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I'm not an expert, but 4 weeks is way too early to let a baby cry it out

A 4 week old baby is telling you they need something when they cry!

I never did CIO with LO. But I did let her fuss for a bit and give her calm reassurance when I wanted her to get used to something and it usually worked pretty well. I think 3 minute fussing or crying is different than CIO.

I have a 4 week old and couldn't imagine letting him cry for 3-5 minutes. I hate to hear him cry for a second. At that age they are crying b/c they need something and tending to their needs quickly makes them feel secure.

I am very opposed to crying it out in general. I think doing it at four weeks is just tragic. I would differentiate between crying and fussing, though. From the start, I didn't respond to every tiny fuss that my baby made. If she was just grinching a little, I'd let it go, and she'd often just cool it and go back to sleep or whatever. At 14 months, she'll still wake up at times and say MAMA!, and then go right back to sleep. If she cries in the night, we always wait 30 seconds to make sure she's really up and not already fallen back to sleep.

With LO, I went in and picked him up more or less every time he fussed until he was 7 month old, and then, while we didn't do a strict CIO, we started waiting longer periods to see if LO was going to self-soothe and get back to sleep (which happened just fine most of the time within a few minutes) or whether he was actually freaking out and needing attention from us.
I think with LO #2, I'll have a better idea of the distinction between "crying" and "fussing." I didn't really get a handle on that for LO till he was older. And while I honestly can't remember what was going on at 4 weeks old, and imagine that I probably wouldn't do anything differently at that age for LO#2, I do think that I would start a lot earlier with the "wait a few moments and see if LO is calming down or getting more worked up," because I think there were a lot of times when LO would have done fine if left alone, but I swooped in the minute he uttered a peep and picked him up. But yeah, I don't think that was at 4 weeks- more like 4 months.

@Lozza: This is crucial, the distinction between crying and fussing. I would never ignore an actual cry from my child, but fussing is far different. I felt confident differentiating between these two very early, but that's a comfort issue.