Tim Ferris Experiment
So, I saw that the Tim Ferris Experiment was recently released. The concept of this show is that Tim spends 5 days trying to learn a new skill. I haven’t seen any of the episodes (the iTunes link appears to be US only), but this seems to be exactly the kind of content that Less Wrong would be interested in.
A few questions:
1) Tim has already written about his accelerated learning techniques in the Four Hour Chef. Has anyone tried his techniques and were they effective for you?
2) Has anyone attempted accelerated learning based off another resource? How effective was it?
It’s a TV show. TV shows are heavily optimized for entertainment and shock value.
Tim Ferris is an interesting guy, but his most outstanding talent is for self-promotion.
I agree the being a TV show is evidence that this is more self-promotion and less fact. That’s just because the prior probability is that way—content is selected for more by promotion than by quality.
But that doesn’t exclude facts or otherwise useful or positive content. Thus I’d like to see a more qualified retort.
It being a TV show means that it’s focused on stunts that look good on camera.
That’s not the goal for most learning projects.
http://lesswrong.com/lw/63w/the_fourhour_body_by_timothy_ferriss_any_lwers/
A previous post in regards to Tim Ferris.
I assumed it did not take off because people here are either lazy (the comments say the opposite), or it didn’t work for them consistently enough or as promised, as some comments said.
I think Tim Ferris is a recurring background character; I mean, I’ve read all three of his four hour books, and his thoughts on various things have influenced mine, and I don’t think I’m the only one. But I don’t think anything that I heard of from only him was a life-changing thing that worked very well.
...or Tim Feriss is seen as low status because he’s not an academic (or for some other reason), so nobody tried. Could be a hidden alternative.
That specific reason doesn’t seem likely on this site.
I see quite some overlap between Tim Ferris process and the methods described by Cal Newport e.g. in How to Be a High School Superstar:
Tim Ferris obviously spends lots of time on topics and projects he deeply immerses himself in. This looks like the result of Newports ‘Law of Underscheduling’ combined with the ‘Law of Focus’: Master one serious interest. And another one. And another one. Repeat as needed to get got at apparently anything due to the ‘Law of Innovation’: Pursue accomplishments that are hard to explain, not hard to do.