Lee Herman

Written in a casual style, the author provides a fairly comprehensive and well documented description of the theory and practice of the Paleo diet and lifestyle. The book is marred by what I suppose were intended to be humorous jabs at vegetarians and vegans. Since they are among his targeted audience, this is counterproductive. And the comments are too mean spirited to be funny. A woeful lapse from an otherwise decently written book, designed to try to get folks without a huge tolerance for detailed scientific information past the technical details of why the food choices are what they are and the expected benefits at a fairly detailed chemical and metabolic level. Recipes and menu plans could be stronger - for someone who claims to be a great cook, a number of them are pedestrian. The Paleo Diet by Loren Cordain is a more serious treatment and just as easy to read, in my opinion. I don't regret having this book but I don't use it as much as others day to day.

An interesting take on using a mix of simplifying life, disconnecting from work in the office and geographic ties and setting up an Internet-based business to take “mini-retirements” during your entire life instead of working and then retiring.

It's an interesting measure of how the world has changed that even the revised 2009 edition seems a bit dated - the concept of telecommuting was still fairly new when the book was originally written - it's been routine for over a decade now.

For those with strong reasons to stay in one place, some of the approaches will work better than others. And while Ferriss advocates for fully following the approach, he acknowledges that it won't fit all readers' situations and recognizes that people will take away pieces from the book as well as jumping in. Regardless, there is lots of specific advice, presented with the expectation that the reader will take the advice as places to start making changes they want to their lives and work.