Like the blog, the book is more about bragging than giving useful advice. All you have to do, he says, is start a zillion-dollar-a-year business which can run without any actual effort on your part. And then you can spend all your time doing other stuff. The rest of the book is a list of other stuff he's done and musings on whether it's better to bum around Berlin or Buenos Aires.

There, I just saved you fifteen bucks.

hahaha, you're spot on. It's a good read for motivation and inspirational purposes, but it won't teach you any mad scientist tricks.

I don't think I know a single person that's more self-promotional than Tim. I'm not sure whether to congratulate or hate him for it.

It's relative. It depends on your POV.

To some people, Hacker News is like that book. To others, HN is like a bible.