Outsourcing My Way to a Better Life

About a year ago I read two books that have stayed with me. Though neither was literary or particularly creative in style (usually big draws for me), their messages have had lasting impacts. One book was The 4-Hour Workweek, by Tim Ferriss. The other was How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read, by Pierre Bayard.

The push of The 4-Hour Workweek was how to delegate and outsource the details of your life so you can spend more time, well...living. The author left out nothing: Everything from mowing your lawn, to managing your email, to creating automated income for yourself, to collecting and synthesizing information should, according to Ferriss, be systematized and then delegated to other people. It was a book remarkable in its simplicity and execution. And to anyone who can actually pull off everything Ferriss suggests, you are my hero.

The main message of How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read was similar: Let other people do your reading for you. As someone who loves to read, I was intrigued (and perhaps a little troubled) by Bayard's recommendation. But as I read the book, I quickly discovered that the author was NOT suggesting that you don't read, but that because it is impossible to read everything, it becomes imperative that you leverage your network to become better read and informed about what matters to you.

What was most striking to me about both books is that though the authors appeared to shun work (at least on the surface), what they were really going for was capacity building. And to build capacity, one must have solid, well-articulated, and healthy relationships with other people. There is no way one could do what Ferriss and Bayard suggest without good relationships.

I sometimes get sidetracked by personal progress and achievements, but really what matters most to me in this life are relationships. In my moments of clarity, everything else becomes incidental. For me, those two books were evidence that I'm on the right track.