Terrible. Terrible. Terrible., 03 Nov 2008
This suffers from the same problems as the DVD.

It's derivative. There is absolutely nothing that hasn't been said over and over again.

It's simplistic. Life can be simple, but that doesn't mean you should treat your audience as if they are too.

It's repetitive. Get a variety of different figures in your niche to all say the same things using slightly different words.

It's nasty. Follow the philosophy through to it's logical conclusion and you are left with the concept that those who suffer have brought it upon themselves. There may be a grain of truth for some of the many unfortunates out there, but try telling a starving family in a poverty- and drought-stricken wilderness that really they ought to just change their attitudes and it'll all work out, then see which religion's version of hell you belong in.

It's insidious. They stack what I am sure they see as reasonable arguments one on top of the other, leading from premise to unfounded conclusion at such speed and in such a fashion that they gradually start to get in just through the continual exposure to the same old message.

The whole thing is trite, simple and hackneyed.
Still, it proves what good underground marketing can do. Don't be a sheep. Borrow it first, read it carefully, think on it, then have a good laugh, give it back and forget you ever heard of this tosh.

Promises what it cannot deliver., 31 Oct 2008
Should you wish to read this book with the sole intention of feeling both good about yourself and the world in general, then you will undoubtedly find that it lifts the spirits and enables you to view everything through the proverbial 'rose coloured spectacles'. If this is all you want to obtain from this book then my heartfelt good wishes to you. If, on the otherhand, you are desirous of creating miracles (as the blurb promises) then you will be sadly disappointed. To preclude all doubt to the point where you are able to effectively change the world around you, or your future for that matter, takes something that the majority of us simply cannot command. Jesus could do it - but then he was something a bit special. The rest of us, unfortunately, will have to be satisfied with the rose coloured spectacles. Miracles are not intended for the mundane.

Is the world controlled by a 1% elite?, 21 Oct 2008
The book and the video are the two sides of the same coin and I would advise you to follow the one or the other. I will suggest though that you concentrate on the video because the commentary between the quotations are nothing but the proof that some people need a lot more explanations and a lot of paraphrase to understand the basic meaning. Are we all without limits? And that is going to be my very first remark. From my long experience I know that some people are physically handicapped, or mentally handicapped, or psychologically handicapped, or with many hurdles on their road and around them. You should see the state of some of those children born to deep alcoholics or drug addicts. Or what about children with a severe genetic disparagement? And I refuse to say they are just disabled, or differently-abled. They are handicapped by being materialistically in their very body or mind at a disadvantage that will prevent them from doing what most people around them will be able to do. If the mind is intact, and working on positive thinking is the only way for these people, then they can compensate their physical limitations with their spiritual achievements. But you can't run in the standard Olympics without legs just like a bicycle will not run without wheels. And this time, in most of these situations, one will not be able to excel, full stop and period, and if one can excel in one particular field in which he is not or is less limited, it won't be without the help of other people around them. You cannot think positive if there is no signs along that road. The second remark is positive. Apart from these special cases, everyone, absolutely everyone can excel somewhere and that excellence can only be reached if it is targeted, looked for and built. Positive thinking, education, understanding that the pleasure of such achievements is in the goal when reached and not in the effort you have to accomplish, even if for those who will reach the highest points this very effort is a pleasure, the pleasure of the effort itself. A runner has to train day in and day out and that is never, absolutely never a plain entertaining phase of relaxation and abandon. Physical pleasure requires sweat and heart speed. But if one does not set their minds on the aim they are going to strive towards, they will never reach it. Success is enormously in the mind, in the conscious and subconscious motivation of the candidate. Yet it is absolutely false to say that man has no limits. Humanity, and every member of it, has always been limited historically and no one could think plasma physics or quantum computers under Julius Caesar. Each historical period produces its possible fields of investigation that are limited because in a later historical period those fields of investigation will always be vaster, larger, deeper, more intense. Or then the author is speaking metaphorically of man as the representative of humanity in its cosmic history. But that is not helping any individual who is striving to achieve something in his own life. Icarus did try to fly but wax wings were kind of primitive. Then my third and last remark will be a question: why only ONE percent of humanity controls NINETY-SIX percent of wealth? If this is a fact, and it is, it is the proof that all men are not equal in facts but only in rights, and that is so by our collective decision to say so. But one thing is sure: thinking negatively is never good. Think of McCain and Palin and their negative campaigning. Think of all the anarchists of the world who have never achieved the slightest beginning of their dream which is only a negative picture of the world the way it is. If you criticize the world systematically, then your dream becomes the inverted image of this world, hence a negative picture of reality, and that will never guide or inspire people into desiring such a future. When I don't like something I do not ask for the reverse. I wonder what the situation is, what the possibilities are and if another solution is possible and which one. Then I will think positively along that objective, or rather as objective as possible, line, but to demand black because what I don't like is white, or to require red because what I don't like is blue is primitive negative thinking. That kind of realism and collective striving is absent from this book or video and that is a shame because they forget attraction holds the world and the cosmos up because it is always counterbalanced by repulsion. Otherwise the moon would have fallen onto the earth a long very long time ago, even if this repulsion is itself the product of attractions that are standing abreast and against the attraction of the earth. The apple did not fall as long as the stem was strong enough and the apple light enough for the stem not to break. The author of this book or video seems to have forgotten that the cosmos is a complex system of opposed spheres and when a weak point appears, then a catastrophe develops in that weak point, and the earth is doomed sooner or later in cosmic time to disappear, just like the sun which will one day have burned all itself fuel.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines


Dreadful Twaddle, 16 Oct 2008
After you cut though all the flannel, the secret is revealed. If you think about things they will come to you. No they won't. It takes dedication, persistence and hard work to achieve success, get rich, lose weight or achieve whatever your goal is. This book is delusional and misleading. The elements on positive thinking are fine but they are better expressed in many other self-help books. The 'secret' itself is laughable.

The Secret and The Scam, 11 Oct 2008
A friend of mine bought me this book for my birthday, explaining that it was a best selling spiritual read, so I was looking forward to what it had to say. I can honestly say I was unimpressed from the start. There was this build to this huge life changing 'secret' and it was like waiting for a huge explosion that never actually went off.

This whole Secret is based on wishful, dillusional thnking. It claims that if you want to have money, believe that you will have money and it will come to you. If you want to lose weight, believe that you're losing weight and it will happen. It rarely ever mentions that you have to put work in for these things to happen. In a good way this book does allow people to focus on what they want in life and to focus on the positive, but having a good life, having money and having good relationships requires some work on our part, not just repeating something in our heads and hoping the Universe will deliver. That's just lazy thinking. I gained a lot more from listening to Anthony Robbins CD's then I did from this book. And yes, I'm aware that he's in it for the money too.

This book also spent a lot of time advertising the film version, so there are a lot of people making getting rich from this book. Unfortunately it won't be the readers.

Terrible. Terrible. Terrible., 03 Nov 2008
This suffers from the same problems as the DVD.

It's derivative. There is absolutely nothing that hasn't been said over and over again.

It's simplistic. Life can be simple, but that doesn't mean you should treat your audience as if they are too.

It's repetitive. Get a variety of different figures in your niche to all say the same things using slightly different words.

It's nasty. Follow the philosophy through to it's logical conclusion and you are left with the concept that those who suffer have brought it upon themselves. There may be a grain of truth for some of the many unfortunates out there, but try telling a starving family in a poverty- and drought-stricken wilderness that really they ought to just change their attitudes and it'll all work out, then see which religion's version of hell you belong in.

It's insidious. They stack what I am sure they see as reasonable arguments one on top of the other, leading from premise to unfounded conclusion at such speed and in such a fashion that they gradually start to get in just through the continual exposure to the same old message.

The whole thing is trite, simple and hackneyed.
Still, it proves what good underground marketing can do. Don't be a sheep. Borrow it first, read it carefully, think on it, then have a good laugh, give it back and forget you ever heard of this tosh.

Promises what it cannot deliver., 31 Oct 2008
Should you wish to read this book with the sole intention of feeling both good about yourself and the world in general, then you will undoubtedly find that it lifts the spirits and enables you to view everything through the proverbial 'rose coloured spectacles'. If this is all you want to obtain from this book then my heartfelt good wishes to you. If, on the otherhand, you are desirous of creating miracles (as the blurb promises) then you will be sadly disappointed. To preclude all doubt to the point where you are able to effectively change the world around you, or your future for that matter, takes something that the majority of us simply cannot command. Jesus could do it - but then he was something a bit special. The rest of us, unfortunately, will have to be satisfied with the rose coloured spectacles. Miracles are not intended for the mundane.

Is the world controlled by a 1% elite?, 21 Oct 2008
The book and the video are the two sides of the same coin and I would advise you to follow the one or the other. I will suggest though that you concentrate on the video because the commentary between the quotations are nothing but the proof that some people need a lot more explanations and a lot of paraphrase to understand the basic meaning. Are we all without limits? And that is going to be my very first remark. From my long experience I know that some people are physically handicapped, or mentally handicapped, or psychologically handicapped, or with many hurdles on their road and around them. You should see the state of some of those children born to deep alcoholics or drug addicts. Or what about children with a severe genetic disparagement? And I refuse to say they are just disabled, or differently-abled. They are handicapped by being materialistically in their very body or mind at a disadvantage that will prevent them from doing what most people around them will be able to do. If the mind is intact, and working on positive thinking is the only way for these people, then they can compensate their physical limitations with their spiritual achievements. But you can't run in the standard Olympics without legs just like a bicycle will not run without wheels. And this time, in most of these situations, one will not be able to excel, full stop and period, and if one can excel in one particular field in which he is not or is less limited, it won't be without the help of other people around them. You cannot think positive if there is no signs along that road. The second remark is positive. Apart from these special cases, everyone, absolutely everyone can excel somewhere and that excellence can only be reached if it is targeted, looked for and built. Positive thinking, education, understanding that the pleasure of such achievements is in the goal when reached and not in the effort you have to accomplish, even if for those who will reach the highest points this very effort is a pleasure, the pleasure of the effort itself. A runner has to train day in and day out and that is never, absolutely never a plain entertaining phase of relaxation and abandon. Physical pleasure requires sweat and heart speed. But if one does not set their minds on the aim they are going to strive towards, they will never reach it. Success is enormously in the mind, in the conscious and subconscious motivation of the candidate. Yet it is absolutely false to say that man has no limits. Humanity, and every member of it, has always been limited historically and no one could think plasma physics or quantum computers under Julius Caesar. Each historical period produces its possible fields of investigation that are limited because in a later historical period those fields of investigation will always be vaster, larger, deeper, more intense. Or then the author is speaking metaphorically of man as the representative of humanity in its cosmic history. But that is not helping any individual who is striving to achieve something in his own life. Icarus did try to fly but wax wings were kind of primitive. Then my third and last remark will be a question: why only ONE percent of humanity controls NINETY-SIX percent of wealth? If this is a fact, and it is, it is the proof that all men are not equal in facts but only in rights, and that is so by our collective decision to say so. But one thing is sure: thinking negatively is never good. Think of McCain and Palin and their negative campaigning. Think of all the anarchists of the world who have never achieved the slightest beginning of their dream which is only a negative picture of the world the way it is. If you criticize the world systematically, then your dream becomes the inverted image of this world, hence a negative picture of reality, and that will never guide or inspire people into desiring such a future. When I don't like something I do not ask for the reverse. I wonder what the situation is, what the possibilities are and if another solution is possible and which one. Then I will think positively along that objective, or rather as objective as possible, line, but to demand black because what I don't like is white, or to require red because what I don't like is blue is primitive negative thinking. That kind of realism and collective striving is absent from this book or video and that is a shame because they forget attraction holds the world and the cosmos up because it is always counterbalanced by repulsion. Otherwise the moon would have fallen onto the earth a long very long time ago, even if this repulsion is itself the product of attractions that are standing abreast and against the attraction of the earth. The apple did not fall as long as the stem was strong enough and the apple light enough for the stem not to break. The author of this book or video seems to have forgotten that the cosmos is a complex system of opposed spheres and when a weak point appears, then a catastrophe develops in that weak point, and the earth is doomed sooner or later in cosmic time to disappear, just like the sun which will one day have burned all itself fuel.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines


Dreadful Twaddle, 16 Oct 2008
After you cut though all the flannel, the secret is revealed. If you think about things they will come to you. No they won't. It takes dedication, persistence and hard work to achieve success, get rich, lose weight or achieve whatever your goal is. This book is delusional and misleading. The elements on positive thinking are fine but they are better expressed in many other self-help books. The 'secret' itself is laughable.

The Secret and The Scam, 11 Oct 2008
A friend of mine bought me this book for my birthday, explaining that it was a best selling spiritual read, so I was looking forward to what it had to say. I can honestly say I was unimpressed from the start. There was this build to this huge life changing 'secret' and it was like waiting for a huge explosion that never actually went off.

This whole Secret is based on wishful, dillusional thnking. It claims that if you want to have money, believe that you will have money and it will come to you. If you want to lose weight, believe that you're losing weight and it will happen. It rarely ever mentions that you have to put work in for these things to happen. In a good way this book does allow people to focus on what they want in life and to focus on the positive, but having a good life, having money and having good relationships requires some work on our part, not just repeating something in our heads and hoping the Universe will deliver. That's just lazy thinking. I gained a lot more from listening to Anthony Robbins CD's then I did from this book. And yes, I'm aware that he's in it for the money too.

This book also spent a lot of time advertising the film version, so there are a lot of people making getting rich from this book. Unfortunately it won't be the readers.

Yes, it is a book of two halves but..., 17 Oct 2008
The first half of this book is so good at telling you how to save time that if you take it in properly you don't read the second half, you absorb it.

Totally freeing, funny and fantastic.

Sack your boss.

Put it in your basket!, 13 Oct 2008
This book has added hours to my week!
I didn't find all the ideas useful, and yes the book is padded out with the authors ideas of how to fill your newly found time (non of which interested me) but its well worth having in your collection.
Some of the ideas are so simple that I kicked myself; I have since spoken to many very successful people and found non that have used them but all thought they were great!
Even if this book only gives you back an hour of two a week, It will be well worth the cover price!


One of the best books I have read, 04 Oct 2008
This is one of the best books I have read, it makes you re-evaluate your life and see that it is for now - not later as later may never come. He does go a bit too much ionto what he thinks you should do with your free time but overall loads to gain from this this book. It is especially suited to those who have an online business like he does and most of the reference companies are American so that foe me was a downside as if there were UK reference companies for outside fullfillment etc that would make it more worthwhile however worth buying and defo gives a different perspective to life and what it can be.

There is one poem in there towards the end that I thought was so powerfull, I have typed up and put on me fridge !!

The 4-Hour Work Week, 16 Sep 2008
After reading the reviews and skimming the book in a local bookstore I bought this book.
To be honest it isn't a bad read and some tips (like leaving a message on your email, focusing on outcomes before you have a meeting and outsourcing where possible) were quite interesting but the main drawback seemed to me that it was really just a book for management and sale people not real producers and "wealth creators"
If you are a factory worker making cars, computers widgets etc you have to be there full time you can't outsource that work.
If you are a doctor you need to be there more than 4 hours a week
A teacher, nurse, shop worker, bus driver, airline pilot (the list goes on and on) can't expect to be paid a full salary for a 10% workload.
It just reinforces my prejudices that we really don't need managers at all!!
Remember the space ship in hitch hikers guide that was full of management gurus and telephone sanitizers-- Now they could do a 4 hour week!!

The Wealth Coach Loved The 4-Hour Work Week, 02 Sep 2008
I really liked several things about this book, not least that Tim Ferris didn't make it all sound easy, but rather, showed us why it is important to find a way to be financially free. Driven, successful people often find it hard to just lie on a beach, and how would you just take off on your own if you have always had people around you.....it sort of put me off a bit - which could have been sabotaging my long term success! I've always struggled with the idea of what to do when I no longer have to stay in the UK, when the kids are grown up, but can travel the world drawing a passive income from my business.....well, thanks to Tim, now I know what I'm going to do, I'm going to have "purposeful holidays". I'm going to go and live for 3-6 months at a time in an area I've always liked the sound of, rent apartements rather than live in hotels, and learn how to do things, speak languages, help people. How cool is that thought? I highly recommend this book which complements the other wealth creation biggies like "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" and "Think & Grow Rich", "One Minute Millionaire" etc. My only tiny niggle with the book was that Tim didn't go into too much detail about his path and challenges creating his own internet business and passive income, that would have been really interesting, but could form the basis for his next book perhaps?

Terrible. Terrible. Terrible., 03 Nov 2008
This suffers from the same problems as the DVD.

It's derivative. There is absolutely nothing that hasn't been said over and over again.

It's simplistic. Life can be simple, but that doesn't mean you should treat your audience as if they are too.

It's repetitive. Get a variety of different figures in your niche to all say the same things using slightly different words.

It's nasty. Follow the philosophy through to it's logical conclusion and you are left with the concept that those who suffer have brought it upon themselves. There may be a grain of truth for some of the many unfortunates out there, but try telling a starving family in a poverty- and drought-stricken wilderness that really they ought to just change their attitudes and it'll all work out, then see which religion's version of hell you belong in.

It's insidious. They stack what I am sure they see as reasonable arguments one on top of the other, leading from premise to unfounded conclusion at such speed and in such a fashion that they gradually start to get in just through the continual exposure to the same old message.

The whole thing is trite, simple and hackneyed.
Still, it proves what good underground marketing can do. Don't be a sheep. Borrow it first, read it carefully, think on it, then have a good laugh, give it back and forget you ever heard of this tosh.

Promises what it cannot deliver., 31 Oct 2008
Should you wish to read this book with the sole intention of feeling both good about yourself and the world in general, then you will undoubtedly find that it lifts the spirits and enables you to view everything through the proverbial 'rose coloured spectacles'. If this is all you want to obtain from this book then my heartfelt good wishes to you. If, on the otherhand, you are desirous of creating miracles (as the blurb promises) then you will be sadly disappointed. To preclude all doubt to the point where you are able to effectively change the world around you, or your future for that matter, takes something that the majority of us simply cannot command. Jesus could do it - but then he was something a bit special. The rest of us, unfortunately, will have to be satisfied with the rose coloured spectacles. Miracles are not intended for the mundane.

Is the world controlled by a 1% elite?, 21 Oct 2008
The book and the video are the two sides of the same coin and I would advise you to follow the one or the other. I will suggest though that you concentrate on the video because the commentary between the quotations are nothing but the proof that some people need a lot more explanations and a lot of paraphrase to understand the basic meaning. Are we all without limits? And that is going to be my very first remark. From my long experience I know that some people are physically handicapped, or mentally handicapped, or psychologically handicapped, or with many hurdles on their road and around them. You should see the state of some of those children born to deep alcoholics or drug addicts. Or what about children with a severe genetic disparagement? And I refuse to say they are just disabled, or differently-abled. They are handicapped by being materialistically in their very body or mind at a disadvantage that will prevent them from doing what most people around them will be able to do. If the mind is intact, and working on positive thinking is the only way for these people, then they can compensate their physical limitations with their spiritual achievements. But you can't run in the standard Olympics without legs just like a bicycle will not run without wheels. And this time, in most of these situations, one will not be able to excel, full stop and period, and if one can excel in one particular field in which he is not or is less limited, it won't be without the help of other people around them. You cannot think positive if there is no signs along that road. The second remark is positive. Apart from these special cases, everyone, absolutely everyone can excel somewhere and that excellence can only be reached if it is targeted, looked for and built. Positive thinking, education, understanding that the pleasure of such achievements is in the goal when reached and not in the effort you have to accomplish, even if for those who will reach the highest points this very effort is a pleasure, the pleasure of the effort itself. A runner has to train day in and day out and that is never, absolutely never a plain entertaining phase of relaxation and abandon. Physical pleasure requires sweat and heart speed. But if one does not set their minds on the aim they are going to strive towards, they will never reach it. Success is enormously in the mind, in the conscious and subconscious motivation of the candidate. Yet it is absolutely false to say that man has no limits. Humanity, and every member of it, has always been limited historically and no one could think plasma physics or quantum computers under Julius Caesar. Each historical period produces its possible fields of investigation that are limited because in a later historical period those fields of investigation will always be vaster, larger, deeper, more intense. Or then the author is speaking metaphorically of man as the representative of humanity in its cosmic history. But that is not helping any individual who is striving to achieve something in his own life. Icarus did try to fly but wax wings were kind of primitive. Then my third and last remark will be a question: why only ONE percent of humanity controls NINETY-SIX percent of wealth? If this is a fact, and it is, it is the proof that all men are not equal in facts but only in rights, and that is so by our collective decision to say so. But one thing is sure: thinking negatively is never good. Think of McCain and Palin and their negative campaigning. Think of all the anarchists of the world who have never achieved the slightest beginning of their dream which is only a negative picture of the world the way it is. If you criticize the world systematically, then your dream becomes the inverted image of this world, hence a negative picture of reality, and that will never guide or inspire people into desiring such a future. When I don't like something I do not ask for the reverse. I wonder what the situation is, what the possibilities are and if another solution is possible and which one. Then I will think positively along that objective, or rather as objective as possible, line, but to demand black because what I don't like is white, or to require red because what I don't like is blue is primitive negative thinking. That kind of realism and collective striving is absent from this book or video and that is a shame because they forget attraction holds the world and the cosmos up because it is always counterbalanced by repulsion. Otherwise the moon would have fallen onto the earth a long very long time ago, even if this repulsion is itself the product of attractions that are standing abreast and against the attraction of the earth. The apple did not fall as long as the stem was strong enough and the apple light enough for the stem not to break. The author of this book or video seems to have forgotten that the cosmos is a complex system of opposed spheres and when a weak point appears, then a catastrophe develops in that weak point, and the earth is doomed sooner or later in cosmic time to disappear, just like the sun which will one day have burned all itself fuel.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines


Dreadful Twaddle, 16 Oct 2008
After you cut though all the flannel, the secret is revealed. If you think about things they will come to you. No they won't. It takes dedication, persistence and hard work to achieve success, get rich, lose weight or achieve whatever your goal is. This book is delusional and misleading. The elements on positive thinking are fine but they are better expressed in many other self-help books. The 'secret' itself is laughable.

The Secret and The Scam, 11 Oct 2008
A friend of mine bought me this book for my birthday, explaining that it was a best selling spiritual read, so I was looking forward to what it had to say. I can honestly say I was unimpressed from the start. There was this build to this huge life changing 'secret' and it was like waiting for a huge explosion that never actually went off.

This whole Secret is based on wishful, dillusional thnking. It claims that if you want to have money, believe that you will have money and it will come to you. If you want to lose weight, believe that you're losing weight and it will happen. It rarely ever mentions that you have to put work in for these things to happen. In a good way this book does allow people to focus on what they want in life and to focus on the positive, but having a good life, having money and having good relationships requires some work on our part, not just repeating something in our heads and hoping the Universe will deliver. That's just lazy thinking. I gained a lot more from listening to Anthony Robbins CD's then I did from this book. And yes, I'm aware that he's in it for the money too.

This book also spent a lot of time advertising the film version, so there are a lot of people making getting rich from this book. Unfortunately it won't be the readers.

Yes, it is a book of two halves but..., 17 Oct 2008
The first half of this book is so good at telling you how to save time that if you take it in properly you don't read the second half, you absorb it.

Totally freeing, funny and fantastic.

Sack your boss.

Put it in your basket!, 13 Oct 2008
This book has added hours to my week!
I didn't find all the ideas useful, and yes the book is padded out with the authors ideas of how to fill your newly found time (non of which interested me) but its well worth having in your collection.
Some of the ideas are so simple that I kicked myself; I have since spoken to many very successful people and found non that have used them but all thought they were great!
Even if this book only gives you back an hour of two a week, It will be well worth the cover price!


One of the best books I have read, 04 Oct 2008
This is one of the best books I have read, it makes you re-evaluate your life and see that it is for now - not later as later may never come. He does go a bit too much ionto what he thinks you should do with your free time but overall loads to gain from this this book. It is especially suited to those who have an online business like he does and most of the reference companies are American so that foe me was a downside as if there were UK reference companies for outside fullfillment etc that would make it more worthwhile however worth buying and defo gives a different perspective to life and what it can be.

There is one poem in there towards the end that I thought was so powerfull, I have typed up and put on me fridge !!

The 4-Hour Work Week, 16 Sep 2008
After reading the reviews and skimming the book in a local bookstore I bought this book.
To be honest it isn't a bad read and some tips (like leaving a message on your email, focusing on outcomes before you have a meeting and outsourcing where possible) were quite interesting but the main drawback seemed to me that it was really just a book for management and sale people not real producers and "wealth creators"
If you are a factory worker making cars, computers widgets etc you have to be there full time you can't outsource that work.
If you are a doctor you need to be there more than 4 hours a week
A teacher, nurse, shop worker, bus driver, airline pilot (the list goes on and on) can't expect to be paid a full salary for a 10% workload.
It just reinforces my prejudices that we really don't need managers at all!!
Remember the space ship in hitch hikers guide that was full of management gurus and telephone sanitizers-- Now they could do a 4 hour week!!

The Wealth Coach Loved The 4-Hour Work Week, 02 Sep 2008
I really liked several things about this book, not least that Tim Ferris didn't make it all sound easy, but rather, showed us why it is important to find a way to be financially free. Driven, successful people often find it hard to just lie on a beach, and how would you just take off on your own if you have always had people around you.....it sort of put me off a bit - which could have been sabotaging my long term success! I've always struggled with the idea of what to do when I no longer have to stay in the UK, when the kids are grown up, but can travel the world drawing a passive income from my business.....well, thanks to Tim, now I know what I'm going to do, I'm going to have "purposeful holidays". I'm going to go and live for 3-6 months at a time in an area I've always liked the sound of, rent apartements rather than live in hotels, and learn how to do things, speak languages, help people. How cool is that thought? I highly recommend this book which complements the other wealth creation biggies like "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" and "Think & Grow Rich", "One Minute Millionaire" etc. My only tiny niggle with the book was that Tim didn't go into too much detail about his path and challenges creating his own internet business and passive income, that would have been really interesting, but could form the basis for his next book perhaps?

Cell biology for beginners, 12 Sep 2008
Nicely written, easy to read hardback. Concentrates on giving the non-scientist some background on cell biology and what the important parts do. Couple of nice visuals to explain the theory. Liked the explanation of why the quantity of DNA variations does not necessarily equate to greater intelligence - did not fully appreciate the author's epiphany and could not work out how cell walls equal the existence of god and reincarnation - unless he meant that we are god and reincarnation could mean being part of a plant after we've moved on. Spirtuality aside, I'd love some serious research into the whole passing on of the cellular memory (there was a programme about some Scandinavian records showing that people in famine situations had children who developed diabetes in later life over a 100-200 year period or similar which could be related). Incidentally I've tried the suggestion of getting a biologist to learn a bit about quantum physics but he was not at all keen (think it was the maths that put him off). Any how, 3* only because it got a little confusing when god walked in.

Fascinating, 16 Jul 2008
I loved this book, and certainly think every parent and teacher should read it to understand the effect their words have on future generations. Inspiring and thought provoking I would recommend this to anyone who wants to understand why and how we 'tick'

Not as informative or exciting as promised, 09 Jun 2008
From other reviews I would have expected more substance to this book. It is mostly very superficial, particularly in the scientific detail and yet radical conclusions about the nature of living organisms are being made by the author. It did, however, inspire me to read more about the issues raised.

Challenges everything you've been taught about genetics, 29 Mar 2008
What a challenging read. It leaves me with more unanswered questions, so I'm off to by Robin Williams' Psych-K!

This is one book that really will 'change your life', 01 Feb 2008
This book by a cell biologist updates you on what you thought you knew about DNA, RNA and the behaviour of cells. It could have been dull academic reading, but Bruce Lipton's style and attitude make this a refreshing and fascinating read.
I have shelves full of self-development books claiming to 'change your life'. This book explains to me, at the level of cellular memory, why they don't work, what's missing from the formula. And what I can do about it.
More importantly, it is a wake-up call to orthodox doctors, drug companies and genetic engineers who are meddling with life like Mickey Mouse in the Sorcerer's Apprentice. Their science is, it is claimed, based on a Newtonian, Darwinian mechanistic view that was outdated science 70 years ago but is still being accepted without question today by graduates of the life sciences and medical schools.

It is a life-affirming, fascinating book and I am actively promoting it among all my friends. I thoroughly recommend that buy this important book.

Terrible. Terrible. Terrible., 03 Nov 2008
This suffers from the same problems as the DVD.

It's derivative. There is absolutely nothing that hasn't been said over and over again.

It's simplistic. Life can be simple, but that doesn't mean you should treat your audience as if they are too.

It's repetitive. Get a variety of different figures in your niche to all say the same things using slightly different words.

It's nasty. Follow the philosophy through to it's logical conclusion and you are left with the concept that those who suffer have brought it upon themselves. There may be a grain of truth for some of the many unfortunates out there, but try telling a starving family in a poverty- and drought-stricken wilderness that really they ought to just change their attitudes and it'll all work out, then see which religion's version of hell you belong in.

It's insidious. They stack what I am sure they see as reasonable arguments one on top of the other, leading from premise to unfounded conclusion at such speed and in such a fashion that they gradually start to get in just through the continual exposure to the same old message.

The whole thing is trite, simple and hackneyed.
Still, it proves what good underground marketing can do. Don't be a sheep. Borrow it first, read it carefully, think on it, then have a good laugh, give it back and forget you ever heard of this tosh.

Promises what it cannot deliver., 31 Oct 2008
Should you wish to read this book with the sole intention of feeling both good about yourself and the world in general, then you will undoubtedly find that it lifts the spirits and enables you to view everything through the proverbial 'rose coloured spectacles'. If this is all you want to obtain from this book then my heartfelt good wishes to you. If, on the otherhand, you are desirous of creating miracles (as the blurb promises) then you will be sadly disappointed. To preclude all doubt to the point where you are able to effectively change the world around you, or your future for that matter, takes something that the majority of us simply cannot command. Jesus could do it - but then he was something a bit special. The rest of us, unfortunately, will have to be satisfied with the rose coloured spectacles. Miracles are not intended for the mundane.

Is the world controlled by a 1% elite?, 21 Oct 2008
The book and the video are the two sides of the same coin and I would advise you to follow the one or the other. I will suggest though that you concentrate on the video because the commentary between the quotations are nothing but the proof that some people need a lot more explanations and a lot of paraphrase to understand the basic meaning. Are we all without limits? And that is going to be my very first remark. From my long experience I know that some people are physically handicapped, or mentally handicapped, or psychologically handicapped, or with many hurdles on their road and around them. You should see the state of some of those children born to deep alcoholics or drug addicts. Or what about children with a severe genetic disparagement? And I refuse to say they are just disabled, or differently-abled. They are handicapped by being materialistically in their very body or mind at a disadvantage that will prevent them from doing what most people around them will be able to do. If the mind is intact, and working on positive thinking is the only way for these people, then they can compensate their physical limitations with their spiritual achievements. But you can't run in the standard Olympics without legs just like a bicycle will not run without wheels. And this time, in most of these situations, one will not be able to excel, full stop and period, and if one can excel in one particular field in which he is not or is less limited, it won't be without the help of other people around them. You cannot think positive if there is no signs along that road. The second remark is positive. Apart from these special cases, everyone, absolutely everyone can excel somewhere and that excellence can only be reached if it is targeted, looked for and built. Positive thinking, education, understanding that the pleasure of such achievements is in the goal when reached and not in the effort you have to accomplish, even if for those who will reach the highest points this very effort is a pleasure, the pleasure of the effort itself. A runner has to train day in and day out and that is never, absolutely never a plain entertaining phase of relaxation and abandon. Physical pleasure requires sweat and heart speed. But if one does not set their minds on the aim they are going to strive towards, they will never reach it. Success is enormously in the mind, in the conscious and subconscious motivation of the candidate. Yet it is absolutely false to say that man has no limits. Humanity, and every member of it, has always been limited historically and no one could think plasma physics or quantum computers under Julius Caesar. Each historical period produces its possible fields of investigation that are limited because in a later historical period those fields of investigation will always be vaster, larger, deeper, more intense. Or then the author is speaking metaphorically of man as the representative of humanity in its cosmic history. But that is not helping any individual who is striving to achieve something in his own life. Icarus did try to fly but wax wings were kind of primitive. Then my third and last remark will be a question: why only ONE percent of humanity controls NINETY-SIX percent of wealth? If this is a fact, and it is, it is the proof that all men are not equal in facts but only in rights, and that is so by our collective decision to say so. But one thing is sure: thinking negatively is never good. Think of McCain and Palin and their negative campaigning. Think of all the anarchists of the world who have never achieved the slightest beginning of their dream which is only a negative picture of the world the way it is. If you criticize the world systematically, then your dream becomes the inverted image of this world, hence a negative picture of reality, and that will never guide or inspire people into desiring such a future. When I don't like something I do not ask for the reverse. I wonder what the situation is, what the possibilities are and if another solution is possible and which one. Then I will think positively along that objective, or rather as objective as possible, line, but to demand black because what I don't like is white, or to require red because what I don't like is blue is primitive negative thinking. That kind of realism and collective striving is absent from this book or video and that is a shame because they forget attraction holds the world and the cosmos up because it is always counterbalanced by repulsion. Otherwise the moon would have fallen onto the earth a long very long time ago, even if this repulsion is itself the product of attractions that are standing abreast and against the attraction of the earth. The apple did not fall as long as the stem was strong enough and the apple light enough for the stem not to break. The author of this book or video seems to have forgotten that the cosmos is a complex system of opposed spheres and when a weak point appears, then a catastrophe develops in that weak point, and the earth is doomed sooner or later in cosmic time to disappear, just like the sun which will one day have burned all itself fuel.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines


Dreadful Twaddle, 16 Oct 2008
After you cut though all the flannel, the secret is revealed. If you think about things they will come to you. No they won't. It takes dedication, persistence and hard work to achieve success, get rich, lose weight or achieve whatever your goal is. This book is delusional and misleading. The elements on positive thinking are fine but they are better expressed in many other self-help books. The 'secret' itself is laughable.

The Secret and The Scam, 11 Oct 2008
A friend of mine bought me this book for my birthday, explaining that it was a best selling spiritual read, so I was looking forward to what it had to say. I can honestly say I was unimpressed from the start. There was this build to this huge life changing 'secret' and it was like waiting for a huge explosion that never actually went off.

This whole Secret is based on wishful, dillusional thnking. It claims that if you want to have money, believe that you will have money and it will come to you. If you want to lose weight, believe that you're losing weight and it will happen. It rarely ever mentions that you have to put work in for these things to happen. In a good way this book does allow people to focus on what they want in life and to focus on the positive, but having a good life, having money and having good relationships requires some work on our part, not just repeating something in our heads and hoping the Universe will deliver. That's just lazy thinking. I gained a lot more from listening to Anthony Robbins CD's then I did from this book. And yes, I'm aware that he's in it for the money too.

This book also spent a lot of time advertising the film version, so there are a lot of people making getting rich from this book. Unfortunately it won't be the readers.

Yes, it is a book of two halves but..., 17 Oct 2008
The first half of this book is so good at telling you how to save time that if you take it in properly you don't read the second half, you absorb it.

Totally freeing, funny and fantastic.

Sack your boss.

Put it in your basket!, 13 Oct 2008
This book has added hours to my week!
I didn't find all the ideas useful, and yes the book is padded out with the authors ideas of how to fill your newly found time (non of which interested me) but its well worth having in your collection.
Some of the ideas are so simple that I kicked myself; I have since spoken to many very successful people and found non that have used them but all thought they were great!
Even if this book only gives you back an hour of two a week, It will be well worth the cover price!


One of the best books I have read, 04 Oct 2008
This is one of the best books I have read, it makes you re-evaluate your life and see that it is for now - not later as later may never come. He does go a bit too much ionto what he thinks you should do with your free time but overall loads to gain from this this book. It is especially suited to those who have an online business like he does and most of the reference companies are American so that foe me was a downside as if there were UK reference companies for outside fullfillment etc that would make it more worthwhile however worth buying and defo gives a different perspective to life and what it can be.

There is one poem in there towards the end that I thought was so powerfull, I have typed up and put on me fridge !!

The 4-Hour Work Week, 16 Sep 2008
After reading the reviews and skimming the book in a local bookstore I bought this book.
To be honest it isn't a bad read and some tips (like leaving a message on your email, focusing on outcomes before you have a meeting and outsourcing where possible) were quite interesting but the main drawback seemed to me that it was really just a book for management and sale people not real producers and "wealth creators"
If you are a factory worker making cars, computers widgets etc you have to be there full time you can't outsource that work.
If you are a doctor you need to be there more than 4 hours a week
A teacher, nurse, shop worker, bus driver, airline pilot (the list goes on and on) can't expect to be paid a full salary for a 10% workload.
It just reinforces my prejudices that we really don't need managers at all!!
Remember the space ship in hitch hikers guide that was full of management gurus and telephone sanitizers-- Now they could do a 4 hour week!!

The Wealth Coach Loved The 4-Hour Work Week, 02 Sep 2008
I really liked several things about this book, not least that Tim Ferris didn't make it all sound easy, but rather, showed us why it is important to find a way to be financially free. Driven, successful people often find it hard to just lie on a beach, and how would you just take off on your own if you have always had people around you.....it sort of put me off a bit - which could have been sabotaging my long term success! I've always struggled with the idea of what to do when I no longer have to stay in the UK, when the kids are grown up, but can travel the world drawing a passive income from my business.....well, thanks to Tim, now I know what I'm going to do, I'm going to have "purposeful holidays". I'm going to go and live for 3-6 months at a time in an area I've always liked the sound of, rent apartements rather than live in hotels, and learn how to do things, speak languages, help people. How cool is that thought? I highly recommend this book which complements the other wealth creation biggies like "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" and "Think & Grow Rich", "One Minute Millionaire" etc. My only tiny niggle with the book was that Tim didn't go into too much detail about his path and challenges creating his own internet business and passive income, that would have been really interesting, but could form the basis for his next book perhaps?

Cell biology for beginners, 12 Sep 2008
Nicely written, easy to read hardback. Concentrates on giving the non-scientist some background on cell biology and what the important parts do. Couple of nice visuals to explain the theory. Liked the explanation of why the quantity of DNA variations does not necessarily equate to greater intelligence - did not fully appreciate the author's epiphany and could not work out how cell walls equal the existence of god and reincarnation - unless he meant that we are god and reincarnation could mean being part of a plant after we've moved on. Spirtuality aside, I'd love some serious research into the whole passing on of the cellular memory (there was a programme about some Scandinavian records showing that people in famine situations had children who developed diabetes in later life over a 100-200 year period or similar which could be related). Incidentally I've tried the suggestion of getting a biologist to learn a bit about quantum physics but he was not at all keen (think it was the maths that put him off). Any how, 3* only because it got a little confusing when god walked in.

Fascinating, 16 Jul 2008
I loved this book, and certainly think every parent and teacher should read it to understand the effect their words have on future generations. Inspiring and thought provoking I would recommend this to anyone who wants to understand why and how we 'tick'

Not as informative or exciting as promised, 09 Jun 2008
From other reviews I would have expected more substance to this book. It is mostly very superficial, particularly in the scientific detail and yet radical conclusions about the nature of living organisms are being made by the author. It did, however, inspire me to read more about the issues raised.

Challenges everything you've been taught about genetics, 29 Mar 2008
What a challenging read. It leaves me with more unanswered questions, so I'm off to by Robin Williams' Psych-K!

This is one book that really will 'change your life', 01 Feb 2008
This book by a cell biologist updates you on what you thought you knew about DNA, RNA and the behaviour of cells. It could have been dull academic reading, but Bruce Lipton's style and attitude make this a refreshing and fascinating read.
I have shelves full of self-development books claiming to 'change your life'. This book explains to me, at the level of cellular memory, why they don't work, what's missing from the formula. And what I can do about it.
More importantly, it is a wake-up call to orthodox doctors, drug companies and genetic engineers who are meddling with life like Mickey Mouse in the Sorcerer's Apprentice. Their science is, it is claimed, based on a Newtonian, Darwinian mechanistic view that was outdated science 70 years ago but is still being accepted without question today by graduates of the life sciences and medical schools.

It is a life-affirming, fascinating book and I am actively promoting it among all my friends. I thoroughly recommend that buy this important book.


Buy BEFORE you start your dissertation!, 14 Aug 2006
I started my dissertation very late - too late - and bought this book to help me through. It's a very simple, uncomplicated book which helps you set out your dissertation in the right way and guide you through the process of planning it, writing it, and checking it.

Also, as it is written by an ex lecturer the advice is coming from the right sort of person. There is a checklist at the back of the book which helps you mark your own piece of work and check that you've done the basics. It also has some useful tips yo help you avoid the most common errors.

I managed to get a First for my dissertation, thanks largely to this book. But save yourself rushing about like I did if you can, and buy this simple little book early, before you start!

very helpful and it's in plain english, 18 Apr 2005
I bought this book alongside with other books on writing dissertations. I found this the most useful and helpful of the lot as it was written in a clear logical way that i could understand, there were no fancy words, complicated issues etc.

Throughout my dissertation it has provided me with guidance on what to write in certain sections of my work, not only that it has provided me with the structure of what a dissertation should look like. Overall it has kept me sane and I would definately recommend it to people who are undertaking a dissertation, plus it is at a reasonable price too.

Lets wait and see., 01 Jun 2004
I bought this book some time ago, knowing that i would have to choose a dissertation for when i go back to university in Sept 2004. The task is much more difficult as i am currently on placement in Westminster and my university is in Sheffield so its impossible to recieve any help/ advice on what i am supposed to do. I haven't read a book in at least 8 years and then that was a shakespear book for my GCSE's i think? Anyway this was the first book i have read in all that time and found it easy to get into. It had some nice tips and advice on how to choose the right subject. It was very limited in parts and after reading two thirds of the way into the book i got bored and just flicked through the rest - it was unhelpful for my subject of Business information systems as i think it is more aimed at social degree's and masters thesis students. I did take a couple of tips from it and feel that it was a good first book to read in order to progress onto other more MEATY titles, which will go more into depth about dissertation writing. I have Since gave the book to my girlfriend and read three other titles (becoming the proverbial book worm) - i hope she gets more from it than i did. I will see if it was helpful, when i begin my final year in Sept.

Very helpful!, 11 Feb 2004
I have used this book constantly whilst thinking about my dissertation and when doing the write up. Very helpful, and very informative!

If only I had bought it sooner..., 04 Jun 2003
This book is ideal for when you are first thinking about your dissertation. Unfortunely I panic bought it when I was doing the writing up, so it was unable to provide me with information that I didnt already know at that point. I will definitely pass it on to someone going into their final year as it is a good starting point.

With first-chapter allusions to martial arts, "flow", "mind like water", and other concepts borrowed from the East (and usually mangled), you'd almost think this self-helper from David Allen should have been called Zen and the Art of Schedule Maintenance.

Not quite. Yes, Getting Things Done offers a complete system for downloading all those free-floating gotta-dos clogging your brain into a sophisticated framework of files and action lists--all purportedly to free your mind to focus on whatever you're working on. However, it still operates from the decidedly Western notion that if we could just get really, really organised, we could turn ourselves into 24/7 productivity machines. (To wit, Allen, whom the New Economy bible Fast Company has dubbed "the personal productivity guru", suggests that instead of meditating on crouching tigers and hidden dragons while you wait for a plane, you should unsheathe that high-tech sabre known as the mobile phone and attack that list of calls you need to return.)

As whole-life-organising systems go, Allen's is pretty good, even fun and therapeutic. It starts with the exhortation to take every unaccounted-for scrap of paper in your workstation that you can't junk. The next step is to write down every unaccounted-for gotta-do cramming your head onto its own scrap of paper. Finally, throw the whole stew into a giant "in-basket".

That's where the processing and prioritising begin; in Allen's system, it get a little convoluted at times, rife as it is with fancy terms, subterms, and sub-subterms for even the simplest concepts. Thank goodness the spine of his system is captured on a straightforward, one-page flowchart that you can pin over your desk and repeatedly consult without having to refer back to the book. That alone is worth the purchase price. Also of value is Allen's ingenious Two-Minute Rule: if there's anything you absolutely must do that you can do right now in two minutes or less, then do it now, thus freeing up your time and mind tenfold over the long term. It's common sense advice so obvious that most of us completely overlook it, much to our detriment. Allen excels at dispensing such wisdom in this useful, if somewhat belaboured, self-improver aimed at everyone from CEOs to football mums (who, we all know, are more organised than most CEOs to start with). --Timothy Murphy

Terrible. Terrible. Terrible., 03 Nov 2008
This suffers from the same problems as the DVD.

It's derivative. There is absolutely nothing that hasn't been said over and over again.

It's simplistic. Life can be simple, but that doesn't mean you should treat your audience as if they are too.

It's repetitive. Get a variety of different figures in your niche to all say the same things using slightly different words.

It's nasty. Follow the philosophy through to it's logical conclusion and you are left with the concept that those who suffer have brought it upon themselves. There may be a grain of truth for some of the many unfortunates out there, but try telling a starving family in a poverty- and drought-stricken wilderness that really they ought to just change their attitudes and it'll all work out, then see which religion's version of hell you belong in.

It's insidious. They stack what I am sure they see as reasonable arguments one on top of the other, leading from premise to unfounded conclusion at such speed and in such a fashion that they gradually start to get in just through the continual exposure to the same old message.

The whole thing is trite, simple and hackneyed.
Still, it proves what good underground marketing can do. Don't be a sheep. Borrow it first, read it carefully, think on it, then have a good laugh, give it back and forget you ever heard of this tosh.

Promises what it cannot deliver., 31 Oct 2008
Should you wish to read this book with the sole intention of feeling both good about yourself and the world in general, then you will undoubtedly find that it lifts the spirits and enables you to view everything through the proverbial 'rose coloured spectacles'. If this is all you want to obtain from this book then my heartfelt good wishes to you. If, on the otherhand, you are desirous of creating miracles (as the blurb promises) then you will be sadly disappointed. To preclude all doubt to the point where you are able to effectively change the world around you, or your future for that matter, takes something that the majority of us simply cannot command. Jesus could do it - but then he was something a bit special. The rest of us, unfortunately, will have to be satisfied with the rose coloured spectacles. Miracles are not intended for the mundane.

Is the world controlled by a 1% elite?, 21 Oct 2008
The book and the video are the two sides of the same coin and I would advise you to follow the one or the other. I will suggest though that you concentrate on the video because the commentary between the quotations are nothing but the proof that some people need a lot more explanations and a lot of paraphrase to understand the basic meaning. Are we all without limits? And that is going to be my very first remark. From my long experience I know that some people are physically handicapped, or mentally handicapped, or psychologically handicapped, or with many hurdles on their road and around them. You should see the state of some of those children born to deep alcoholics or drug addicts. Or what about children with a severe genetic disparagement? And I refuse to say they are just disabled, or differently-abled. They are handicapped by being materialistically in their very body or mind at a disadvantage that will prevent them from doing what most people around them will be able to do. If the mind is intact, and working on positive thinking is the only way for these people, then they can compensate their physical limitations with their spiritual achievements. But you can't run in the standard Olympics without legs just like a bicycle will not run without wheels. And this time, in most of these situations, one will not be able to excel, full stop and period, and if one can excel in one particular field in which he is not or is less limited, it won't be without the help of other people around them. You cannot think positive if there is no signs along that road. The second remark is positive. Apart from these special cases, everyone, absolutely everyone can excel somewhere and that excellence can only be reached if it is targeted, looked for and built. Positive thinking, education, understanding that the pleasure of such achievements is in the goal when reached and not in the effort you have to accomplish, even if for those who will reach the highest points this very effort is a pleasure, the pleasure of the effort itself. A runner has to train day in and day out and that is never, absolutely never a plain entertaining phase of relaxation and abandon. Physical pleasure requires sweat and heart speed. But if one does not set their minds on the aim they are going to strive towards, they will never reach it. Success is enormously in the mind, in the conscious and subconscious motivation of the candidate. Yet it is absolutely false to say that man has no limits. Humanity, and every member of it, has always been limited historically and no one could think plasma physics or quantum computers under Julius Caesar. Each historical period produces its possible fields of investigation that are limited because in a later historical period those fields of investigation will always be vaster, larger, deeper, more intense. Or then the author is speaking metaphorically of man as the representative of humanity in its cosmic history. But that is not helping any individual who is striving to achieve something in his own life. Icarus did try to fly but wax wings were kind of primitive. Then my third and last remark will be a question: why only ONE percent of humanity controls NINETY-SIX percent of wealth? If this is a fact, and it is, it is the proof that all men are not equal in facts but only in rights, and that is so by our collective decision to say so. But one thing is sure: thinking negatively is never good. Think of McCain and Palin and their negative campaigning. Think of all the anarchists of the world who have never achieved the slightest beginning of their dream which is only a negative picture of the world the way it is. If you criticize the world systematically, then your dream becomes the inverted image of this world, hence a negative picture of reality, and that will never guide or inspire people into desiring such a future. When I don't like something I do not ask for the reverse. I wonder what the situation is, what the possibilities are and if another solution is possible and which one. Then I will think positively along that objective, or rather as objective as possible, line, but to demand black because what I don't like is white, or to require red because what I don't like is blue is primitive negative thinking. That kind of realism and collective striving is absent from this book or video and that is a shame because they forget attraction holds the world and the cosmos up because it is always counterbalanced by repulsion. Otherwise the moon would have fallen onto the earth a long very long time ago, even if this repulsion is itself the product of attractions that are standing abreast and against the attraction of the earth. The apple did not fall as long as the stem was strong enough and the apple light enough for the stem not to break. The author of this book or video seems to have forgotten that the cosmos is a complex system of opposed spheres and when a weak point appears, then a catastrophe develops in that weak point, and the earth is doomed sooner or later in cosmic time to disappear, just like the sun which will one day have burned all itself fuel.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines


Dreadful Twaddle, 16 Oct 2008
After you cut though all the flannel, the secret is revealed. If you think about things they will come to you. No they won't. It takes dedication, persistence and hard work to achieve success, get rich, lose weight or achieve whatever your goal is. This book is delusional and misleading. The elements on positive thinking are fine but they are better expressed in many other self-help books. The 'secret' itself is laughable.

The Secret and The Scam, 11 Oct 2008
A friend of mine bought me this book for my birthday, explaining that it was a best selling spiritual read, so I was looking forward to what it had to say. I can honestly say I was unimpressed from the start. There was this build to this huge life changing 'secret' and it was like waiting for a huge explosion that never actually went off.

This whole Secret is based on wishful, dillusional thnking. It claims that if you want to have money, believe that you will have money and it will come to you. If you want to lose weight, believe that you're losing weight and it will happen. It rarely ever mentions that you have to put work in for these things to happen. In a good way this book does allow people to focus on what they want in life and to focus on the positive, but having a good life, having money and having good relationships requires some work on our part, not just repeating something in our heads and hoping the Universe will deliver. That's just lazy thinking. I gained a lot more from listening to Anthony Robbins CD's then I did from this book. And yes, I'm aware that he's in it for the money too.

This book also spent a lot of time advertising the film version, so there are a lot of people making getting rich from this book. Unfortunately it won't be the readers.

Yes, it is a book of two halves but..., 17 Oct 2008
The first half of this book is so good at telling you how to save time that if you take it in properly you don't read the second half, you absorb it.

Totally freeing, funny and fantastic.

Sack your boss.

Put it in your basket!, 13 Oct 2008
This book has added hours to my week!
I didn't find all the ideas useful, and yes the book is padded out with the authors ideas of how to fill your newly found time (non of which interested me) but its well worth having in your collection.
Some of the ideas are so simple that I kicked myself; I have since spoken to many very successful people and found non that have used them but all thought they were great!
Even if this book only gives you back an hour of two a week, It will be well worth the cover price!


One of the best books I have read, 04 Oct 2008
This is one of the best books I have read, it makes you re-evaluate your life and see that it is for now - not later as later may never come. He does go a bit too much ionto what he thinks you should do with your free time but overall loads to gain from this this book. It is especially suited to those who have an online business like he does and most of the reference companies are American so that foe me was a downside as if there were UK reference companies for outside fullfillment etc that would make it more worthwhile however worth buying and defo gives a different perspective to life and what it can be.

There is one poem in there towards the end that I thought was so powerfull, I have typed up and put on me fridge !!

The 4-Hour Work Week, 16 Sep 2008
After reading the reviews and skimming the book in a local bookstore I bought this book.
To be honest it isn't a bad read and some tips (like leaving a message on your email, focusing on outcomes before you have a meeting and outsourcing where possible) were quite interesting but the main drawback seemed to me that it was really just a book for management and sale people not real producers and "wealth creators"
If you are a factory worker making cars, computers widgets etc you have to be there full time you can't outsource that work.
If you are a doctor you need to be there more than 4 hours a week
A teacher, nurse, shop worker, bus driver, airline pilot (the list goes on and on) can't expect to be paid a full salary for a 10% workload.
It just reinforces my prejudices that we really don't need managers at all!!
Remember the space ship in hitch hikers guide that was full of management gurus and telephone sanitizers-- Now they could do a 4 hour week!!

The Wealth Coach Loved The 4-Hour Work Week, 02 Sep 2008
I really liked several things about this book, not least that Tim Ferris didn't make it all sound easy, but rather, showed us why it is important to find a way to be financially free. Driven, successful people often find it hard to just lie on a beach, and how would you just take off on your own if you have always had people around you.....it sort of put me off a bit - which could have been sabotaging my long term success! I've always struggled with the idea of what to do when I no longer have to stay in the UK, when the kids are grown up, but can travel the world drawing a passive income from my business.....well, thanks to Tim, now I know what I'm going to do, I'm going to have "purposeful holidays". I'm going to go and live for 3-6 months at a time in an area I've always liked the sound of, rent apartements rather than live in hotels, and learn how to do things, speak languages, help people. How cool is that thought? I highly recommend this book which complements the other wealth creation biggies like "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" and "Think & Grow Rich", "One Minute Millionaire" etc. My only tiny niggle with the book was that Tim didn't go into too much detail about his path and challenges creating his own internet business and passive income, that would have been really interesting, but could form the basis for his next book perhaps?

Cell biology for beginners, 12 Sep 2008
Nicely written, easy to read hardback. Concentrates on giving the non-scientist some background on cell biology and what the important parts do. Couple of nice visuals to explain the theory. Liked the explanation of why the quantity of DNA variations does not necessarily equate to greater intelligence - did not fully appreciate the author's epiphany and could not work out how cell walls equal the existence of god and reincarnation - unless he meant that we are god and reincarnation could mean being part of a plant after we've moved on. Spirtuality aside, I'd love some serious research into the whole passing on of the cellular memory (there was a programme about some Scandinavian records showing that people in famine situations had children who developed diabetes in later life over a 100-200 year period or similar which could be related). Incidentally I've tried the suggestion of getting a biologist to learn a bit about quantum physics but he was not at all keen (think it was the maths that put him off). Any how, 3* only because it got a little confusing when god walked in.

Fascinating, 16 Jul 2008
I loved this book, and certainly think every parent and teacher should read it to understand the effect their words have on future generations. Inspiring and thought provoking I would recommend this to anyone who wants to understand why and how we 'tick'

Not as informative or exciting as promised, 09 Jun 2008
From other reviews I would have expected more substance to this book. It is mostly very superficial, particularly in the scientific detail and yet radical conclusions about the nature of living organisms are being made by the author. It did, however, inspire me to read more about the issues raised.

Challenges everything you've been taught about genetics, 29 Mar 2008
What a challenging read. It leaves me with more unanswered questions, so I'm off to by Robin Williams' Psych-K!

This is one book that really will 'change your life', 01 Feb 2008
This book by a cell biologist updates you on what you thought you knew about DNA, RNA and the behaviour of cells. It could have been dull academic reading, but Bruce Lipton's style and attitude make this a refreshing and fascinating read.
I have shelves full of self-development books claiming to 'change your life'. This book explains to me, at the level of cellular memory, why they don't work, what's missing from the formula. And what I can do about it.
More importantly, it is a wake-up call to orthodox doctors, drug companies and genetic engineers who are meddling with life like Mickey Mouse in the Sorcerer's Apprentice. Their science is, it is claimed, based on a Newtonian, Darwinian mechanistic view that was outdated science 70 years ago but is still being accepted without question today by graduates of the life sciences and medical schools.

It is a life-affirming, fascinating book and I am actively promoting it among all my friends. I thoroughly recommend that buy this important book.


Buy BEFORE you start your dissertation!, 14 Aug 2006
I started my dissertation very late - too late - and bought this book to help me through. It's a very simple, uncomplicated book which helps you set out your dissertation in the right way and guide you through the process of planning it, writing it, and checking it.

Also, as it is written by an ex lecturer the advice is coming from the right sort of person. There is a checklist at the back of the book which helps you mark your own piece of work and check that you've done the basics. It also has some useful tips yo help you avoid the most common errors.

I managed to get a First for my dissertation, thanks largely to this book. But save yourself rushing about like I did if you can, and buy this simple little book early, before you start!

very helpful and it's in plain english, 18 Apr 2005
I bought this book alongside with other books on writing dissertations. I found this the most useful and helpful of the lot as it was written in a clear logical way that i could understand, there were no fancy words, complicated issues etc.

Throughout my dissertation it has provided me with guidance on what to write in certain sections of my work, not only that it has provided me with the structure of what a dissertation should look like. Overall it has kept me sane and I would definately recommend it to people who are undertaking a dissertation, plus it is at a reasonable price too.

Lets wait and see., 01 Jun 2004
I bought this book some time ago, knowing that i would have to choose a dissertation for when i go back to university in Sept 2004. The task is much more difficult as i am currently on placement in Westminster and my university is in Sheffield so its impossible to recieve any help/ advice on what i am supposed to do. I haven't read a book in at least 8 years and then that was a shakespear book for my GCSE's i think? Anyway this was the first book i have read in all that time and found it easy to get into. It had some nice tips and advice on how to choose the right subject. It was very limited in parts and after reading two thirds of the way into the book i got bored and just flicked through the rest - it was unhelpful for my subject of Business information systems as i think it is more aimed at social degree's and masters thesis students. I did take a couple of tips from it and feel that it was a good first book to read in order to progress onto other more MEATY titles, which will go more into depth about dissertation writing. I have Since gave the book to my girlfriend and read three other titles (becoming the proverbial book worm) - i hope she gets more from it than i did. I will see if it was helpful, when i begin my final year in Sept.

Very helpful!, 11 Feb 2004
I have used this book constantly whilst thinking about my dissertation and when doing the write up. Very helpful, and very informative!

If only I had bought it sooner..., 04 Jun 2003
This book is ideal for when you are first thinking about your dissertation. Unfortunely I panic bought it when I was doing the writing up, so it was unable to provide me with information that I didnt already know at that point. I will definitely pass it on to someone going into their final year as it is a good starting point.

No More Clutter!, 16 Nov 2008
I am so inspired by this book! My filing system at work and at home has never worked as efficiently as it does now, after reading this book. Author David Allen's detailed system helps clear the 'clutter' in my mind as I have adopted his system of writing down what needs to get done so the task is either written on my calendar or on my to-do list. I don't have to try to "remember" what I need to do next, wasting time and energy thinking and getting lost in my thoughts. If something can be done in two minutes I do it, I file it, I make the phone call. My desk stays in order and I feel more at ease. I love feeling organized and clear in my life.

Another book which clears "the clutter" in my mind is Working on Yourself Doesn't Work: The 3 Simple Ideas That Will Instantaneously Transform Your Life by Ariel & Shya Kane. This book teaches how to live in the moment without getting lost in the conversation of my thoughts. The Kanes have a yearly "Time & Project Management" course and "Transformation in the Workplace" seminar in New York City. These courses and their books have brought ease and inspiration to my workplace.

As a banker in New York City, I highly suggest checking out David Allen and Ariel and Shya Kane. You will discover a stress free environment in the workplace and at home.

5th generation time management, 09 Sep 2008
This is a seminal book, which has in some ways been superseded by its own children. If you survey the Mac and PC software applications that offer help with time management, by far the most popular system implemented is Getting Things Done, or GTD for short.

GTD has been criticised for being no more than common sense. In a lot of ways this is both untrue, and unfair. More accurately, it's two simple ideas put together, and supported by a collection of useful ideas borrowed (with appropriate acknowledgement) from elsewhere. The two ideas are the idea of 'stuff', and what you do with it (collect, process, organise, review, do), and the idea of using (and relying on) a reliable filing system. It's backed up with other good ideas like brainstoming, mind-mapping, the 50,000 feet perspective, and other notions that you may have encountered in their original contexts, or in programmes like TQM.

GTD is less revolutionary than the 4th generation time-management that Stephen Covey introduced in 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. However, it's more powerful for most of us in the sense that you can implement it easily on a computer or a PDA. David Allen makes the most of the power of easy storage of information. If you're a computer user (and if you're reading this on Amazon, then chances are that you are), then this is by the far the most practical system, whether you use a specialist piece of software like Omnifocus, or just make the most of the built-in functions of Outlook or iCal.

This is the strength, and the weakness of this book: get one of the many software packages, read the help-file, and you may not need to read the book at all.

Just one more thing about Getting Things Done. As the author points out, this is really a book for people on the fast-track to improve their personal organisation. It's not going to make a great gift for someone else who you _think_ should get organised.

may be good for you but definitely bad for me, 07 Aug 2008
I've read this book three or four times around of May-June 2004, and then tried to implement into my work - without any significant success. Most probably this is book for inbox slaves and formal process worshippers, otherwise it might be not for your job-without-formal-description. In worst case trying to follow it took me actually spending _more_ time on things I used to do quicker. Most probably it might be valuable for you, but not for me, and I don't want to take inbox slavery job.

Good For All, 31 Jul 2008
Any information on being more organised and reducing stress in our lives is worth reading. Even people who are generally organised will gain benefits fom this book. We all have areas of our lives that could be more productive, less cluttered and more stress-free. Definitely worth a read.

How To Keep Your Man: And Keep Him For Good

Real Life Dramas - Volume One: 1

Darren G. Burton

Great - if you think this way, 04 Jul 2008
This book would appeal to people who like to keep their lives organised and are looking for ways to maximize efficiencies. For this demographic, this is a great book. It's a pretty short read and offers very practical solutions.

If you're not one of those people who needs to know where everything is, this book won't convert you.

Terrible. Terrible. Terrible., 03 Nov 2008
This suffers from the same problems as the DVD.

It's derivative. There is absolutely nothing that hasn't been said over and over again.

It's simplistic. Life can be simple, but that doesn't mean you should treat your audience as if they are too.

It's repetitive. Get a variety of different figures in your niche to all say the same things using slightly different words.

It's nasty. Follow the philosophy through to it's logical conclusion and you are left with the concept that those who suffer have brought it upon themselves. There may be a grain of truth for some of the many unfortunates out there, but try telling a starving family in a poverty- and drought-stricken wilderness that really they ought to just change their attitudes and it'll all work out, then see which religion's version of hell you belong in.

It's insidious. They stack what I am sure they see as reasonable arguments one on top of the other, leading from premise to unfounded conclusion at such speed and in such a fashion that they gradually start to get in just through the continual exposure to the same old message.

The whole thing is trite, simple and hackneyed.
Still, it proves what good underground marketing can do. Don't be a sheep. Borrow it first, read it carefully, think on it, then have a good laugh, give it back and forget you ever heard of this tosh.

Promises what it cannot deliver., 31 Oct 2008
Should you wish to read this book with the sole intention of feeling both good about yourself and the world in general, then you will undoubtedly find that it lifts the spirits and enables you to view everything through the proverbial 'rose coloured spectacles'. If this is all you want to obtain from this book then my heartfelt good wishes to you. If, on the otherhand, you are desirous of creating miracles (as the blurb promises) then you will be sadly disappointed. To preclude all doubt to the point where you are able to effectively change the world around you, or your future for that matter, takes something that the majority of us simply cannot command. Jesus could do it - but then he was something a bit special. The rest of us, unfortunately, will have to be satisfied with the rose coloured spectacles. Miracles are not intended for the mundane.

Is the world controlled by a 1% elite?, 21 Oct 2008
The book and the video are the two sides of the same coin and I would advise you to follow the one or the other. I will suggest though that you concentrate on the video because the commentary between the quotations are nothing but the proof that some people need a lot more explanations and a lot of paraphrase to understand the basic meaning. Are we all without limits? And that is going to be my very first remark. From my long experience I know that some people are physically handicapped, or mentally handicapped, or psychologically handicapped, or with many hurdles on their road and around them. You should see the state of some of those children born to deep alcoholics or drug addicts. Or what about children with a severe genetic disparagement? And I refuse to say they are just disabled, or differently-abled. They are handicapped by being materialistically in their very body or mind at a disadvantage that will prevent them from doing what most people around them will be able to do. If the mind is intact, and working on positive thinking is the only way for these people, then they can compensate their physical limitations with their spiritual achievements. But you can't run in the standard Olympics without legs just like a bicycle will not run without wheels. And this time, in most of these situations, one will not be able to excel, full stop and period, and if one can excel in one particular field in which he is not or is less limited, it won't be without the help of other people around them. You cannot think positive if there is no signs along that road. The second remark is positive. Apart from these special cases, everyone, absolutely everyone can excel somewhere and that excellence can only be reached if it is targeted, looked for and built. Positive thinking, education, understanding that the pleasure of such achievements is in the goal when reached and not in the effort you have to accomplish, even if for those who will reach the highest points this very effort is a pleasure, the pleasure of the effort itself. A runner has to train day in and day out and that is never, absolutely never a plain entertaining phase of relaxation and abandon. Physical pleasure requires sweat and heart speed. But if one does not set their minds on the aim they are going to strive towards, they will never reach it. Success is enormously in the mind, in the conscious and subconscious motivation of the candidate. Yet it is absolutely false to say that man has no limits. Humanity, and every member of it, has always been limited historically and no one could think plasma physics or quantum computers under Julius Caesar. Each historical period produces its possible fields of investigation that are limited because in a later historical period those fields of investigation will always be vaster, larger, deeper, more intense. Or then the author is speaking metaphorically of man as the representative of humanity in its cosmic history. But that is not helping any individual who is striving to achieve something in his own life. Icarus did try to fly but wax wings were kind of primitive. Then my third and last remark will be a question: why only ONE percent of humanity controls NINETY-SIX percent of wealth? If this is a fact, and it is, it is the proof that all men are not equal in facts but only in rights, and that is so by our collective decision to say so. But one thing is sure: thinking negatively is never good. Think of McCain and Palin and their negative campaigning. Think of all the anarchists of the world who have never achieved the slightest beginning of their dream which is only a negative picture of the world the way it is. If you criticize the world systematically, then your dream becomes the inverted image of this world, hence a negative picture of reality, and that will never guide or inspire people into desiring such a future. When I don't like something I do not ask for the reverse. I wonder what the situation is, what the possibilities are and if another solution is possible and which one. Then I will think positively along that objective, or rather as objective as possible, line, but to demand black because what I don't like is white, or to require red because what I don't like is blue is primitive negative thinking. That kind of realism and collective striving is absent from this book or video and that is a shame because they forget attraction holds the world and the cosmos up because it is always counterbalanced by repulsion. Otherwise the moon would have fallen onto the earth a long very long time ago, even if this repulsion is itself the product of attractions that are standing abreast and against the attraction of the earth. The apple did not fall as long as the stem was strong enough and the apple light enough for the stem not to break. The author of this book or video seems to have forgotten that the cosmos is a complex system of opposed spheres and when a weak point appears, then a catastrophe develops in that weak point, and the earth is doomed sooner or later in cosmic time to disappear, just like the sun which will one day have burned all itself fuel.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines


Dreadful Twaddle, 16 Oct 2008
After you cut though all the flannel, the secret is revealed. If you think about things they will come to you. No they won't. It takes dedication, persistence and hard work to achieve success, get rich, lose weight or achieve whatever your goal is. This book is delusional and misleading. The elements on positive thinking are fine but they are better expressed in many other self-help books. The 'secret' itself is laughable.

The Secret and The Scam, 11 Oct 2008
A friend of mine bought me this book for my birthday, explaining that it was a best selling spiritual read, so I was looking forward to what it had to say. I can honestly say I was unimpressed from the start. There was this build to this huge life changing 'secret' and it was like waiting for a huge explosion that never actually went off.

This whole Secret is based on wishful, dillusional thnking. It claims that if you want to have money, believe that you will have money and it will come to you. If you want to lose weight, believe that you're losing weight and it will happen. It rarely ever mentions that you have to put work in for these things to happen. In a good way this book does allow people to focus on what they want in life and to focus on the positive, but having a good life, having money and having good relationships requires some work on our part, not just repeating something in our heads and hoping the Universe will deliver. That's just lazy thinking. I gained a lot more from listening to Anthony Robbins CD's then I did from this book. And yes, I'm aware that he's in it for the money too.

This book also spent a lot of time advertising the film version, so there are a lot of people making getting rich from this book. Unfortunately it won't be the readers.

Yes, it is a book of two halves but..., 17 Oct 2008
The first half of this book is so good at telling you how to save time that if you take it in properly you don't read the second half, you absorb it.

Totally freeing, funny and fantastic.

Sack your boss.

Put it in your basket!, 13 Oct 2008
This book has added hours to my week!
I didn't find all the ideas useful, and yes the book is padded out with the authors ideas of how to fill your newly found time (non of which interested me) but its well worth having in your collection.
Some of the ideas are so simple that I kicked myself; I have since spoken to many very successful people and found non that have used them but all thought they were great!
Even if this book only gives you back an hour of two a week, It will be well worth the cover price!


One of the best books I have read, 04 Oct 2008
This is one of the best books I have read, it makes you re-evaluate your life and see that it is for now - not later as later may never come. He does go a bit too much ionto what he thinks you should do with your free time but overall loads to gain from this this book. It is especially suited to those who have an online business like he does and most of the reference companies are American so that foe me was a downside as if there were UK reference companies for outside fullfillment etc that would make it more worthwhile however worth buying and defo gives a different perspective to life and what it can be.

There is one poem in there towards the end that I thought was so powerfull, I have typed up and put on me fridge !!

The 4-Hour Work Week, 16 Sep 2008
After reading the reviews and skimming the book in a local bookstore I bought this book.
To be honest it isn't a bad read and some tips (like leaving a message on your email, focusing on outcomes before you have a meeting and outsourcing where possible) were quite interesting but the main drawback seemed to me that it was really just a book for management and sale people not real producers and "wealth creators"
If you are a factory worker making cars, computers widgets etc you have to be there full time you can't outsource that work.
If you are a doctor you need to be there more than 4 hours a week
A teacher, nurse, shop worker, bus driver, airline pilot (the list goes on and on) can't expect to be paid a full salary for a 10% workload.
It just reinforces my prejudices that we really don't need managers at all!!
Remember the space ship in hitch hikers guide that was full of management gurus and telephone sanitizers-- Now they could do a 4 hour week!!

The Wealth Coach Loved The 4-Hour Work Week, 02 Sep 2008
I really liked several things about this book,