The meme of “4-hour work week” (heavily promoted by Tim Ferriss and his book bearing that name) strikes me as curious enough to react when I hear an original comment on the subject of work vs. fun vs. pastime.
This subject provoking many questions like:
- What is work?
- Is it good not to work?
- What kinds of work can someone else do instead of you? or What kind of work can really be outsourced?
- What is the goal in not working? (perhaps, you should define work first)
- Why does the work need to stop before fun begins?
- How much or how little can a human being work before going insane?
- Do you believe someone saying “Yes, I’m surfing the Net. I need it for work.”
- Do you believe someone telling you “Can’t talk now, I’m working!” is telling the truth every time?
- Is this guy Tim Ferris really lying (pun intended) in net bed between two palms during his 36 non-work hours of the week and not working?
- … any many others.
Probably answers to these questions would vary more than you think from person to person. What would you say?
I personally think that internet and shortened attention span has brought on a slew of misleading titles (of books, blogs and newspaper articles and beyond) that promote a (theoretical) possibility getting things done with ridiculously little effort or with amazingly little time. Some examples from some of my fields of interest: Teach Yourself Programming with Java in 24 Hours, Teach Yourself C++ in 24 Hours, Teach Yourself Spanish in 24 Hours, Teach Yourself Javascript 1.3 in 24 Hours, etc.
Regardless, you may want to listen to this parody called “14-second work year” that ridicules the 4-hour work week beyond belief. Yes, it goes overboard, but it also puts things into the perspective. The source of this audio - QPR (Quotidian Public Radio) is a parody in its own right of NPR (National Public Radio). :-)
NOTE: If you’re not very familiar with Tim Ferriss and/or you haven’t read his book “4-hour work week” You may also want to read bio before listening to the “14-second work year” story of Jim Fairness from this parody.
