The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss - Latest Comments in The Grand Illusion: The Real Tim Ferriss Speaks

Re: The Grand Illusion: The Real Tim Ferriss Speaks

Sales Weasel — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 01:55:54 -0000

Very well done. I have been outsourcing for a while now. My VA handles my call reports and power point presentations and perception is reality. I am making more money and closing more deals because I am not wasting time on the BS paperwork. It is great thanks for the great site, lots of fun and very inspirational. Go forth and do as little as you can.

Re: The Grand Illusion: The Real Tim Ferriss Speaks

Preeta — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 07:06:00 -0000

Tim, add a bit more fun into your already fun-filled life by visiting the guys at Improv Everywhere and joining in one of their pranks:

http://improveverywhere.com

This website always makes me laugh and is a great read when I'm trying to kill time at the office coz I always finish my work so fast ;)

Re: The Grand Illusion: The Real Tim Ferriss Speaks

Preeta — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 07:01:06 -0000

Check out a great site for utilising the web to make money:

http://ican-makemoney.com/?...

Re: The Grand Illusion: The Real Tim Ferriss Speaks

Grier — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 01:02:59 -0000

Just recently discovered your Blog with the Bigger Goals Equals Less Competition post, and thought you made good sense. Getting to know "You" (Tim? or the 2 Ghostwriters?) better, and coming across this - well, I'm not impressed.

It's your Blog. You can play all the tricks you want. But, this is just stupid. Especially in light of recent plagiarisms being revealed in print media, as well as the blogsphere. I see a lack of transperency and good sense.

Reminds me (on a much smaller scale) of the the famous radio hoax pulled by Orson Welles. Well, can't waste anymore of my four hours here! So long.

Re: The Grand Illusion: The Real Tim Ferriss Speaks

Brian Smith — Sun, 04 May 2008 15:01:43 -0000

Hi Tim (Van or Roger),

I am an American living in Germany and really like the idea of personal outsourcing but it seems people in India do not speak German. Anyone who ready my mails or would help me with research would have to speak German. I asked Get Friday but they said that can't do it. Ask Sunday is the same.... Do you know of any outsourcing possibilities for me. I suppose I could go us something like Get Friday to have them find me 3 or 4 people who meat the criteria. What do you think?

Thanks.

Re: The Grand Illusion: The Real Tim Ferriss Speaks

Christy Fann — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 19:22:29 -0000

Tim: I am so excited about your book that I want to make out with you! I told my husband that I wanted to send you that message. He didn’t think it was such a hot idea but I figured you won’t ever see it, you will outsource it; much to the disappointment of those above who would like to hear directly from you. Ummmm, did they read your book?

Here is why I finally sent this message: WE NEED YOUR HELP! The state of California is cutting education back to nothing. The parents in our district are scrambling to raise the 7 million dollars required to save teacher’s jobs. After realizing that the plans in place include spaghetti night, selling pins and lemonade stands I broke into a cold sweat and called a meeting for anyone who might be interested in aiming for the fences. Two people showed up. O.K., it’s a start. I explained that it’s 80/20 rule time, my long time favorite but seldom applied rule (except when doing laundry or cleaning). I came home after meeting with my army of two and began setting up a website at www.savemyteachers.com. I pulled your book out to use a couple of quotes in the beginning of chapters and found this in front: SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL TEACHER- 10% of all author royalties are donated to educational not-for-profits, including Donorchoose.org.

I can see it now: “The principles and author of The Four Hour Workweek help Capistrano Unified School District achieve the unachievable.” Seriously, my educational default plan has been in place long before I heard of your book: homeschool and travel. You have given me the roadmap and a good nudge. But from an altruistic viewpoint, the vast majority of students in our school have no default plan. Their education will be compromised if we fail.

Thanks a million times over for steering our collective consciousness in the direction of quality living!

Re: The Grand Illusion: The Real Tim Ferriss Speaks

Angela — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 17:04:38 -0000

Great site and awesome book! Quick question with an ounce of background: I'm a writer and editor for a niche market and have finally left the 9-5+ job to do work from home and do the kind of stuff Tim talks about in his book, etc.

Does anyone know if you can present a book series idea to a publisher--like the Dummies series, for example. I don't mean a fiction series or one's own series, but an idea for a series that would cover mutliple, related topics for a niche market. I'm qualified to write a couple of them, but they'd be easy to research/produce (could even outsource a lot), but I don't know if I need to come up with a prototype first and/or get some sort of copyright or something for the idea. I haven't had a lot of time to look into this as I've been working so much on freelance editing and on some books I have coming out next year. But I'd love to find a way to make a product like this automatic so I could focus on just the things I love and not on paying the bills.

Also, Tim, if you ever read this yourself, the idea series could actually work well in combo with the ideas in your book for another way to sell your same material.

Thanks!
Angela

Re: The Grand Illusion: The Real Tim Ferriss Speaks

Nicolai Wadstrom — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 03:01:37 -0000

Great fun,

Really good April fools joke!

Cheers,
Nicolai

Re: The Grand Illusion: The Real Tim Ferriss Speaks

Utilisateur — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 09:35:05 -0000

Hahaha... You got me too.

I was just telling my girlfriend: "you see that? I told you! I told you that I wanted to do it for my blog too".
(I got this idea after reading your book, in my bath, asking myself how would i could avoid loosing time writing in a professional blog...
For me as a student, it's a real added value to write a blog.
Unless it's "personal", it's kind of understandable to pay someone for it to save time...

Just to tell you (finally), that my girlfriend is fed up with you: i never stop talking about your book, your ideas, YMII etc... And this for anything! Poor thing.

Good joke
All the best :)

Ludovic (A Student from France)

Re: The Grand Illusion: The Real Tim Ferriss Speaks

Brian — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 10:50:10 -0000

Ok see you in January-Feb.2009, do you know if you will come to promote y our book or just pleasure. I am sure both.

I look forward to seeing you in Jan.2009, since i will be here for 9 months or more. By the way, thanks Tim for the referral of YMII. 2 of my associates are using this great service.

Cheers

Brian

Re: The Grand Illusion: The Real Tim Ferriss Speaks

Mia — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 02:47:41 -0000

That's awesome! You are an inspiration.

Re: The Grand Illusion: The Real Tim Ferriss Speaks

Brian — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 17:32:29 -0000

Hi Tim, i was referred to your book by my friends in the west coast of Canada, Winnipeg, i only saw the book title and i immediatly jumped on it. Purchased the book, read it in 2weeks and referred 10 of my closest friends and associates to your book. Firstly i would like to say, WOWWWWW, i never knew you won the Championship for Tango in Argentina. Your stories about Argentina, are very amusing, since i travel to Argentina frequently, for business and family. I speak the spanish language. Hopefully one day you can come in speak in Argentina. I would definitely promote you here in Argentina. By the way, i ended up buying 20 copies to distribute to my friends here in Argentina, lets just say..they are loving it and getting great results, especially when they meet Argentine woman. Thanks for your great book and the inspiring words of wisdom. Hope to see you in Argentina soon, your friendly Canadian in Argentina. Brian D

###

Thanks so much for the comment, Brian! Look for me in BsAs in Jan-Feb of 2009 :)

Tim

Re: The Grand Illusion: The Real Tim Ferriss Speaks

Mia — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 21:29:20 -0000

Interesting. You are quirky to the extreme. After having lived in America for several years all I can say is that more Americans should have your sense of humour!
Whether you do or don't write the blog, who cares??? People read it because they are mostly bored sh*tless of their mundane lives, their long commutes and living vicariously is the best they can muster - and well, for some, that is just as good.

Re: The Grand Illusion: The Real Tim Ferriss Speaks

Ghillie Man — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 20:26:01 -0000

Booo Booo... bad Tim...

;)

Re: The Grand Illusion: The Real Tim Ferriss Speaks

Abdu — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 21:51:02 -0000

I got very suspicious when you said it wasn't you. A woman from India will NOT and CAN NOT know many things that were mentioned in the blogs.

Also my question: to what end you'll be outsourcing your life? It seems to be excessive at some point.

Re: The Grand Illusion: The Real Tim Ferriss Speaks

timferriss — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 19:38:12 -0000

@Dan and quite a few above,

Guys, this post was an April Fool's Day joke!!!

Please be sure to read the postscript at the bottom of the post, my comments in green above, and the subsequent post titled "Happy Japanese April Fool's Day".

Don't be upset -- we're all friends here, and if it has my name on it, I wrote it :)

Pura vida,

Tim

Re: The Grand Illusion: The Real Tim Ferriss Speaks

Les Witherspoon — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 13:27:27 -0000

If you want other people to write your content for you, fine, but don't lie about it. Have them sign it with their real names. That way they will get credit and you will remain honest. And it's what many other popular blog sites do.

And re your comments (in a story on a major news channel) that you "outsourced" your dating: I'm curious. Do you mean you outsource finding someone (but presumably go on the dates yourself)? That's called the old fashioned shadchen or matchmaker. Nothing new about it. Outsourcing your email: most managers used to have someone (secretary) who would screen requests and handle those that didn't need their personal attention. Again nothing new about it.

As a doctor in training, who does not plan to outsource seeing his patients, and who will probably be working far more than 4 hours a day, I admit that yes, I undoubtedly should look at outsourcing some of the things that don't need my personal time and attention. But the things I need done typically are hands on. And you know what? I'm a little reluctant to outsource my life. Why? Because in the long run, I can't hire someone to die for me - and when that time comes, I want to be the one who has lived my life. Not someone else.

Les
Seattle, WA

###

Hi Les,

I think you might have missed this, but this post was an April Fool's joke :) LOL... for your other points, I suggest you read the book and you'll see we're actually on the same page.

Cheers,

Tim

Re: The Grand Illusion: The Real Tim Ferriss Speaks

Christopher Parisi — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 12:20:39 -0000

HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!! THAT WAS GREAT! YOU HAD ME HOOK, LINE AND SINKER!

Re: The Grand Illusion: The Real Tim Ferriss Speaks

TimG — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 22:44:36 -0000

Tim,

2 Kudos for you, amazing work.

I'm just happy to have your friends Van and Roger filter through and respond to many of the comments. Very believable!

I'm also proud they found my post(Septemberish) about using the ##|# to find(ctrl+f) and filter to your err I mean their replies to the many comments.

Keep up the good words/works guys.

Knowing isn't doing what you need to do my son.
Telling me that you know is only bluffing on the run.
Knowing isn't doing
Doing isn't know.
Nothing but the knowing AND the doing get the job done.
~Unknown

Re: The Grand Illusion: The Real Tim Ferriss Speaks

Dan — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 16:44:20 -0000

It REALLY bothers me that you would do that Tim. I'm all about outsourcing and reducing workload but the person who knows about that is you, from the experience you have and your past experiments. Honestly, I think hiring someone else to speak for you like this is wrong. I could understand if this were a company and you had a company spokes person, but I and probably many other readers thought it was you we were personally speaking with... not some pair that you hired. If you put your personal name on something like this, it should've be you.

Re: The Grand Illusion: The Real Tim Ferriss Speaks

Steve Young — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 13:33:53 -0000

Nice work Tim. I probably would have fallen for it had I not gotten the second amended message first!

Re: The Grand Illusion: The Real Tim Ferriss Speaks

John Brignal — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 00:43:39 -0000

That was a good one.

I actually thought, he has not done an April fool and read the whole piece and believed it all...What a sucker!

Tim - "You're a funny guy - that's why I am gonna shoot you last..."
Quote from some comedy film (3 amigoes I think..)

Re: The Grand Illusion: The Real Tim Ferriss Speaks

China Law Blog — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 20:24:15 -0000

Great idea. I have been using my secretary to spot topics and I'm guessing that costs me about $50 a day and that's not including any writing. I'm going to try finding someone to spot the issues and give me a first draft.

Re: The Grand Illusion: The Real Tim Ferriss Speaks

FFMarathon — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 10:57:15 -0000

Dude - You totally got me. The funny thing was that I started to think how I could do the same thing to get better blog ratings! :) It would be great to hire a "better me!"

Re: The Grand Illusion: The Real Tim Ferriss Speaks

Jim — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 12:27:41 -0000

Tim, nice April Fool.

Or is it? Maybe you've double-bluffed us! And in reality there are two people who have the ability to produce posts for you in just the way you describe.

Jim