Comments on: Tim Ferriss and why I don’t like his emotional blackmail

By: Sarah

Sarah — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 01:27:10 +0000

My comment is a more general one about Ferris than it is about the whole Twitter thing. I actually mostly agree with you on what you said about Tim. I’ve read his blog, but don’t really want to read his book; I did want to read it once, but so many of his ideas simply seem recycled and re-packaged in a young, hot gift to the world known as Tim. Sort of appears as though he got lucky with some marketing ideas and thusly gets to travel the world and be cool. Some of his blog posts are kinda neat, like the one about the Bourne Identity, but others just scream, “Look at me! I’m AWESOME. I will share so you can be awesome, too.”

What used to really turn me off were the legions of yes-men on his blog. However, I am seeing more and more people telling him his ideas are crap, like the post he had about eating as much red meat as possible for nutritional purposes. I mean, sell a marketing idea all you want, but when you start telling people to eat stuff that is scientifically proven to be detrimental to most people’s health, just because you read a book on anatomy once, I have a problem with that.

Don’t get me wrong; I don’t object to his lifestyle. I work at a lucrative, yet un-rewarding job, so I pretty much get to take time off whenever I want to do whatever I want. If I were him, I’d probably be a slightly arrogant, self-centered guy, too, but yes, I do have an issue with the podium on which he has been placed.

By: eh

eh — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 20:57:22 +0000

I wasted 3 minutes of my life. OMG. No value whatsoever

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 08:09:09 +0000

Dan – I really appreciate the time you’ve taken there to respond to my posts.

In essence it’s this idea of an ethical bribe that disturbs me. A bribe is a bribe is a bribe, if you see what I mean. And the exchange is an unusual one – do something very simple and easy in return for feeling a little better about yourself. And I must admit, it’s clever – if you like Tim Ferriss then it’s a good thing that he’s doing, and if you don’t like him it’s a chance to deprive him of a small amount of his money. Win win.

And that’s why I don’t like it.

I suspect a big part of my discomfort in this is that my father was a very charming, and highly manipulative person. People loved him… and some people hated him. I couldn’t understand the latter, but as time passed I saw the damage he did to people’s lives. By manipulating people to do things your own way you can often make them weaker rather than stronger people because they’re no longer true to themselves.

If I can borrow his book, I’ll try and read it. But no way am I going to pay for it. Unless it changes my life, of course ;-)

By: Dan Morelle

Dan Morelle — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 00:24:34 +0000

The way we communicate and influence is changing as should our model of how things work in a transaction, be it a commercial or charitable one.

I think the idea behind what Ferriss calls ‘karmic capitalism’ is that you get rewarded for your contribution, what is wrong with that?

Tim doesn’t hide what he is doing, correctly labelling it in marketing terms as the ‘ethical bribe’. He is using his knowledge of these techniques to benefit himself and others. It is a win-win. He’s not hiding anything. Why is it wrong to benefit from helping others? That sounds like the perfect arrangement to me.

I also think you should reconsider reading his book or at least rethink how you came to your decision. You don’t have to like a person to consider their ideas – you don’t have to like the band to enjoy their music.

At the end of the day Twitter is about trading value; how you choose to measure that value and whether you wish to reciprocate in that game is up to you – there are no rules, us kids are making it up as we go along.