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The Tim Ferriss Show

#548: The Lost Presentation That Launched The 4-Hour Workweek — “Secrets of Doing More with Less in a Digital World” from SXSW 2007

The Tim Ferriss Show

Tim Ferriss: Bestselling Author, Human Guinea Pig

Lifestyle Design, Longform Interviews, Startups, Tools Of Titans, Productivity, Tim Ferris, Tim Ferriss, Timothy Ferriss Show, Timothy Ferriss, Entrepreneurship, The 4-hour Workweek, The Tim Ferriss Show, Business

4.617.7K Ratings

🗓️ 18 November 2021

⏱️ 60 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The Lost Presentation That Launched The 4-Hour Workweek — “Secrets of Doing More with Less in a Digital World” from SXSW 2007 | Brought to you by “5-Bullet Friday,” my very own email newsletter. More on it below.

Welcome to another episode of The Tim Ferriss Show, where it is my job to deconstruct world-class performers to tease out the routines, habits, et cetera that you can apply to your own life. 

This is a special episode, which features my very first speech at SXSW in March of 2007! I didn’t know that a recording existed, and it was a great surprise when Cal Newport, author of Deep Work and writer for The New Yorker sent it to me. 

He used it as part of his research for a recent article that was published in The New Yorker titled “Revisiting The 4-Hour Workweek: How Tim Ferriss’s 2007 manifesto anticipated our current moment of professional upheaval.” 

And the 2007 SXSW speech was really the event that put everything into high gear. Influential tech bloggers who had heard the SXSW talk wrote about The 4-Hour Workweek, which put it on the radar of bigger media outlets. Eventually, the book made it onto The New York Times Best Sellers list, where it stayed, more or less, for the next seven years. It’s been a wild ride. 

One last thing: Hugh Forrest, if you’re listening, thank you again for giving me a shot way back in the day! 

Please enjoy!

This episode is brought to you by “5-Bullet Friday,” my very own email newsletter that every Friday features five bullet points highlighting cool things I’ve found that week, including apps, books, documentaries, gadgets, albums, articles, TV shows, new hacks or tricks, and—of course—all sorts of weird stuff I’ve dug up from around the world.

It’s free, it’s always going to be free, and you can subscribe now at tim.blog/friday.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

This episode is brought to you by Five Bullet Friday, my very own email newsletter.

0:05.3

It's become one of the most popular email newsletters in the world with millions of subscribers,

0:09.8

and it's super, super simple.

0:11.3

It does not clog up your inbox.

0:13.0

Every Friday, I send out five bullet points, super short of the coolest things I've found

0:17.2

that week, which sometimes includes apps, books, documentaries, supplements, gadgets,

0:22.4

new self experiments, hacks, tricks, and all sorts of weird stuff that I dig up from

0:27.2

around the world.

0:28.5

You guys, podcast listeners and book readers have asked me for something short and action

0:32.6

packed for a very long time, because after all, the podcast, the books, they can be quite

0:36.8

long.

0:37.8

And that's why I created Five Bullet Friday.

0:40.0

It's become one of my favorite things I do every week.

0:43.8

It's free.

0:44.8

It's always going to be free, and you can learn more at Tim.blog forward slash Friday.

0:49.4

That's Tim.blog forward slash Friday.

0:51.8

I get asked a lot how I meet guests for the podcast, some of the most amazing people I've

0:56.8

ever interacted with, and little to no in fact, I've met probably 25% of them because they

1:02.2

first subscribed to Five Bullet Friday.

1:04.1

So you'll be in good company.

1:06.5

It's a lot of fun.

1:07.5

Five Bullet Friday is only available if you subscribe via email.

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