[IMPORTANT: Please note this was an APRIL FOOL’S DAY joke! Please read the whole post, especially the postscript.]
Will the real Slim Shady please stand up?
This is Tim Ferriss. The real Tim Ferriss.
This is the first time I have written a post on this blog since March 30, 2007, 366 days ago, when I penned “How to Live Like a Rock Star in Buenos Aires.”
In the meantime, a virtual pair–Vanhishikha “Van” Mehra and Roger Espinosa–have taken my blog to the Technorati-1000 (around 600 at best) and had their content featured, under my name, in media from The New York Times to CNBC.
I’ve suggested topics and asked explicitly for some when I had photos or video to post, but Van and Roger are the short answer to the common question: how can you work four hours a week if you spend so much time on the blog?
The answer is: I don’t.
The impetus was an on-stage challenge at the 2007 SXSW two weeks earlier, and I resolved to demonstrate just how well the concepts in 4HWW could work. This is one of several pending year-long examples…
Here’s how my longest-term outsourcing experiment to date was executed:
1. Preparation: I used Elance.com to post an online editorial position, and I asked for three writing samples of 250 words on the topics of travel and productivity. There were 11 qualified applicants and four finalists, who further submitted a single 750-word article each.
2. People: Two of the four were selected on a trial basis to produce blog content as a pair.
The first, Vanhishikha “Van” Mehra, an undergrad and computer science major in Bangalore, had an impressive ability to choose topics and spot trends, but her English–learned through private schooling with non-native speakers–contained both British colloquialisms and mistakes common to Indian learners of English. She would be the content originator.
Roger Espinosa, the second, was raised in Chicago until 17 and then educated in Manila to become a systems administrator. He didn’t have the same knack for original content as Van, but his writing was native in appearance and not only grammatically correct but also idiomatically correct (e.g. “peanut butter and jelly sandwich” vs. “jelly and peanut butter sandwich”). He would become Van’s editor and publisher.
3. Process: Roger had sole rights to publish via WordPress, and their collaborations were were initial proofread by my Canadian assistant Amy, then later spot-checked by her via RSS. There have been fewer than half a dozen corrections after publication. I will often suggest topics on Mondays after checking e-mail and sometimes explicitly request posts that will allow relevant photos and video to be posted.
4. Van is paid $20 per post and Roger $15. Both get 100% performance bonuses if a given post front pages on Digg but must follow a “best practices” spec sheet to avoid violating user rules and getting blacklisted. I offered to increase the bonus to 200% for Van if it was directly applied to private English lessons with a tutor of my choosing, to whom I would remit payment directly. She has elected this since month 3, and it contributed to a more than 20% increase in front paging on Digg and other social ranking sites in the subsequent six months.
5. The “Odds and Ends” updates and miscellaneous are usually selected or created by me but transcribed by Amy after our once-daily 10-minute action item calls.
So, dear reader, there you have what I’ve been dying to tell you all for the last year, but I wanted to see if it was possible to make it to the 365-day mark.
Some of you have noticed TOEFL-esque phrasings here and there, and more than a few have noted the strange inflection of a few comments (Roger has written about 75% of my comments).
Please don’t be upset by this, and I encourage you to view it as I intended it: a major example of how well personal outsourcing and “offchoring” can work.
I’ll be writing at least once per week for the next two months, and we’ll see if my posts are half as popular as Van and Roger’s 🙂 If you have any topic suggestions, please let me know in the comments.
Much more to come,
The Real Tim Ferriss
###
Important Postscript!
Happy Japanese April Fool’s Day!
Man, oh, man. I was going to wait until tomorrow, but this post has kicked up some dust, so I wanted to own up. Yessir, it’s an April Fool’s Day prank. Sorry for any confusion! It would have been too obvious on April 1st in the US, so I used the alternate time zone. More to come tomorrow, but I write all the posts (minus attributed guest posts) myself. As _Jon put it in the comments: “a personal blog shouldn’t be work, it should be a passion. If you need to outsource it, you have the wrong motivation.”
I couldn’t agree more. That’s why I’m here writing the posts, including the stupid ones (man crush anyone?).
This little prank has been in my head since Jan. 10th, when the infamous Tucker Max suggested a much better version that I was unable to pull off due to this London trip:
“BTW–I had a hilarious idea for what you need to do for an April Fools prank: Write a post, complete with video, about how you have taken outsourcing to the next level. You’re paying people to workout for you, to eat for you, sleep for you, watch TV for you, do literally everything. The vid would show you sitting in a chair in a white room,
cutting intermittently to people doing things with shirts that have “I am Tim Ferriss” on them. It would be f*ing HILARIOUS. You have to do this.”
The Tim Ferriss Show is one of the most popular podcasts in the world with more than one billion downloads. It has been selected for "Best of Apple Podcasts" three times, it is often the #1 interview podcast across all of Apple Podcasts, and it's been ranked #1 out of 400,000+ podcasts on many occasions. To listen to any of the past episodes for free, check out this page.
Comment Rules: Remember what Fonzie was like? Cool. That’s how we’re gonna be — cool. Critical is fine, but if you’re rude, we’ll delete your stuff. Please do not put your URL in the comment text and please use your PERSONAL name or initials and not your business name, as the latter comes off like spam. Have fun and thanks for adding to the conversation! (Thanks to Brian Oberkirch for the inspiration.)
Assuming that perception is reality, it doesn’t matter who’s been writing as long as it’s compelling content.
Even now, I have no proof this isn’t an outsourced April fools joke.
I could ask all number of questions, but I’m pretty sure Van and Roger could pass any Turing test I came up with.
Happy April Fools
Best AFJ joke ever. I took the bait! 🙂
Whereas, I have been an April Fool a day early…
And now I’m going to be a poor sport about it So some days I feel a little less than elite. Here’s why. If you track me via RSS then you likely have a post in there from this morning called Outsourcing Blogging that no longer has a post here associat…
I knew it had to be a 4/1 joke! OK, I really didn’t, but the thought did cross my mind. And using the alternate timezone, perfect!!
Aw Tim, pulling a April Fool’s Day joke on any day *except* April 1 is dirty pool 🙂
Tim, absolutely love your content. I keep telling my friends and family about how smart you are and if I could pick one person to meet in this life to be mentored by it would be the amazing Tim Ferriss, author of the FHWW and king of lifestyle design and experiment.
I content suggestion: “the best way to overcome a hangover. Old remedies and unknown secrets…”
Maybe I’ll meet you someday~ I’m a 22year old college student at UW-Madison and thinking about starting my own business and lifestyle blog.
Take care, Nick
Great joke!
[This comment posted by my VA.]
Nice blog, Tim 😉
Always enjoy your blog. Nice joke. This is the first April Fool’s joke I’ve seen this year. Very funny!
Sorry, this wasn’t even funny, unless you count ruining one’s credibility as a joke.
Wow – awesome prank. Had me until the end.
Cheers.
bumb for how to live like a rockstar in tokyo.
Oooh, thanks for reminding me to be on guard tomorrow!
Awsome April Fools joke Tim. Yours is the only blog I read consistantly!
[…] Wesley said: i actually believed this at first link jumping the gun on April Fool’s is cheating Filed under Uncategorized […]
Very clever. I watched the X-Files–the truth is best hidden between two lies.
Now you can continue to outsource your blog and others will crush any suspicions that ever arise. 🙂
Happy April Fools!
And whereas, the April Fooler gets April Fooled…
Here’s the relevant material and you’ll have to check out at least the first three comments….
Tim,
Great, GREAT April Fools joke. As if you needed any more proof that your concepts resonate with your readers, the fact that you “got” so many of us is a tremendous affirmation of your lifestyle and passions. Keep up the phenomenal “work”. And for those who can’t take a good joke, step away from the laptop, plan a good April Fool’s joke yourself and get a life!
Tim:
April Fools.
See my comments to your comment on my original blog entry and the latest blog entry (I sent a trackback).
Richard
###
Ha ha! You done got me good, Richard. Well played, sir. Happy April Fool’s Day 🙂
Tim
I was starting to worry when I read through the first half of this! Glad to know it’s still the authentic, bona fide Tim Ferriss.
Love the new MT theme by the way, with the dynamic header images and all.
Ya got me – I thought it was Brilliant*
As Luck would have it a distant relative passed away + I inherited
their little Cottage on the British Isle of Loof Lirpa do pop by Tim
while yer in London Town*
Cheerio!! ;)) Peace*
Tim,
wow! I have only been reading your blog for 2 weeks, so I havent had alot of time to think about it. WHat a way to prove your point. You Rock
This is a great post, but my “April Fooldar” is working overtime and I picked it up when you mentioned you Canadian secretary.
=-]
Oh btw, I have some photos of you I shot at ETech for WIRED if you’re interested in copies for personal use, shoot me an email.
[…] the success of internet legends like Tim Ferriss (who doesn’t even write his blog) or Darren Rowse (who recently launched a successful Pay Per Tweet program), I came to discover […]
Very nice, Andy Kaufman would approve. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Kaufman
Still, I am relieved it just a prank!
You absolutely had me until I started reading the comments – great stuff, Tim!
HAHA to all those people who were like “I knew it!”! … Tim your blog covers the most original and creative out of the box topics/ hacks which are amazing (&inspirational) but I’m still waiting for you to really test yourself and show results through the blog, set a challenge (an interesting one) I have thought of some really innovative ones but I’m waiting until I get out of the rat race (soon) to challenge you. PS- I know its random but I wanting to thank you because I have adopted your process of thinking because I always have had the same kind of thoughts but now adopting a more analytical approach to an outcome and thinking through the best possible way to get there while enjoying the journey of learning, thanks Tim!
###
Thanks for the kind words, Andrew! More challenges coming soon. A really good one hopefully coming next week.
Pura vida,
Tim
Hey Tim,
Nice joke.
Here’s my suggestion for a topic for a future blog. I’m extremely curious. You’ve mentioned that you teach neural acceleration techniques to powerlifters. I’d love to get in on the secret. Is it just “greasing the groove”, or is there more to it?
[…] How can an author spend so much time on himself, when he is always blogging? Outsource the blogging to virtual assistants. […]
Brilliant gag — my only comment is that the people who have spent hours arguing over whether this was or was not a nice thing to do are kind of missing the point. Tim, you did this in what, 5 minutes? And folks have spent freaking HOURS debating it. Which one of those actions is in the spirit of your book? ;-D
Thanks for the book, the blog, and the joke. Keep it coming….
[…] For the last year Tim’s blog has been living proof of what he preaches – the content has been virtually outsourced to a pair of writers found via elance.comhttp://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2008/03/31/the-grand-illusion-the-real-tim-ferriss-speaks/̶… […]
oh MAN you so got me on this one!
🙂 I admit it feels good to know that we’re reading YOU.
keep up your great posts!
Awesome post. I almost believed it and I could see this being done with sites like TechCrunch or even a corporate blog. But with a personal blog it just won’t work. Tim you really are an inspiration.
Tim, we need to talk. I’m not too sure what’s going on here, but my last few emails to you have been returned, and I can’t seem to log in to the back-end anymore….
###
Hahahahaha! Niiiiiice. I’m sorry, Roger, but we just can’t see each other anymore… 🙂
Tim
First off, Roger and Tim, nakakainis kayo!!
While I was reading the post I had some of the best ideas come to me about VAs (been at it since 2005) -and how what you outlined was exactly plausible, feasible and true.
So now, i’m sold, this is not a prank. It’s a real story of what kinda happens. Only that you left out the “lettermelater” part w/c you obviously use.
The garbage characters give it away.
Jomar Hilario
###
Hi Jomar,
Man, I wish the garbage characters were caused by “Van” and “Roger”! I thought it was from copy and pasting from word, but it seems to be a WP issue. Help me, Matt Mullenweg!
Tim
Wow, you really opened up a can of worms here Tim. I’m amazed at how many of your readers who fell for it ‘let you off’, and I’m sorry for the others who’ve been disheartened. I thought it was brilliant. You’ve only been in Britain a few days and already you’ve picked up our sense of humour.
LOL. Cracking joke! Gotta love all the people that were fooled, eh 😛
[…] The best joke I’ve seen so far is from Tim Ferriss, author of “The 4-Hour Workweek”. If you’re not familiar with Tim or his book, you probably won’t get the joke. If you are familiar with Tim and “personal outsourcing”, you should check out: The Grand Illusion: The Real Tim Ferriss Speaks […]
Hahahahaha!!!!
Mostly glad to know the monkeys were really tested by you!!! 🙂
Heather
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
[…] Ferris had a really great April Fool post squarely aimed at everyone who’s read his book. (which I will review I […]
[…] Ferriss pulled an early April Fool’s joke yesterday by claiming that his popular blog, which is in Technorati’s Top 1000, has been […]
[…] Tim Ferris isn’t real! – My wife mentions this possibility every time I talk about Tim Ferris. Because of the believability I totally fell for it at first. This was the best crafted of all the 4/1 jokes I’ve seen. […]
[…] you read The Grand Illusion: The Real Tim Ferriss Speaks? I’m giving it the honor of both the best and worst April Fools’ joke of […]
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!”
[…] personal favorite prank was from Tim Ferriss, a master of outsourcing, who revealed that he even outsourced his personal blog! I was torn between “wow, he is a freakin genius, I want to do that, too” to […]
[…] Tim Ferriss Quit Blogging A Year Ago (Thanks, Hunter, for this one.) […]
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.
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..)
[…] the past year, it wasn’t really written by him. With two ghost writers paid very little, Tim Ferriss fooled a lot of readers. Imagine if the New […]
Nice work Tim. I probably would have fallen for it had I not gotten the second amended message first!
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.
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
HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!! THAT WAS GREAT! YOU HAD ME HOOK, LINE AND SINKER!
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
[…] Ferriss of the 4 Hour Work Week, “The Grand Illusion: The Real Tim Ferriss Speaks” This was probably the first April Fool’s post that I read this year. Tim claimed that […]
@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
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.
Booo Booo… bad Tim…
😉
Choses de (poisson de) geek #1…
Je me suis fait complètement avoir par un poisson d’avril de l’enfer.
Tim Ferris est l’auteur de 4-hour workweek, une réflexion intéressante sur comment pousser au maximum l’optimisation du temps tout en devenant (peut-être!…
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.
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
That’s awesome! You are an inspiration.
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
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)
Great fun,
Really good April fools joke!
Cheers,
Nicolai
[…] Blog writing does not equal technical writing; my Elance 20 04 2008 I took a look back at some of my blog writing. Writing for entertainment is a new skill set for me. I have tons of writing technical stuff (scientific research reports, investment summaries, spinning monthly letters for investors, etc.) so my writing gravitates towards some kind of data or analysis for content and the tone being very dry. Need to work on that. But I don’t think I’ll be outsourcing any of my thought writing, as dictated in Tim Ferriss’s April Fool’s (http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2008/03/31/the-grand-illusion-the-real-tim-ferriss-speaks/)! […]
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
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 http://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!
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.
[…] fall for every April Fool’s joke, including today’s post by Tim Ferriss, later retracted, that he’s been outsourcing his blog writing for a […]
[…] deliberately deceiving – like the fake Wal-Mart blog, PR companies ghost blogging, and even an April Fool’s joke by a popular author – for the most part, the vast majority of your readers won’t care. They […]
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.
Check out a great site for utilising the web to make money:
http://ican-makemoney.com/?p=86
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 😉
[…] met you at SXSWi and immediately bought your book. On completing the 4HWW I was inspired (understatement) and wrote an article here about how you use ‘eustress’ […]
[…] Tim Ferriss outsourced his blog. […]
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.
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.
Tim,
I’m catching this one late but hilarious stunt. It leads to an important question though that I’ve had for a very long time.
Which parts of social networking DO YOU outsource? Obviously the keep up of the posts, the videos, the links, the twitterering, etc. take longer than 4 hours a week. So while, like you, I’ll always provide the original content which pieces of the upkeep do you send to someone else?
Thanks man. See you in the stairwell,
Rory Vaden
Take The Stairs
I once made the mistake of shaving a monkey and sending him to work dressed as myself.
Initially, I was afraid of getting caught by management but it went alot better than expected. Soon I was receiving productivity bonuses on my paychecks and the boss was taking the monkey for lunches and even after-work drinks. This was wonderful, as it gave me time to write this very blog comment. Then, one day, I came home and the monkey was doing my wife. Sad story, yes?
Who’s the monkey now?
Hoser. If you’d said you’d outsourced the tango and kickboxing, THEN I would have been impressed.
I agree with you also. It is much easier to blog about something you are passionate about. It took me creating about a dozen blogs to realize that. Great post!
J
Great fun,
Really good April fools joke!
I’m very impressed but I really wish someone would write a good article or short ebook on how exactly to go about the interview/hiring process with virtual workers, especially in regards to a work contract that makes all website content, etc., the property of the employer. I’ve wasted a lot of my own valuable time just trying to figure out to do this thing properly from the get-go. Thanks for everything!
I just bought both your books, i hope to get a grip on my weight, and my life. Thank you for sharing your experiments with the world.
There’s a lot more to India than outsourcing and call centers. You must visit my country someday. We’re pretty good with Yoga, the Kamasutra and have our own take on fitness and wellness.
Here’s wishing you all the best with your endeavors. I am tracking my progress and will write to you with my results.
Warm regards,
Pranaadhika Sinha Devburman
India.
Loved it, but am I the only one that was disappointed it was an April Fools joke!?
My point – On page nineteen of their book, The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, Al Ries and Jack Trout write “The perception is the reality. Everything else is an illusion.” So, If the reader thinks Tim wrote the article then in their mind he did!
I see why someone could get worked up about this, and for a few seconds I was going down that route until I stopped my impulses. Yes, we all read this blog because of Tim Ferris and we obviously want him to be writing the content.
However, just from reading his book, the character of Tim Ferris becomes quite obvious. He is a person who is unpredictable and often does shocking things which might be considered not cool from the start. So should we really be surprised here? The way I see it is that he is yet again challenging us.
Observation….. it’s amazing how much we care about the ‘brand’, in this case Tim Ferris.
Another observation….. why are all these smart VA’s working for $4 an hour? and what is the world going to do when they take over?
hahahaha I can’t believe that I saw it just now after all these years. This post is mega funny Tim!