So I was standing in the supermarket, looking at the myriad of TV guides that you can buy everywhere here in Germany. They all look the same: In the center of the cover, there’s a blonde, smiling, voluptuous, overly photoshopped, female model/actor/musician/TV host on a blue background. At the top, the logo of the guide […]
All posts tagged ‘do’
The Nothing Alternative
Raymond Chandler had an interesting approach to getting things done. In his case: Getting things written. Here’s what he said, according to Roy Baumeister and John Tierney in their book, Willpower:1 Chandler had his own system for turning out The Big Sleep and other classic detective stories. “Me, I wait for inspiration,” he said, but […]
Enter “Do Mode” (The Only Productivity Secret You’ll Ever Need)
The thing with idlers is that we know when to stop. When to relax. When to philosophize. When to discuss. When to have a beer. Or twelve. And then we know when to start and do the thing we thought about – as effectively and efficiently as possible. The only secret we need to know […]
How to Leave No Trace
Do things like the gatekeepers tell you to do them. Think in the ways your textbooks teach you. Write about what everybody writes about. Comment on big blogs only. Retweet the usual influencers. Please a huge audience. Don’t try to be original, and if you do, be original in a foreseeable manner. Also, lick everybody’s […]
On Figuring Out Who You Are (and What Would Plato Do?)
Today, I spent an entertaining and enlightening 37 minutes and 22 seconds listening to a talk by Merlin Mann, titled “Makebelieve Help, Old Butchers, and Figuring Out Who You Are (For Now)“. In it, Mann dwells lenghty on the well-known paradox, that whilst procrastinate-ish time spent on your Gameboy or surfing the web will probably […]