Less Stress: Kill Your TV Stress Reduction by Joel Wagner - October 5, 2007July 5, 20102 Share on Facebook Share 0 Share on TwitterTweet 0 Share on Pinterest Share 0 Share on LinkedIn Share 0 Total Shares This is perhaps my most favorite tip of them all! I haven’t regularly watched television since I was in 11th grade, but I have watched quite a bit of it. When I read “The 4-Hour Workweek,” Timothy Ferriss suggests a low-information diet. His theory is that if you simply ask people “what’s new in the world,” you will find out about most news. He also points out that most news that comes across as events are unfolding is either incomplete or totally inaccurate. I tend to agree. So I have made the decision this year to completely unplug my television. I will actually get rid of it soon, I’m just not sure what I’m going to do with it. It’d be so much fun to just take it to the dump and destroy it! But we’ll see what ends up happening. Nevertheless, I have proudly unplugged my television and will soon go about completely killing it! Now if only I could find a way to kill the computer and still write on this blog… 25 Tips For Less StressFebruary 2007Weekend Wrapup 08/20/07Joel WagnerJoel Wagner (@sywtt) began teaching band in 2002. Though he had a lot of information, his classes were out of control. He found himself tired, frustrated, disrespected by students, lonely, and on the brink of quitting. He had had enough. He resigned from his school district right before spring break of his second year and made it his personal mission to learn to be a great teacher. So You Want To Teach? is the ongoing story of that quest for educational excellence.
Timothy Ferriss is a hack, though his success in marketing himself is remarkable. He truly knows what he’s doing with self-promotion and his results support that. http://www.ivygateblog.com/blog/2007/05/timothy_ferriss_outvaynering_vayner.html I’m not saying that everything in his book is invalid, just that he doesn’t inspire much trust. His view on asking about news is absurd. If you want to toss your TV, fine, but please don’t do it on account of Tim Ferriss’s cruddy theory.
Matthew, there’s a lot of stuff about Tim Ferriss’ book that I don’t buy into. What I did like about the book was the conceptual stuff. I like the concepts of abandoning the employee mindset and taking charge of your own life. I think that western culture places too much emphasis on fitting in and not rocking the boat. Tim, eccentric and perhaps phony though he may be, helps to remind people of that vision they have for their life. I thoroughly love teaching. I can’t imagine being in a career field where I simply showed up to work each day, punched my card, and counted down one day closer to retirement. As far as the TV thing goes, I like the point he made. I have made the decision to not watch television as a result of a lot of other factors, but it does make sense. News that is reported as it is happening is often full of misinformation that will be less confusing a day or two later.