I read the first chapter of this book, up to the point when he explained how he “won” a karate tournament by pushing people out of the ring. As a life-long martial artist myself, I promptly shut the book. I immediately understood what the theme would be… from most of the posts above, it looks like I was right. He’s shallow and learning these things for bragging rights and publicity and all the wrong reasons.

In these days loads of people can learn a lot and fast too. I can too. Load of you can too. But that is not the essence. You will never become a painting master, a karate master, this way. Someone who soulfully loves his/her profession will never be like this. Kindergarten competition.

This just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

I love that Tim says, “Don’t assume it’s difficult.” His response was to your question about learning difficult things in a short amount of time; however, this simple sentence can provide many lessons in many scenarios of life. Life really is a mindset – it can be difficult…. or not.

Thanks for this post! A great read.

Wow! A very spirited debate. I certainly not on the side that believes that this post was a waste. I respect the opposite opinion and can see how they could come to their conclusion but I think this topic is interesting.

Even if you don’t agree Tim Ferris, I would challenge you to take a moment and see if there is anything that you might be able to use from his teachings. Taking something, deconstructing it, and making it simpler can benefit us all. There is a time a place for everything though. So may not want to use this in all or even most of your task.

For instance, take speed reading. Speed reading is a great tool to use. It saves a ton of time when you can breeze through articles, post, memos, ect.. On the other hand I wouldn’t speed read a novel or anything that I am reading for relaxation.

A new language. Are you learning it for work or pleasure ? If it is strictly something you are doing for your job, I would definitely learn it as fast and effiecently as possible. If it was for pleasure then I would take a different approach.

I think Tim is not trying to become a life long master of these task. I think the challenge and the fun is to just to conquer it at this moment is his life.

As far as the show. I like the basic concept of it but I really didn’t like the first episode. I think he chose the wrong topic to start. I wished he hadn’t picked something with such rich tradition to it. I feel as though it may have been a slap in their face. Like I pointed out above, there is a time and a place. I don’t think there is ever a place for something like this. Arrogant Americans is something that pops to mind for some reason (I am a proud American by the way). I do hope that they move forward and produce some of the other ideas.

Please continue these types of post. I think they are useful even for the ones that don’t quite appreciate it. I certainly learn from the post that I don’t like. Sometimes I just choose not to continue reading. I always come back for the next post though : )

Don W.

I wish Tim all success. I like his concept but the 80/20 rule is somehow against the sense of perfection his Japanese teachers are practicing. I guess that for them it is not about hitting the target but the beauty of movement and the esthetics.

May I suggest that there is a follow up on Zenhabits with Tim telling us more about the experience.

Thanks for the great article.

Nicolas