I’ve recently read both Timothy Ferriss’ Four Hour Work Week and Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson’s Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It. I think they are both excellent books, and they help to really challenge the idea of the traditional 40-hour work week in the Technological Age. I noticed that Tim started to get into the idea of the Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE) that Cali and Jody take and elaborate on at length. The idea that, in a world of technology where physical presence is no longer necessary for a majority of the work being done in this world, that we can divorce ourselves from the idea of needing to be in the office for the usual minimum 40 hours a week.
In addition to getting to a point where you can work from wherever you like, Tim takes it one step farther and keys in on the idea of “outsourcing your life” – if you’re getting paid $25/hour to do work that you could outsource to India or China for, say, $15/hour, then by doing just that you basically have steady income and it will free up your time to pursue other interests and/or other work.
Altogether, two good books that I would definitely recommend. None of us will likely take the proposed ideas to the extremes discussed in the two books, but at the very least it can help you to second guess the requirement that you spend 2 hours or more a day stuck in traffic, commuting to work.
