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elfsNow, you might think that this is a rant about The Four Hour Work Week and it's claim that anyone can make a living working only four hours, if only they figure out how to do it right. It's not. After reading Ferriss' book, I'm convinced that Ferriss defines "work" as "shit I'd rather not do," but he's doing stuff for hundreds of hours every week improving the brand that is Tim Ferriss.
No, this is about the (A) in Ferriss' formula, namely "automation." Ferriss has a formula: DEAL (Definition, Automation, Elimination, Liberation). But 'automation' isn't about computers. It's about having other people do the work you don't want to do. Ferriss is all about hiring third-world people with access to call centers and paying them to do his scutwork. Ferriss interviews a lot of people himself for material, and he has his Mumbia-accented flunkies do his cold-calling, looking for a bite.
Today I got a call from a call center in India, in which the very nice, but thickly accented woman on the other end tried to sell me a job doing C#, or ASP.NET, or Sharepoint. I told her politely that I don't know any of those things, and that I've never coded for Microsoft products (okay, I did some VBforAccess in 1995), and that I don't know what in my resume made her think I was appropriate to the task.
"Okay, sir, well how about Amazon? Is there something I can take to my recruiter to have her contact you?"
I realized as I listened to her that I was listening to a Tim Ferriss creature: someone who the recruiter had hired, at $5 an hour, to call a long list of people culled from Monster in the desperate hopes of hitting a winner. A first-pass filter through that list, looking for the desperate, hopeful ones who were still out of work and might be worth the recruiter's time.
I'm sure it works, but the number of people whose English I barely understand, asking me about positions I have absolutely zero interest in (especially now that I'm gainfully and fully employed in a position that uses my skills to the max, ThankYouVeryMuch), has skyrocketed in recent months, and today was just the real cake. "How about Amazon," indeed.
Congratulations, Tim Ferriss. And fuck you.
No, this is about the (A) in Ferriss' formula, namely "automation." Ferriss has a formula: DEAL (Definition, Automation, Elimination, Liberation). But 'automation' isn't about computers. It's about having other people do the work you don't want to do. Ferriss is all about hiring third-world people with access to call centers and paying them to do his scutwork. Ferriss interviews a lot of people himself for material, and he has his Mumbia-accented flunkies do his cold-calling, looking for a bite.
Today I got a call from a call center in India, in which the very nice, but thickly accented woman on the other end tried to sell me a job doing C#, or ASP.NET, or Sharepoint. I told her politely that I don't know any of those things, and that I've never coded for Microsoft products (okay, I did some VBforAccess in 1995), and that I don't know what in my resume made her think I was appropriate to the task.
"Okay, sir, well how about Amazon? Is there something I can take to my recruiter to have her contact you?"
I realized as I listened to her that I was listening to a Tim Ferriss creature: someone who the recruiter had hired, at $5 an hour, to call a long list of people culled from Monster in the desperate hopes of hitting a winner. A first-pass filter through that list, looking for the desperate, hopeful ones who were still out of work and might be worth the recruiter's time.
I'm sure it works, but the number of people whose English I barely understand, asking me about positions I have absolutely zero interest in (especially now that I'm gainfully and fully employed in a position that uses my skills to the max, ThankYouVeryMuch), has skyrocketed in recent months, and today was just the real cake. "How about Amazon," indeed.
Congratulations, Tim Ferriss. And fuck you.
