[mke]

2010 - Outliers, Malcom Gladwell

2011 - In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan

2012 - Born to Run, Christopher McDougall

2013 - Four Hour Work Week, Tim Ferriss

2014 - Nourishing Traditions, Sally Fallon

2015 - Awaken the Giant Within, Tony Robbins

2016 - Black Swan, Nicolas Taleb

2017 - Surely You’re Joking Mr Feynman, Richard Feynman

2018 - The Prophet, Khalil Gibran

2019 - Three Body Problem (series), Liu Cixin

These aren’t publishing years, just the year these books transformed me.

[ronyfadel]

I’m finishing the Four Hour Work Week.. this book just reads like a “get rich quick”/scammy collection of snippets. It’s conflicting at times (“money isn’t the end-all be-all” v/s “how I made 10k$ a month sipping piña coladas”). The only useful takeaway was not to waste your life 1) wasting time and 2) working, which is fair.. but the message is wrapped with so much ego I ended just being annoyed through most of the book.

[mke]

The title and intro is unabashedly “get rich quick” fodder. But hidden inside, one can find practical applications of Pareto principles to work and life choices, in ways that made me question how I approach everything. Better books have followed in this zeitgeist. This one found me first.

[laurentl]

> Better books have followed in this zeitgeist

Any suggestions?

[mke]

Deep Work (Cal Newport) and Strengths Finder (Tom Rath) helped me achieve far more practical returns on work / lifestyle design.

I even found Tim’s later books (4-Hour Body, 4-Hour Chef) to be far better.

[ar_lan]

I felt the same exact way for a long time.

Tim Ferris has at times mentioned some regrets regarding the title and contents and wishes he could re-write parts of it because he does not like that association. He freely admits it was a marketing gimmick, essentially.

However, after reading/listening to some of his other works, I've seen it in a different light and grew to start liking it again.

[hirundo]

Born to Run changed my sole, which healed my plantar fasciitis and knee pain.

[james_niro]

I love all these books except the four hour work week. I do not believe Tim understand what it takes for a person in low income class to be successful.

[mke]

In defense of self-help books; you latch to the one that finds you.

The 4-hour workweek provided me a useful foil to Gladwell’s “10,000” hours. It might take 10k to master, but you sure as hell can move fast if you get to 80% in 10 hours.

[james_niro]

Great article in Forbes about 4 - hour work week. https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelschein/2019/01/17/tim-fe...

[andrei_says_]

Selling a well-packaged promise for easy riches has proven to be a successful strategy over and over again.

[derwiki]

Fell in live with Three Body Problem series, and recommend it quite often