Timothy Ferriss

Tim Ferriss was born in East Hampton, New York, on Long Island. He went to St. Paul's School in New Hampshire and earned a degree in East Asian studies at Princeton in 2000. After a sales job at a data storage company, he started BrainQUICKEN, an online supplement business, in 2001. The long hours it took led to the ideas in his first book.

The 4-Hour Workweek (2007) tells readers to cut low-value work, give tasks to virtual assistants, set up businesses that earn money without daily effort, and take "mini-retirements" through life instead of waiting until old age. Ferriss calls this lifestyle design. Critics say the method depends on low-paid workers abroad and does not fit most jobs. His later books include The 4-Hour Body (2010) and Tools of Titans (2016).

Ferriss was an early investor in or adviser to companies such as Uber, Facebook and Twitter. Since 2014 he has hosted The Tim Ferriss Show, an interview podcast. He has spoken about his own depression and funds research into psychedelic therapy. He lives in Austin, Texas.