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OK, I never knew how much debate there was about Tim Ferris and his books until I started doing a bit of research this past week. And wow, it was like opening up Pandora’s box. Who ever knew there could be so much debate around the topic of weather Tim Ferris’ ideas surrounding the four hour work week, or the four hour body, or a 15 minute orgasm (a chapter in Tim Ferris’ new book) would be so polarizing? I am realizing that the question is this: is Tim a time management guru, or a marketing guru? My feelings: quite possibly he is a bit of both.
Now because I also am an avid lover of all things fitness you can imagine I was very excited to read Tim’s new book “The four hour body”. On the day of release I purchased the audiobook, and then downloaded the kindle version for my PC 2 days later as I felt I had missed much in just listening to an abridged version of the book. I had no idea until I received the kindle version how much was cut, I was amazed. But they each serve there own purpose I suppose, and the audiobook makes a great workout companion.
My first impressions of this book were: “man this book is all over the place”, “wow these are some really amazing ideas, can they be for real”, “is Tim trying to get me to buy vitamins, didn’t he give a lecture at Princeton titled selling drugs for money”, “are these ideas truly novel” and most recently “how has reading this book and studying it helped me”?
Well, first of all I am in to nutrition and working out. I have been lifting weights for over 14 years, and I am also a healthcare provider. I am an avid runner and cyclists, and over the last 6 years have gained a very good grasp of peoples nutritional standards. As someone who spends the majority of his day begging people to exercise more and change their diets I think I may have a viewpoint to critique this book that is special. There is also a core question here, what were Tim’s true intentions in writing this book? In many ways it feels rushed, unedited and pieced together. Without intense review and critique, and also if a person lacks fundamental knowledge of many of the underlying principles described in this book It may be difficult to comprehend to the point that is becomes useful. But, maybe that is the point, it is just a bunch of data, all thrown out there, and we can choose to use it how we would like. I was overall very impressed by the scientific data and Tim’s grasp on metabolic processes. It was really well researched and is a testament to his intense study into this area.
Since I have listened to and re-read many of the sections several times I have began to assemble a One-Note file that pieces together what I think are the most important concepts regarding vitamin supplementation, weight training, endurance training, sex, and nutrition. I feel like what the book lacked was coherence, and this is what it needed in the end. I will provide this file here, and note that it is a work in progress. I will be updating it over the next several months and hopefully can come up with a final summary that will make this something that both I and my patients can use to loose that 28 pounds in 30 days that Tim promises. Feel free to work with it and edit it as you see fit.
I am not a fan of FAD diets, I don’t really think this is. I am not a fan of fad workouts, I don’t really think this is either. Can we gain and maintain muscle mass with just 40 minutes of gym time per week and single sets of minimalist training using slow repetitions working to exhaustion? I believe so, especially given the very well documented research that Arthur Jones of Nautilus focused on many years ago regarding single set exercises and the value of isometric contractions and eccentric training. Plus after 14 years of working out the same way why not try something different? In the 5 years I have been at my current gym, the same guys around me, we all look just about the same, maybe it is time for some new ideas! So far I have began modifying my diet some (although not totally carb free more Mediterranean) and have changed my weight training to fit Occam’s Protocol I and II. I may experiment with his modified “slow carb” diet over the next month in an attempt to loose body fat, but I need to find a way to measure this well and effectively. I am further intrigued by cross fit, I have started yoga… So far all good outcomes from this book. And the idea of an eat all you want cheat day that seems to be based on real metabolic processes: Way COOL!
Also, given this has also been a topic of contention, and a topic we are all afraid to touch, the ideas surrounding “the doing method” which Tim describes in great detail in his section “the 15 minute female orgasm” I think is important. I have heard many women complain in other blogs that this is demeaning, here is one such example of a quote in the form of a comment from a recent blog post:
Yeah, I have the book right here, actually. So I want to tell you that the most heartbreaking chapter is the one about sex. This chapter embodies everything that bugs me about Tim.
First, chapter assumes that all a woman wants is to have an orgasm. And that, therefore, we should all take bedroom lessons from Tim Ferriss.
I mean, look, I can hire a guy to give me an orgasm the way Tim is talking about. So on that level, the book is insulting because it assumes that I am not resourceful enough to earn the money and find the guy to hire — that I actually have to train a newbie instead of hiring a pro.
Second, I’d way rather have a guy who loves me and is good to me and honest and connected and not the king of giving me orgasms. I assumed it was common knowledge that women would rather be with a guy who is intimate and sweet and cares about her deeply than a whiz kid in bed.
Posted by Penelope Trunk on December 27, 2010 at 9:47 am
In my opinion as someone who has been married for 10 years and has two small children and feels good sex in an integral part of achieving and maintaining intimacy between a couple, I felt this chapter was very good. I think we all can say that after many years with our partners it becomes increasingly difficult, and at the same time increasingly important that we find ways to continue to keep sex both interesting and satisfying to both partners, especially after children. The fact quoted in the book that 70% of U.S women are unable to achieve orgasm from intercourse, and that 50% of U.S women are unable to achieve orgasm at all was astounding. If you polled most men about the subject of female orgasm we would probably put this number around 5% (as in not always reaching orgasm) given male pride. So it is good to have a chapter about how to help our female partners experience sexual gratification. I believe the information was timely and tasteful, and will most likely not be practiced by most couples simply because most men are to afraid to discuss these topics openly with their partners in the first place. Probably because since so many women have never experienced orgasm we would be afraid to hear the answer. This is too bad, and I feel the book opens up a good avenue for discussion and exploration and presents a method, “the doing method”, that is for most men completely foreign!
I will write more about this book over the next several months, because I do not believe that this was just a way for Tim Ferris to make money on a bunch of ignorant consumers of popular media. Of course maybe I am the ignorant consumer. But I believe that if you are a thinker, a life hacker, a philosopher and someone who likes to look beyond what we see in search of ways that may be less conventional but more effective, than this is a book for you. It requires patient research, time, it needs to be fine tuned to reach individual needs, but the ideas are there and represent another big part of a balanced life that Tim is trying to hack into. There is no such thing as a 4 hour cure for all of life’s difficulties, and this is not the aim of this book, but there are ways to do things that defy conventional wisdom and challenge us to push beyond our boundaries. In this why I think Tim is pretty darn impressive at 33 (my current age), and his work is worthy of my 9 bucks and change!
The 15 minute orgasm is what got me to buy The 4-Hour Body. I was not entirely unimpressed with the two chapters “The 15 Minute Female Orgasm”. There are a lot of useful illustrations and he lays out a fairly straightforward approach that he learned from a couple of his trainers – Nina Hartley and the folks at One Taste.
As I think is clear by now, most of the ideas in the book may be new to Tim, but not necessarily new, and what he does is to give you a brief summary of what he has learned and where he learned it. Some topics he seems to have researched and experimented with a great deal more than others, sex seems to be one of the areas he has researched less.
It’s an introduction though, and his enthusiasm is wonderful. His writing is easy to read and entertaining. There is some good stuff here like: have a clear beginning and ending to a sensual cycle; and that you can’t make someone else come – you can facilitate it, but ultimately its them. Other things are not so clear like why it’s important to really get comfortable so you don’t get tired while you’re “doing” a woman – he seems to have settled on what even he finds to be an awkward “doing” position. He omits to mention that you should use lubricant.
There is a lot of confusion about the “15 minute” part – the book describes 15 minutes to get to orgasm, and many reviewers are confused or disappointed by this. The sources he mentions (Steve & Vera Bodansky, Lafayette Morehouse, One Taste) do discuss extended duration orgasms (orgasms lasting 15 minutes or an hour or three hours or more). Around the SF bay area, where Tim lives, there are actual demonstrations of varying length and intensity of female orgasm.
Seems clear he is just getting started in this area – the way he describes it makes it seem like its a procedure you “do to a woman.” Hard to know what he was taught vs. what he retained. What I’ve seen from the Lafayette Morehouse folks – who, as Tim says, invented this stuff – is that “doing” is a ride you both take together, she the wave, you the surfer, two bodies, one orgasm. (the same is true for both genders).
Thanks Cinn, that was an extremely well thought out and insightful comment! I believe you are right on all accounts.
This was a great post and I loved it. But I must say, in my opinion as an avid reader of fiction and self-help books, that the book is very well written. The first thing you have to do is forget the name of the book and the chapters and take the information for what it is…information. I personally love just having straight information and the results that should follow. I agree that it does seem like he may be a bit of a novice with certain things in the sex chapters but at the same time it follows the same style of the rest of the book. He gives you the information that he has learned and tells you what the result should be. It shouldn’t sound romantic or watered down. What you’re supposed to do is take the information and then apply it in your life. It’s your job to add the intimacy into when you’re with your partner. Hell, if you do it right she won’t even know you got it from a book. In conclusion, this book is a framework to achieve certain results, if you want the results then follow the instructions.