Francis Bacon and Tim Ferriss

I've been reading Tim Ferriss' Four Hour Work Week and accompanying blog for the last few weeks along with Francis Bacon's essays (as part of my larger project of reading the entire Harvard Classics Five Foot Bookshelf).

At one point I hit a particularly ponderous few chapters in the Bacon about building gardens for grand estates. At near midnight, 16th century descriptions of the proper height for hedges and statuary works better than any sleeping pill.

The next day I had an epiphany, though. Francis Bacon is all about lifestyle design, which is Tim Ferris' whole deal. Bacon is teaching a lord or rich person the proper way to order his household so that he can maximize the work of becoming more enlightened. The assumption is clearly that you are already fucking rich.

I always really respected authors like Charles Bukowski and Stephen King who accomplished their work while slaving away at full time jobs. Bukowski always talked about how you either can do it or you can't (it being writing) and it will burn a whole in you if you don't. There probably isn't a more soul crushing environment than the Post Office).

That said, an awful lot of the best writing was done by folks who were the heads of households, people who didn't have to worry about the minutiae of everyday life.

Ferriss advocates automating as much of these functions as possible. I've found that even on a modest salary, having others do certain kinds of work frees up quite a bit of valuable time. My wife and I have a house cleaner, I never work on my motorcycle. Paying others to do what you don't do well or don't know what to do is a good idea, provided you can afford it.

Affording it is the trick.