Ed, I respectfully disagree. Tim Ferriss is a hacker. All of those things are _exactly_ the kind of "creative playfulness" that embodies the hacker spirit.
I find Tim way more inspiring than "yet another discussion on how $TECHNOLOGY_X is {dead,the hottest thing since sliced bread}."
So are the Chinese dudes who put melamine in the milk and formula they sold, poisoning untold numbers of children while increasing their profits by selling watered-down milk. (The melamine tested as protein, covering up the dilution.)
That was a hack. Same with 'hackers' who use shoddy building materials resulting in buildings that collapse.
Hackers like that are a dime a dozen. It's not anything I'd want to emulate. And I certainly wouldn't want to hire someone who thought along such lines.
I think that comparing "I _actually_ read the rules to this boxing context" to "poisoning untold numbers of children" is just slightly hyperbolic, don't you?
I find Tim way more inspiring than "yet another discussion on how $TECHNOLOGY_X is {dead,the hottest thing since sliced bread}."
YMMV.