Holy crap! This post has been sitting in my queue ever since I saw the YouTube video of Ferriss’s appearance in Google’s author series, but this post on his blog really got to the point of my problem with him.
Based on my experience and research, it is possible to become world-class in almost any skill within one year.
No. See, I’d argue that Tim Ferriss hasn’t “become world-class” in his various skills. He may have won a national competition, or set a world record, but expertise in the skills he advertises himself as having mastered (san shou and tango, respectively) isn’t defined by those achievements.
My problem isn’t with Ferriss’s techniques - they’re pretty well tested and effective. Instead, my problem is with his marketing. He claims to have mastered things, but in reality he’s only mastered the appearance of them. He’s a master of learning for the test, and ignoring the rest. The problem is that for most real skills, there isn’t a single test that you can target - sure, he may be able to cut weight to fight at a lower-than-appropriate weight class and thus bullrush people off the mat (winning by disqualification), but that’s not what san shou is.
His latest post is about the virtues of being a generalist, but he’s actually a serial specialist - he picks up the narrowest possible facet of a skill and masters it, then claims to have mastered the entire body of knowledge or practice. It’s an offense to all of the true masters in that domain.
I see your point but does it not assume that a “master” must spend a long time learning their craft or art? Is it impossible to master something in 6 months of intense learning?
Passing a test in an area by using loopholes does not make someone a master I agree but passing a test just for the fun of doing so does not disqualify them from mastery.
A