Thoughts> The global 4-hour workweek

There's a new fad gaining traction, another self-management-help book, this time from a young success story by the name of Timothy Ferris. And mind you, I started writing this before I learned about the Google AdWords co-marketing deal my former colleague Trevor Clairborne (yes yes, this is all public, see the link) seems to have cut with Tim. I wouldn't have realized that's a good audience fit, but when supply is abundant, you grab the fruit that hangs the lowest. Good work there. Tim's blog post on the deal, titled "Publishing 2.0: Google and The 4-Hour Workweek Special Arrangement Foreshadows the Future of Books" echoes grandeur a bit too much for my liking - but if you get to rub some of Google's clout on you, go for it. I'm as guilty of that as anyone. But Trevor, seriously, how does this represent "a glimpse into the future of book publishing"? I think there have been quite a few books, especially in the self-help field, where "it’s the communities of readers who individualize the idea" - what is different about this one? I've seen the endless Ning-communities sprouting up for all flavours of 4HWW, but this certainly isn't a disruption in the force.

(By the way, I love how all the statements from Google announcing something new begin with "We're excited", or, if it comes from higher up in the ranks, "We're very excited" :) )

The 4HWW (because every fad must have an acronym) is at its core a selection of productivity tips, spiced up with ideas from Tim's nomadic life of what to do with the free time that increased productivity potentially provides you with. An appealing picture.

An important part of the 'program' is "outsoucing your life" as Tim puts it - employing a small army of remote assistants to do menial web-, email- and paper-based tasks for you, the people employed most likely located in India (cheap labour combined with language skill, in case you'd missed). I'm all for this, for two reasons.

Firstly, it encourages telecommuting. There are millions and millions of people too many in offices everyday all over the world. Too many because they lose time commuting, pollute unnecessarily, take up urban real estate and - most importantly, like it was far me - they don't like it. If you have a laptop, broadband and a phone at "home", too - you really shouldn't need to go to the office. Sitting in those meeting rooms is unproductive anyway, isn't it? Don't go to the office. You'll save in commuting, sparing both the environment and your wallet. Both you and your assistant (and your boss!) can work from anywhere in the world. Now that's a win-win.

Secondly, it accelerates the globalization of services (just a drop in the ocean, but bear with me). You won't be paying $5 an hour for a remote assistant in India for long - the price levels within such a sector can equalize much faster than price levels in other sectors between countries, India and the US being the examples here. Technology and innovation only accelerate globalization, and in the long run, for the same product or service, you should pay the same price anywhere in the world (barring logistics costs, taxes (forced to equalize in the long run, too) and other overhead, but in the ballpark the same). I'm resisting throwing out my long-term view on globalization in this vein following some much-sought-after insights I've been exposed to this far down here - that's for tomorrow.

Don't get my tone wrong. I love self-help books. Their existence tells something about our world that would be hard to notice otherwise, everyone so busy hiding their (perceived) flaws, insecurities and problems. The all-of-us-can-be-rich subset of these books has a lot of bull, but sometimes there are ideas that are suitably opportunistic to be implemented by a lot of people - in 4HWW standing out since Tim doesn't disregard people who are employed and don't necessarily want to change that, at least immediately. Too many books assume that the listless reader has some great business idea or that they are a private consultant, which is normally easier said than done. I mean, sure you want to Fire Your Boss and Move some Cheese, but until you have a better alternative, you can't. Here, even the baby steps can make a difference.

Incidentally, since I'm in Cape Town, there's more Google-related stuff coming up in the next post. I'm working with more stuff to do with Google than I ever was at Belgrave House, jeez.