Insidious

After quickly reading The 4-Hour Workweek over the holidays, I started to read the book again on the weekend. My plan is to do a more careful second reading, hopefully picking up on things I may have missed and also to follow the specific challenges and actions Ferriss suggests at the end of each chapter. One passage that particularly resonated with me is actually in the introduction when Ferris specifies the "problem" the book will address:

I'm going to assume you are suffering from time famine, creeping dread, or - worse case - a tolerable and comfortable existence doing something unfulfilling. The last is the most common and  most insidious.

Source: The 4-Hour Workweek.

The web defines insidious as:

Alluring but harmful; intended to entrap; working or spreading in a hidden and usually injurious way.

Source: Google.

Insidious indeed. Deep down I have always felt this way about employment in general. When performing unfulfilling work, your employers pay you off just enough to make you comfortable. Just enough to make you feel you would miss that compensation if you decided to forgo what is ultimately unrewarding work. By the way, I have never felt any ill will towards an employer because of this. They are intelligent enough to get other people to do the work for them and pay them just enough to do it. That's just smart. And truthfully, sometimes the work is fulfilling. Therefore, the ultimate goal is simple: to become the employer and do only the work that one finds fulfilling.

Odds & Ends

Rex over at the Diary of a Four-Hour-a-Weeker wrote a post about Beginning the Outsourcing Journey. He references an article on 43 Folders which I think should be required reading by all 4-Hour Workweek initiates:

• Part 1: Enlightened Outsourcing - The Psychology
• Part 2: Enlightened Outsourcing - The Practice

This is a great two part series. The first part steps back and discusses one's feelings about your work, getting help with your work and having people work for you. These sorts of things are not really discussed in The 4-Hour Workweek or are somewhat glossed over. The second part is more tactical, but examples are always helpful! Thanks for sharing the link Rex!

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This entry was posted on Sunday, January 6th, 2008 at 8:54 am and is filed under Articles, Productivity. You can subscribe to any comments to this entry via RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.