The Porter Method » Book

The 4-Hour Body Book Links

Doug Porter — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 11:00:15 +0000

About a year ago I read the The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss and even with the hokie title thought it was a very interesting book with lots of great information. I became a reader of Ferriss’s blog and was pleased to learn he was working on a second book on fitness. Since I read the first book from the public library, I figured I would actually purchase the next book. His new book is The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman.

Unfortunately his pre-order for the book was via Barnes and Noble, thus I had to wait almost a full week after the book came out for it to arrive (Amazon tries to time arrival with the book release date). I found it to be a very enjoyable read. It is meant to be read A-La-Carte based on your specific goals (weight loss, strength, speed, etc). This is a good recommendation because if you read it straight through (like I did) it comes across very ADD. One chapter may contradict the information given in a previous chapter (because the goals are different). Ferriss has a very enjoyable writing style and the chapters really come across as a series of blog posts (in fact many of them stem from blog posts he had written previously). While many of the recommendations are based on Ferriss’s and a small group of volunteers’s own experience, the information is rooted in research and many links and references are provided in the book. While I have not tried many of the techniques in the book (I tend to shy away from taking supplements I have never heard of at the recommendation of random authors) the information is quite interesting. I would recommend anyone that enjoys Ferriss’s blog to check out this book. It is like a collection of well written blog posts. You will go through the almost 600 pages in record time.

At the end of each chapter, Ferriss gives links to more information. I went through and collected them all here for my own reference since I didn’t visit them during reading. Some of the links are NSFW (Not Safe For Work) so click at your own risk. Also I noticed that all of the URL’s that redirect to Amazon.com use Ferriss’s affiliate links (in case that kind of thing bothers you).

4-Hour Body Website

Update: Tim has put the links with extended descriptions up on his site here: 4 Hour Body Links

Table of Contents

Start Here
Thinner, Bigger, Faster, Stronger? How to Use This Book

Fundamentals – First and Foremost
The Minimum Effective Dose: From Microwaves to Fat-loss
Rules That Change the Rules: Everything Popular Is Wrong
-Page 34
http://www.fourhourbody.com/wisdom
http://www.fourhourbody.com/almanac
http://www.fourhourbody.com/munger

Ground Zero-Getting Started and Swaraj
The Harajuku Moment: The Decision to Become a Complete Human
-Page 43
http://www.fourhourbody.com/stoicism
http://www.fourhourbody.com/friends

Elusive Bodyfat: Where Are You Really?
-Page 53
http://www.fourhourbody.com/orbitape
http://www.bodycompositioncenter.com
http://www.lifemeasurement.com/clients/locator
http://www.fourhourbody.com/bodymetrix
http://www.fourhourbody.com/escalibio
http://www.fourhourbody.com/slimguide
http://www.fourhourbody.com/evil

From Photos to Fear: Making Failure Impossible
-Page 64
http://www.fourhourbody.com/fatreplica
http://www.fourhourbody.com/pbworks
http://eat.ly
http://www.habitforge.com
http://www.stickk.com
http://www.bodybuilding.com/superhuman
http://www.dailyburn.com/superhuman

Subtracting Fat: Basics
The Slow- Carb Diet I: How to Lose 20 Pounds in 30 Days Without Exercise
-Page 78
http://www.fourhourbody.com/breakfast
http://www.stilltasty.com
http://www.foodporndaily.com
http://www.fourhourbody.com/gout

The Slow-Carb Diet II: The Finer Points and Common Questions
Damage Control: Preventing Fat Gain When You Binge
-Page 113
http://www.fourhourbody.com/binge
http://www.fourhourbody.com/cq
http://www.athleticgreens.com
http://www.fourhourbody.com/cesto
http://www.nutritiondata.com
http://www.fourhourbody.com/thera
http://www.fourhourbody.com/minibands

The Four Horsemen of Fat-Loss
-Page 120
http://www.fourhourbody.com/garlic
http://www.fourhourbody.com/greentea
http://www.fourhourbody.com/ala
http://www.fourhourbody.com/policosanol

Subtracting Fat: Advanced
Ice Age: Mastering Temperature to Manipulate Weight
-Page 132
http://www.fourhourbody.com/colpac
http://www.fourhourbody.com/diy-ice
http://www.fourhourbody.com/pugh
http://www.raycronise.com

The Glucose Switch: Beautiful Number 100
-Page 148
http://www.dexcom.com
http://www.fourhourbody.com/jazz
http://www.fourhourbody.com/app-glucose
http://www.julietmae.foodzie.com
http://www.fourhourbody.com/vest

The Last Mile: Losing the Final 5-10 Pounds
-Page 156
http://www.rxmuscle.com
http://www.fourhourbody.com/bigger
http://www.medibolics.com
http://www.fourhourbody.com/anabolics

Adding Muscle
Building the Perfect Posterior (or Losing 100+ Pounds)
-Page 170
http://www.fourhourbody.com/kettlebells

Six-Minute Abs: Two Exercises That Actually Work
-Page 180
http://www.fourhourbody.com/bosu
http://www.fourhourbody.com/stability
http://www.fourhourbody.com/hitchhiker

From Geek to Freak: How to Gain 34 Pounds in 28 Days
-Page 192
http://www.fourhourbody.com/muscles
http://www.fourhourbody.com/comparison
http://www.fourhourbody.com/cartman
http://www.fourhourbody.com/jones

Occam’s Protocol I: A Minimalist Approach to Mass
-Page 210
http://www.freeprintablecalendar.net
http://www.fourhourbody.com/youbar
http://www.fourhourbody.com/parkinsons

Occam’s Protocol II: The Finer Points

Improving Sex
The 15-Minute Female Orgasm-Part Un
-Page 236
http://www.fourhourbody.com/buckwheat
http://www.liberator.com
http://www.beautifulagony.com
http://www.sexwise.me
http://www.tallulahsulis.com
http://www.fourhourbody.com/loveorgasm

The 15-Minute Female Orgasm-Part Deux
-Page 251
http://www.fourhourbody.com/doingmethod
http://onetaste.us
http://sfsi.org/wiki/Main_Page
http://www.fourhourbody.com/roach
http://www.tinynibbles.com

Sex Machine I: Adventures in Tripling Testosterone
-Page 260
http://www.fourhourbody.com/spectra
http://www.fourhourbody.com/butterblend
http://www.fourhourbody.com/cod
http://www.kerrygold.com/usa/locator.php
http://www.fourhourbody.com/testd
http://www.fourhourbody.com/vitamin-d
http://www.sperti.com

Happy Endings and Doubling Sperm Count
-Page 273
http://www.fourhourbody.com/armband
http://www.fourhourbody.com/pong
http://www.fourhourbody.com/disappearing
http://www.spermbankdirectory.com
http://www.spermcenter.com/sperm_bank_listings
http://www.sart.org/frame/detail.aspx?id=3893
http://www.healthgrades.com/local-doctors-directory
http://www.fourhourbody.com/fertility
http://www.findafertilityclinic.com
http://www.fourhourbody.com/semen-analysis

Perfecting Sleep
Engineering the Perfect Night’s Sleep
-Page 285
http://stereopsis.com/flux
http://www.fourhourbody.com/poppy
http://www.fourhourbody.com/zeo
http://www.fourhourbody.com/golite
http://www.fourhourbody.com/nightwave
http://www.fourhourbody.com/humidifier
http://www.lexwarelabs.com/sleepcycle
http://www.fourhourbody.com/lucid

Becoming Uberman: Sleeping Less with Polyphasic Sleep
-Page 292
http://forums.trypolyphasic.com
http://www.fourhourbody.com/everyman
http://www.supermemo.com/articles/polyphasic.htm
http://www.kukuklok.com
http://www.fourhourbody.com/clocky
http://www.wakerupper.com

Reversing Injuries
Reversing “Permanent” Injuries
-Page 317
http://www.fourhourbody.com/vibram
http://www.fourhourbody.com/terra
http://www.fourhourbody.com/toe-stretch
http://www.activerelease.com
http://www.hacketthemwall.org
http://www.aaomed.org
http://www.acopms.com
http://www.chiromat.com
http://www.fourhourbody.com/mat
http://www.scoi.com
http://www.fourhourbody.com/surgery
http://www.chiromedicalgroup.com/biopuncture
http://www.fourhourbody.com/biotensegrity
http://www.egoscue.com
http://www.fourhourbody.com/netter

How to Pay for a Beach Vacation with One Hospital Visit
-Page 323
http://www.fourhourbody.com/woodman
http://www.imtjonline.com/resources/patient-guide
http://www.bumrungrad.com
http://www.medretreat.com
http://www.medtrava.com

Pre-Hab: Injury-Proofing the Body
-Page 345
http://www.fourhourbody.com/fms
http://www.fourhourbody.com/fms-self
http://www.fourhourbody.com/cl
http://www.fourhourbody.com/tgu
http://www.fourhourbody.com/1SDL
http://www.fourhourbody.com/squat
http://www.fourhourbody.com/kayak
http://www.fourhourbody.com/cl-band
http://www.fourhourbody.com/chain
http://www.fourhourbody.com/carabiner

Running Faster and Farther
Hacking the NFL Combine I: Preliminaries-Jumping Higher
-Page 353
http://www.fourhourbody.com/jump-mat
http://www.fourhourbody.com/combine-dvd
http://store.allvet.org/abblloga.html
http://www.fourhourbody.com/wilson
http://www.fourhourbody.com/flatbed
http://www.fourhourbody.com/pool-eloi

Hacking the NFL Combine II: Running Faster
-Page 366
http://www.fourhourbody.com/defranco
http://www.fourhourbody.com/40yard
http://www.parisischool.com
http://www.fourhourbody.com/ghr

-Page 401
Favorite 5 U.S. Marathons
New York City http://www.ingnycmarathon.org
Portland http://www.portlandmarathon.org
Marine Corps Marathon http://www.marinemarathon.com
Rock ‘N’ Roll San Diego http://www.rnrmarathon.com
Boston http://www.bostonmarathon.org

Top 5 Picks For First-Timers
Napa Valley http://www.napavalleymarathon.org
Hartford http://www.hartfordmarathon.com
Fargo http://www.fargomarathon.com
Dallas White Rock http://www.runtherock.com
Disney http://bit.ly/3chiv

5 Most Beautiful U.S. Marathons
Big Sur http://www.bsim.org
Boulder Backroads http://www.bouldermarathon.com
Myrtle Beach http://www.mbmarathon.com
St. George http://www.stgeorgemarathon.com
Kauai http://www.thekauaimarathon.com

Marathon Search Engines
http://www.fourhourbody.com/marathon
http://www.fourhourbody.com/race-finder

Triathlon Search Engine

http://www.trifind.com

Getting Stronger
Effortless Superhuman: Breaking World Records with Barry Ross
-Page 423
http://www.fourhourbody.com/over-under
http://www.fourhourbody.com/underground
http://www.fourhourbody.com/hsrp
http://www.fourhourbody.com/asr
http://www.fourhourbody.com/smolov
http://www.fourhourbody.com/fatgripz

Eating the Elephant: How to Add 100 Pounds to Your Bench Press
-Page 430
http://www.fourhourbody.com/bench
http://www.fourhourbody.com/primitive
http://www.powerliftingusa.com

From Swimming to Swinging
How I Learned to Swim Effortlessly in 10 Days
-Page 443
http://www.fourhourbody.com/immersion
http://www.fourhourbody.com/kaiman
http://www.fourhourbody.com/shinji
http://www.swimmersguide.com

The Architecture of Babe Ruth
-Page 452
http://www.fourhourbody.com/impact
http://www.fourhourbody.com/cevallos
http://www.theswingmechanic.com
http://www.fourhourbody.com/radar
http://www.fourhourbody.com/moneyball

How to Hold Your Breath Longer Than Houdini
-Page 457
http://www.fourhourbody.com/blaine
http://www.fourhourbody.com/krack
http://www.fourhourbody.com/freediving
http://www.fourhourbody.com/powerlung
http://www.fourhourbody.com/apnea
http://www.ftrain.com/lungvacuuming.html

On Longer and Better Life
Living Forever: Vaccines, Bleeding, and Other Fun
-Page 468
http://www.redcrossblood.org/make-donation
http://www.fourhourbody.com/bonfils
http://www.blood.co.uk
http://www.alcor.org
http://www.fourhourbody.com/transcend
http://knol.google.com/k/ron-mignery/protein-cycling-diet/2s3nmvrwklbxs/1#
http://www.mfoundation.org
http://www.imminst.org
http://www.fourhourbody.com/snowball

Closing Thoughts
Closing Thoughts: The Trojan Horse

Appendices and Extras
Helpful Measurements and Conversions
Getting Tested-From Nutrients to Muscle Fibers
-Page 480
http://www.fourhourbody.com/bodpod
http://www.zrtlab.com/vitamindcouncil
http://www.23andme.com
http://www.navigenics.com
http://www.fourhourbody.com/spectracell
http://www.fourhourbody.com/biophysical

Muscles of the Body
The Value of Self-Experimentation
-Page 490
http://www.fourhourbody.com/new-ideas
http://www.quantifiedself.com
http://www.fourhourbody.com/self-experiment
http://www.curetogether.com
http://www.daytum.com
http://apps.pachube.com/datalogger

Spotting Bad Science 101: How Not to Trick Yourself
-Page 500
http://www.fourhourbody.com/blackswan
http://www.fourhourbody.com/corporation
http://www.fourhourbody.com/biases

Spotting Bad Science 102: So You Have a Pill . . .
The Slow-Carb Diet-194 People
Sex Machine II: Details and Dangers
The Meatless Machine I: Reasons to Try a Plant-Based Diet for Two Weeks
The Meatless Machine II: A 28-Day Experiment
-Page 549
http://www.goodguide.com
http://www.fourhourbody.com/vegan-athletes
http://www.fourhourbody.com/cowboy
http://www.fourhourbody.com/myth
http://www.beyondveg.com

Bonus Material (with additional info at Ferriss’s site)
Spot Reduction Revisited: Removing Stubborn Thigh Fat
Becoming Brad Pitt: Uses and Abuses of DNA
The China Study: A Well-Intentioned Critique
Heavy Metal: Your Personal Toxin Map
The Top 10 Reasons Why BMI Is Bogus
Hyperclocking and Related Mischief: How to Increase Strength 10% in One Workout
Creativity on Demand: The Promises and Dangers of Smart Drugs
An Alternative to Dieting: The Bodyfat Set Point and Tricking the Hypothalamus

Enterprise Service Bus by David Chappel Book Review

Doug Porter — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 11:00:48 +0000

This past week I finished Enterprise Service Bus by David Chappell.

First I must mention that I read the book via O’Reilly’s fantastic Safari online book service that I have access to for being a Professional member of the ACM (only $99/year). I can’t recommend this service enough. The selection of books is amazing and to be able to add a book and begin reading immediately gives you great ability to get knowledge if the mood strikes.

David Chappell is a vice president and chief technologist for SOA at Oracle Corporation. Though this book was written back in 2004 it is still quite relevant today. It provides a very good introduction to service oriented architectures. I first heard about the Enterprise Service Bus back when I attended JavaOne back in 2005. At that point it didn’t seem like the idea was fleshed out all the way based on the presentations I heard (though this book disproves that since it was written prior). I just couldn’t wrap my head around how something like this would fit in my company’s current tech model.

Many years of learning and experience later, reading this book gave me a new perspective on this model and how it could integrate into our environment. One of the best things about this book is that it approaches this integration in a realistic manner. It doesn’t recommend ripping out your complete architecture (like most pay by the hour consulting shops come in and recommend). It proposes adding these concepts in at the edge of your operation. The first steps actually involve adding them in so transparently that the applications that begin conversing across the ESB don’t actually know anything has changed.

Then as time allows and as experience with this style of architecture grows, you can kudzu the bus across the organization. Many of the scenarios and specific patterns that Chappell demonstrates and models are exact copies of problems that I’m encountering first hand at work. Reading this book has caused me to start looking at all of our applications with an eye towards how I can apply SOA principles as we make changes to existing code.

The book was a very quick read and the writing style and diagrams helped me get through the book with ease. I highly recommend reading it if you are looking for a great introduction into the Enterprise Service Bus concept.

Starship Troopers (the novel)

Doug Porter — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:00:06 +0000

After having seen the movie and hearing over the years of people talking about the controversy around the book, I decided to pick it up from the local library and see for myself what all the fuss is about. This post will describe some of my thoughts on the book not really a full book report style review.

The book was written in 1959 by Robert A. Heinlein but if you didn’t know that, you would think it was written in the last couple of years. The technology, tactics, and mindset he describes all fit with our current time. Pretty impressive for a 50 year old novel to accurately depict our reality. Makes you wonder if he predicted the future or the future modeled itself on him.

An interesting concept that the book lays out (one of the central themes) is the concept of being a citizen of your nation. Everyone from birth is considered a civilian. This classification gives them access to every right and freedom save two. They cannot vote and they cannot hold public office. To gain these two rights requires enlisting in federal service (joining the military) for a term of at least two years (the term is open ended if the nation is in conflict and needs you longer). Further, while you are doing your federal service, you cannot vote. So career military men would not be able to vote until their retirement.

The interesting thought of this setup is that the acting military does not get a say in the future of conflict or military infrastructure. Thus they cannot vote in their self-interest. All those that do get to vote are former military men that have seen the good and bad and put their own necks on the line. They should have a clear picture of what it really means to fight and die and can vote with that knowledge. It seems like a much better setup than some ivy league lawyer in Washington committing troops to some location without any first-hand knowledge of the reality of what that means. Also this would seem to prevent the concept of the military-industrial complex from being able to take hold since active military cannot vote.

Another thing this would seem to prevent would be the continued expansion of the government payrolls. This reminds me of Philip Greenspun’s recent post on Should Government Employees Be Allowed To Vote?. Employees of the government will always tend to vote for anything that expands or improves their employment situation. If the number of employees grows too large, then you create a situation where those kinds of votes will always pass. I think I would have to agree with Philip that the Constitution probably would have explicitly addressed this if they thought it possible for this to ever happen.

Also in this completely voluntary federal service commitment, they try to make it very difficult to join and easy to quit. They intentionally try to discourage everyone from signing up. If they fail at that, they make it as easy as possible for an individual to drop out. The only repercussion of dropping out is you can never sign back up and try again. This ensures that those that are in the service are very committed to the idea of putting themselves on the line for the good of the nation as a whole and really want to be there. This reminds me of Zappos paying new hires cash to quit.

I would definitely be on board with our current military adopting this kind of setup to see how it changed the shape of our military. With an all volunteer force, it seems a bit strange to change the rules the second you sign the dotted line. You are free to join, but not to leave. If it didn’t work, we could always go back to the old way of doing things, but I would imagine this would lead to an even higher quality force than we have currently.

There is one soliloquy in the book that is really potent (and makes it shocking this was written in 1959). It is about the term juvenile delinquent and the nature of what causes a young person to become delinquent. The argument is that to have a juvenile delinquent, you must have an adult delinquent that allowed this situation to occur by not using operant conditioning and discipline to mold the child into someone with a moral basis for behavior. He specifically talks about the removal of corporal punishment from youth and how purely at an animal/behavioral level this causes the individual to not properly learn the actions/consequences model that many of us learned at the end of a ruler or paddle. Fascinating stuff to ponder.

I did not find the book as controversial as the critics made out and thoroughly enjoyed it (only took 2 days to read it). Many criticisms have been made about its pro-military stance (Heinlein was an officer in the Navy), but I did not see it that way (with my background of never having been in the military). I saw it speaking of a more restrained military and federal organization than we have currently. Others critics disliked it saying it was more of an essay of Heinlein’s views versus an actual story arc. I can see part of this, but it was not very noticeable or distracting to me. It also might explain why Paul Verhoeven, who made the film version, is quoted as saying he never even finished reading the book (the movie doesn’t have much of the same story of the book).

I think this book is definitely worth reading if you have ever pondered what the responsibility is of the nation to its people and the people to their nation. It gives you some great food for thought and can spur some great discussions with friends. Of course there is Power Armor thrown in too so that is also a plus.