You're listening to a special archive presentation of TED Talks audio.

This talk features author A.J. Jacobs recorded live at EG. 2007.

We're featuring this talk today as part of a special selection themed around journeys.

I thought I tell you a little about what I like to write.

I like to immerse myself in my topics.

I just like to dive right in and become sort of a human guinea pig.

And I see my life as a series of experiments.

So I work for Esquire magazine a couple of years ago.

I wrote an article called My Outsourced Life, where I hired a team of people in Bangalore, India, to live my life for me.

So they answered my emails,

they answered my phone, they argued with my wife for me, and they read my son bedtime stories.

It was the best month of my life, because I just sat back and I read books and watched movies. It was a wonderful experience. More recently, I wrote an article for Esquire called About Radical Honesty. And this

is a movement where this is started by a psychologist in Virginia who says that you should never, ever lie, except maybe during poker and golf. This is started by a psychologist in Virginia who says that you should never, ever lie,

except maybe during poker and golf.

This is only exceptions.

And more than that, whatever's on your brain should come out of your mouth.

So I decided I would try this for a month.

This was the worst month of my life.

I do not recommend this at all.

To give you a sense of the experience,

the article was called,

I think you're fat.

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