From GoodreadsThe latest groundbreaking tome from Tim Ferriss, the #1 New York Times best-selling author of The 4-Hour Workweek.

Then it proceeds into a long 'author's note'. This will be important later.

From Me:Self-indulgent, shallow, and at times, utter nonsense.

Rated 18+ for mild swearing in the book once or twice.

It should be good for people like me who devour self-help/inspiration books and are attracted them like cats to catnip. It isn't.

My decision to DNF it at 75%.

That I stuck it out to 75%. I should have DNF'd it at 10%.

Let's talk about why that is, shall we? Okay, let's do that!

Somewhere in Publishingland, a place with which I am only vaguely familiar, this guy name Tim came up with a book called the 4-hour Workweek, and then the 4-hour Body, and has a podcast where he gets to talk to some big-name folks.

Tim thought he had enough information from said folks to put together a Great Book of Wisdom^TM called Tools of the Titans. The Wizards of Publishingland decided this was a great idea and so did whatever editors it went through and so did at least 2000 people who have given it nearly 5-stars on Amazon.

Here's the thing: Tim spends a lot of time talking about Tim's thoughts and interjecting Tim's feelings, and reminding you that TIM KNOWS THESE PEOPLE and TIM DOES WHAT THESE PEOPLE DO and it's annoying. Remember that I mentioned that instead of a publisher's blurb on Amazon/Goodreads, there's the 'author's note'?

Tim Ferriss really likes Tim Ferriss, and really, really, really likes to hear Tim Ferriss speak.

There is no new content in the book in terms of what was said in his podcasts - which he routinely refers you to for your listening pleasure - or in terms of innovative content.

Meditate. Question things. Have a routine. Minimize risk and maximize reward. And I would be remiss if I failed to mention the little gem "get other people's opinions".

There is nothing in this book that hasn't been covered elsewhere in a thought-provoking, in-depth manner. This was superficial sound-bites, cross-promotion of products, and reading lists of books that are far better than this one.

Right off the bat, Ferriss tells you to skip sections that don't interest or relate to you. If I'd done that, I would have opened the book, closed it, and moved on, but that is hardly the point of a reading challenge.

Did I mention yet that this book is 600+ pages? I made it to page 530 before I couldn't take anymore. This is the first DNF in 13 months of the book challenge.

I have read some terrible books.

Congratulations, Titan Tools, you broke the no-DNF streak.

The second (wealth) and third (wisdom) parts were far better than the first (health), but still terrible.

Health was so bad, I forced myself through it, but it took me THREE days to do it. I can eat these books for dinner and pick up a new one for dessert. THREE DAYS for one section. Ugh.

After listening to how Tim DOES EVERYTHING ALL THESE PEOPLE DO, the reader is subjected to the following ridiculous advice and pseudoscience:

-keto diets rule and everyone else drools
-always check your blood sugar and fasting blood sugar and be fairly obsessive about it (these people are not diabetic).
-do breathing exercises that will probably cause you to pass out (with a disclaimer not to do them near water because you will probably drown)
-sit in a really, really hot sauna at least 4 times a week
-take ice baths on the regular (one guy even gives his kid a cold shower so he can learn that life skill)
-eat psychedelic mushrooms occasionally
-take metformin because...reasons
-magnesium is where it's at

Um...he also says that mobility and flexibility are not the same, but both are good things. There, I said something nice about the book.

Like Ferriss phoned this in and his publisher did not care.

It's been done better, deeper, and cleaner by other authors. In fact, many of the people in the book ARE other authors who have done it better.

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Created Jan 23, 2019 at 8:02pm • Submit your own review...