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Started rereading the four hour workweek.

First, a quick summary of the principles. The book talks about the New Rich (NR), people who abandon the deferred life plan (more traditional type of people for whom work now save for later is mantra of life) and emphasize an alternative view of life. A major premise of the book is, "outside of science and law, all rules can be broken or bent, and doesn't require being unethical". Not sure I either understand or subscribe to this ideal, but nevertheless I moved on to read this book. The second principle is the principle of "DEAL", an acronym that stand for Definition (who are people who defer life and who are NRs), Elimination (How to use the Pareto principle of 80-20), A for automation (which talks a lot about outsourcing life), and L (liberation or mobility or increased travel and movement).

Classical self-help styled book, each chapter starts with a story (his life story or others' life story Ferriss has actually laid out his life story out in the front chapter). The philosophy of an NR in Ferriss book is be "owner", not necessarily boss or the driver, a life of more quality and less clutter, and as it says, "the freedom and resolve to pursue your dreams".

Connected is a great book to start with if you are interested in the world of social network analysis or would like to study how social networks are analyzed and the mechanics of it, without getting too enmeshed in the nitty gritty of the math (which can get quite complex). Christakis and Fowler and have very carefully woven the tales of social network analyses with case studies and stories that begin each chapter and then in a very casual, lucid, and easy style delve into the details. It's quite amazing how much thought must have gone into planning each chapter to avoid the complex math involved yet provide most of the necessary theoretical and conceptual understanding involved.
The other aspect of the book that I liked was the extensive reference list of articles, books, journals, resources that were referred to contextually throughout the text. This book is definitely for one's personal collection, even if you found it at a library and read it. Well worth it.