50 pages of the author describing how awesome he is at literally every single endeavor that humans can participate in.
There have been maybe five times in my entire life that I've failed to finish reading a book that I've started, this was one of them, and it was by far the easiest to put down.
I agree. It was filled with platitudes and self-aggrandizing, vacuous anecdotes, but never offered any indication as to how one increases their income or reduces their time commitments.
I can soundly say that those first few chapters are literally about nothing. (At least, nothing pertinent to work or income).
IIRC, there's only one chapter listing all of Ferriss's accomplishments and it was only a few pages. I thought the book had a lot of great information and case studies. Honestly though, the biggest takeaway is "get lucky starting a business and make a bunch of money and then you can justify anything that follows." Easy to travel when you've made a bunch of money, easy to hire assistants when you've made a bunch of money, etc. Of course, there are case studies that are specifically chosen to show people with fewer means doing the same things.
I will say though that, from the title to the terminology, the book definitely has its cheesy, "get rich quick" moments. Why? Probably because that was the best way to sell it. It wasn't initially called "The 4 Hour Workweek," but Ferriss tested titles and found that one got the most reaction.
Maybe I'm not a good representative of his target audience, but to me, sounding like an infomercial con-artist isn't a good way to sell a product unless it has no value and you are merely attempting to take advantage of people. That may not be the case, but that's how I interpret that method of promotion.
It's been a while since I read it, perhaps I did exaggerate the page count of his self-promotion, but I remember finding it extremely off-putting.
I think patio11 was the one who said that a lot of successful things sound scummy like that...because that works really, really well, outside of the specific demographic that inhabits HN.
The whole book is like that, the author is a douche (or presents himself as one) and the entire concept is to find some area where you can sell an info product or get away with reselling something for an 88% margin, and hire VAs to do the majority of the workload.
There have been maybe five times in my entire life that I've failed to finish reading a book that I've started, this was one of them, and it was by far the easiest to put down.