moana posted:

If Tim Ferriss' book is the first time you're coming across the concept of "make sure your product fills a demand" then sure, it might help you. It would help you more to read The Lean Startup, since that book actually gives you a systematic process for figuring out whether your product fills demand, and gives you real ideas for how to assess demand, and has lists of questions you should be asking yourself in order to move forward and make decisions.

moana posted:

Aphorisms are useless without a process to back it up. The Four Hour Workweek is half aphorisms, half bragging, and it's made Tim Ferriss much more money than his actual businesses ever did. I think that's sleazy as gently caress, and I just plain don't like the guy.

balancedbias posted:

From a few posts up...The last quote you gave is the most useful one, because it easily allows for the notion that his philosophy is good for some and not for others. I know a mechanic who tried to make that system work, felt "burnt out" trying to optimize his "empire" of grease monkeys under his thumb, and finally felt more satisfied when he scrapped 4 businesses and worked as a mechanic for someone else.

He had the acumen, the motivation, and finances were no longer an issue...but he didn't enjoy any of it until he was doing what he had been doing in the first place. Maybe his interest waned, but I found it interesting that the burnout was from doing things the "successful" way. All quote marks are from how he described it to me, in as sarcastic a tone as it seems.

SpelledBackwards posted:

At the same time, I think a lot of FI people oversell travel as the way to live and spend your time. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy going new places and I have been fortunate enough to backpack in Europe and visit family in India many times, among other wonderful trips with my family and friends seeing other places and cultures. But the thing I love even more than going somewhere new is finally coming home to a familiar dog, shower, bed, and kitchen.

Maybe it's just me, but there's a lot to be said for local leisure with your family and close friends too, and of course it's often much cheaper to have a backyard cookout or movie night at a friend's house very frequently than take lots of short trips (for example). In many cases at least these will still be pleasurable moments you look back on later in life and they didn't require you to go somewhere far.

Dessert Rose posted:

I don't think it's a productive exercise to declare that he has a false consciousness because you don't think he could possibly be as happy as he claims to be in the situation he is in. He sounds like he enjoys the gently caress out of nature and being outside and working with his hands.

Inverse Icarus posted:

Happiness isn't having what you want, it's wanting what you have.

Inverse Icarus posted:

poopinmymouth posted:

I don't get how you got that out of the blog at all. The guy might be a bit manic in his writing style, but he very obviously has a ton of stuff happening that he enjoys. It's just constructive stuff that either costs little/nothing, or ads worth to his property. Why would improving someone else's software/products for the tiniest fraction of the profit be somehow more fulfilling than getting to keep nearly all the profit that you generate? Maybe there is something to be said by missing a team environment vs working on your own, but he has his spouse, his kid, and does lots of meetups and group projects, so he is getting that too.

Is netflix, eating out often, buying new model cars and paying other people do do home renovations for you really the only metric of how much fun one is having in life?

I know a couple with similar earning power as us, and they are the diametric opposite in spending habits. Champagne on a nearly daily basis, eating out with multi course sushi every lunch, designer clothes and accessories, latest phones every time a new model, etc. They barely were able to get a loan for a downpayment on a house way smaller than ours, and are constantly having money problems, yet *still* don't seem any happier in their life than we are (and imo seem much less happy).

Experiential stuff brings way more happiness than consumption, this is pretty solid fact by now.

surc posted:

Obviously this would be pretty anecdotal, but any mental tips for getting out of a "done with work, gotta unwind!(eat out/buy alchohol/buy media)" mentality?
I know it's dumb, but my current job involves getting screamed at by my boss for her mistakes, and I find that really at the end of the day all I want to do is eat a nice meal without making it ($$), go for a nice drive ($) smoke a cigarette or 5($$$), and then come play some new video game or watch some show I've never seen before ($$). I'm aware that this is significantly lengthening the amount of time before I can take steps towards where I want my life to be (part-time contract/telecommute work, 4G hotspot, fix up my VW camper interior, dog, America), but at the end of my day I'm just worn down to the point where I often can't make myself want to do fun activities that require effort and do not drain my money and/or kill me. I'm currently trying to get into a better work situation, but in the mean time, every time I look at my bank account I'm annoyed with myself.

Rick Rickshaw posted:

When you strive for financial independence, you begin to realize everything in life is relative, including the things that make you happy. Why does a new game make you happier than an old one? Fancier graphics? Maybe. But also because some humans somewhere recently put a lot of work into producing this new thing for you to enjoy, and that makes you feel good. And a lot of other humans are simultaneously enjoying the same game, so there's some loose, bullshit-based sense of community too.

But it's bullshit. Play old games. They can provide just as much joy, and cost a lot less money.

KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:

"Have more money in order to have more options" is not really a revolutionary intellectual idea. I think one of the things that fundamentally bugs me about FIRE is that it's presented as some kind of solution for a lot of late capitalist / work culture related issues but it's really only accessible to the already-rich or at minimum people of means. You make six figures in America, you can do just fine no matter what. It's like, the ultimate American solution to a bunch of structural and social problems.

Bhodi posted:

Also, since it's been about 7 years since my first post in here I do want to say in retrospect that while I don't think FIRE is a scam it DOES require such a confluence of circumstances and personality that it's extremely unlikely for the vast majority of people and I think it's pretty unethical how broadly marketed it is. People are pretty desperate for the way out of the system they were born into and people are selling this as an escape that you can achieve with hard work and discipline when it's really more like winning the lottery.

I'm such an outlier in so many various ways - white, no kids, in IT as a high earner, saves more than half earnings entire adult working career, in my early 40s, and I'm STILL only around the "marginal FIRE" level in terms of savings. I've had nearly every advantage AND personality that is comfortable with frugal living and inexpensive hobbies and I'm still probably going to be working at least part time through the next decade and ease into it.

Doing it without all of the above borders on the impossible and it's so far above the average that it's criminal to suggest people can follow the footsteps.