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Comment by edw519 | Hacker News Reader

If nothing else, the staying power of this shit is a testament to the power of marketing.

Now imagine what you can accomplish when you combine that with something that actually offers value to others. Hack away!

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I don't know much about Ferris, and haven't read the book but I've been a quite devoted life extensionist for a while, researching diets and studies and nutritients relentlessly, and a favorite researcher and blogger of mine is Chris Masterjohn, whose scientific rigor and sobriety is ever unwavering, who wrote a favorable review of 4-hour body.

http://www.cholesterol-and-health.com/Review-Tim-Ferriss-4-H...

Have you actually read the book? Everything is subjective, but I feel it offers plenty of value, and my life is improved for reading it. Specifically relating to nutrition & weight gain.

I don't really care for or about Tim's marketing methods, but to say it has no substance at all is to miss the point. Same goes for 4HWW.

getting a nice body - looking beautiful - is probably one of the most valuable benefits you could offer to someone. rule of marketing - human drives. 4HB appeals to drive to bond, drive to defend, drive to acquire.

Plus--as far as the "four hour" promise goes--the desire not to work very hard or very long for it.

Having read some of his stuff, you are incorrect about not working hard.

The ridiculousness of this stuff is not the content, it's the linkbait hyperbole he uses to market it. He draws people in with shit like "The 4 Hour Workweek", even though his content doesn't say that's actually going to be the case - at least not until deep into the process. And it pervades everything he does - shady marketing tactics that cover up content that's actually pretty decent.

Are they shady tactics if they actually work and the content is decent as you say? The point of marketing is to get the eyeballs, if your content is garbage then that's a whole other issue. Maybe you can go into more detail about what's shady about his tactics?

What does the shadiness of the tactics have to do with their effectiveness and their aim? If they're shady, they're shady.

And by reading it you fulfill the drive to learn as well. All four are hit.

Very true. He knows this too well. Why he tested the top searched content. Brilliant from a marketing perspective, saying nothing about substance.

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