Image credit Brian Caldwell, flickr creative commons
Jason Braun and I continue our discussion on Tim Ferriss and the role of self-promotion. Earlier, we asked: is Tim Ferriss a 4-hour hero or just another asshat? In part two, Jason said he was a hero. Today I respond and explain why I think he is an asshat. Read on to find out why.
In part two, Jason brought up a question about ego. Who is more egoistic: someone who puts time and care into promotion or someone who waits patiently to be discovered? I agree with Jason’s idea that if you care about your product or creative project you shouldn’t expect the world to find you. It’s not egotistical to let everyone know about your product or idea.
However, this is not how Tim Ferriss positions himself. Instead, Ferriss is the product. He promotes himself as a solution to a problem (you and your insecurity), but his approach is not a solution that can or should be applied to everyone.
It seems Ferriss makes promises in his books based not on experience or study but dubious hacks. It’s a clever, but ultimately empty approach to self-promotion.
When I read his books and meet his readers, I think of Fight Club and the relationship between Ed Norton’s character and Tyler Durden. Readers of Ferriss’s books are a lot like Norton’s character, and Ferriss is like Tyler Durden. He frees them to try new things and rebel against the system, to go out and make soap. But by the end, the soap-making gig ends up the same as the soulless corporate gig.
Ferriss might make readers feel better, but then they realize he’s just a soap salesman. Who wants to sell soap?
Then again, if we apply Ferriss’s 80/20 rule, we might have some hope. As Ferriss readers, what if we applied only 20% of what he says in his book? Great, but which part will we apply? If we apply his ideas about limits and simplicity in our daily work, then we’d be alright. But then again, we can apply those ideas without reading his book. Instead, if we apply his ideas about hacking or using mind-enhancement drugs, results may vary (and read the fine print).
Ferriss offers his best guess at what leads to a happy and fulfilling life, and that’s fine. It doesn’t work for most people, though, because if you have something of value to offer the world, you don’t need a 4-hour remedy. You just need to devote every extra minute you have to getting the word out, and every other minute creating something worthy of your fans’ time. And if you believe that it truly offers value, this won’t feel like work.
Socrates can help us understand this further. In the Gorgias dialogue, Socrates addresses this idea: is rhetoric about persuasion or is it about seeking truth? Jason mentioned the Sophists in his last post. Gorgias was a Sophist who believed rhetoric was about persuasion, but Socrates believed it was about seeking truth or meaning.
We all know that rhetoric is slippery and that it can only take us so far, but for this argument, I’ll take Socrates’ side here (why not?): he argues that rhetoric isn’t enough without philosophical inquiry. It’s the purpose and vision of your ideas that matters more than the way you present them. Without this purpose or vision, everything falls apart. It’s just words, words, words.
Rhetoricians, like Ferriss, promise much, but can’t deliver once their promises go unfulfilled. This is what Socrates argues: that you cannot create a meaningful life or transformative art without that other element. Hacking into some larger system in order to create your own success isn’t enough.
I won’t argue against self-promotion, but I will argue that Ferriss’s approach is lacking that other element: the purpose or point of changing your life. He can’t answer it, and yet he promotes himself and gets interpreted as having answers.
I pose this to readers: what are you goals in promotion? If you read 4-Hour Workweek and then seek out some entrepreneurial project, are you really trying to find fulfillment or just get rich? Or, have you found the thing you know to be fulfilling and just need others to see this?
For me, it’s about following my passions. Admittedly on a very small level, I can turn those passions into a career. However, I don’t need Ferriss’s 4-hour approach to follow my passions. He doesn’t provide anything of value and instead hinders my progress.
I refuse to wait for someone like Ferriss to give me “permission” to effect change or create value for myself. That’s what the insecure main character needs in Fight Club, permission from Tyler Durden. Then it turns out he’s just a created persona, a trick of the light or a misfired neuron.
I want to have personal clarity and conviction before I go out and promote my ideas. I won’t wait for the “right time” nor will I wait to be discovered, but I won’t depend on someone else’s idea of success either.
