Jennifer B. Davis

In Tim Ferriss' provocative book, 4 Hour Workweek, he redefines what it means to be an expert and sets the threshold very low. He contends that if you have read 3 more books on the subject than the average person on the street, you can consider yourself an expert. The more you are asked for your opinion, the more people will ask for your opinion and so your celebrity (and implied expertise) grows.

So, although I don't agree with Mr. Ferriss about many things, it did make me think about what I knew better than the average person. The first thing that came to mind: air travel (probably because I was reading the book in the SFO terminal). Not just air travel in general, but business travel. Not just business travel, but how to travel for business when you are early in your career (some of the things that I have learned the hard way, but wished someone would have told me when I was just out of college). Perhaps, I will write a book (or a whole seminar series on CD with a workbook, as Tim recommends, that I will sell for $89).

In this book, I will have a whole chapter dedicated to the principle of "Never Pack More Than You Can Lift."
2 Responses
  1. Allan W. Says:

    Jen, I've been enjoying the 4HWW blog for a while now. Ferris is an interesting figure. His ideas are confrontational and controversial, at least in my mind. Definitely in the feed reader.

    The post about the guy who followed the Bible for a year is interesting - I have a few comments there on that one.


  2. I "Bible follower" guy also read the encyclopedia and I read his book about it. Strangely, he talked about how reading the encyclopedia and knowing a bunch of archaic information made him a bit of a geek. I found reading about him reading the encyclopedia did the same thing. No one wants to hear these obscure facts at a cocktail party!