Happy holidays 2008

In the turbulent environments we now face, a quick thank you for reading, contributing, and giving your priceless attention to my work here. It's a privilege! Second, let me leave you with a few thoughts and questions. Happy holidays, everyone.

• I continue to explore Twitter. My current purpose is to inform, help, lift spirits through humor, connect with interesting folks I can learn from, and make relationships with prospective clients. I'm at twitter.com/matthewcornell, and I'd be happy to have you following me. (Related: A Late Adopter's Productivity Experiment With Twitter, Plus Some 140 Word Humor)
  
• Fill in the blank: ____, unlike a fine wine, does not get better with age.
  
• What is the role of art during crisis? What does history show?
  
• What do you call lessons learned that predate an event, i.e, ones learned before it's too late (or before you try something)? Build your ship while sailing? (Related: Some Thoughts From Tracking "lessons Learned" For A Year)
  
• Fear and curiosity can't cohabitate. Do you agree? I wonder if curiosity pushes us up Maslow's hierarchy of needs...
  
• Hunch: An unarticulated (personal scientific) hypothesis?
  
• A micro experiment for you: Pick a strongly-held belief and apply the Five Whys. (Related: Mentioned in Why Every Problem Should Be A GTD Project)
  
• "You are what you tag." What do your tags (Wiki, Delicious, idea file) say about your life? I realized mine are optimistic and assume some future value. I guess I'm preparing my future self for something, but I don't yet know what!
  
• All great superhero stories are experiments...or accidents? (Yea, I'm on a superhero kick. Related: The Personal Productivity Encyclopedia Of Superhero Powers)
  
• What's the relationship between curiosity and attention? I wonder if curiosity is a higher source of attention, as is love. Thoughts?
  
• Politics as experiment: "Rule one: Never allow a crisis to go to waste ... They are opportunities to do big things" (from Obama Weighs Quick Undoing of Bush Policy).
  
• I like the expression "sensemaking." This makes me wonder if that's why phone numbers are so hard to memorize: They have no intrinsic meaning. Ditto for faces. This means we have to make meaning and assign it at the time we encounter it/them. Otherwise, they're difficult to retrieve. (Related: How Do You Treat Life As An Experiment?)
  
• Networking: Avoid "one hand gives while the other takes away." I caught myself doing this when I emailed someone a potentially helpful article, and then asking for something at the end. This not only negated the gift, but also sacrificed a bit of trust. Don't link giving and receiving!
  
• Productivity wisdom from Dale Carnegie. In his Golden Book I found: 4. Apply these four good working habits:
  
  
  
  • a. Clear your desk of all papers except those relating to the immediate problem at hand.
    
  • b. Do things in the order of their importance.
    
  • c. When you face a problem, solve it then and there if you have the facts necessary to make a decision.
    
  • d. Learn to organize, deputize and supervise.
    
  
  

Comments

[Davey]

Ok Matt,

I finally finished digesting the "Superheros" post. The thing about a long post is you try and eat the low-hanging fruit first. I was rewarded with some thoughts for future consideration and implementation.

As I get older, "Energy Sourcing" becomes more important. I'll work on coupling this with "Telekinesis" to effect how and when I exert for enhanced productivity as needed. I will also utilize "Temporal duplication" to refresh my memory of that "productive feeling": of being in the zone. This will take some practice as I've started to "Experiment", in a meditative sense.

The podcast was very nice-a refreshing respite from Superpower phobia. I remembered Jason Womack from his days at The David Allen Company. I had lost touch with his body of work and was excited to see he has continued and expanded upon his prior collaborations. Not being much of a GTD fan, but having implemented bits and pieces, I always followed Jason's blog posts. He did a very fine job of weaving daily life into his thoughts on productivity enhancement, coaching, and training.

Well Matt, as we are closing out the final days to another year, I want to express a heart-felt thanks for your wonderful thoughts and ideas over this past year. Even though I did little commenting, I did read every single post and followed up on all links of interest. As a productivity tool, I have found your blog to be the best. My current feeder supports 31 blogs on productivity and yours is the only one that has consistently fueled my curiosity. As always, continued success and prosperity into the new year.

[matthewcornell]

I love your combining powers - I instantly thought of a matrix or periodic table format :-)

Jason's impressive. Your description is right on.

Thanks for the praise, and again for your insightful comments, Davey. I hope you have a great 2009 down there.

[Jason Womack]

Hey there everyone...

Wow, what a treat to read this discussion! Yes, I've found over the past (oh my goodness) 12 years of "serious" study along the lines of getting things done, personal productivity, time management, self-management, and oh-so-much-more, I've found that there is...alas...always more to learn!

So, thanks for the opportunity, Matt, to continue sharing with you and your community!

[matthewcornell]

Thanks for stopping by!

[Lisa Braithwaite]

"Fear and curiosity can't cohabitate." I'm dealing with both in a big way right now and I think it's entirely possible for them to cohabitate. In my case, the more I learn and understand about the problem, the less I hope to fear it. I'm curious *because* I'm afraid, in this particular situation.

[matthewcornell]

Your comment helps, Lisa. The insight I was hoping for is that one pushes the other out, and that the intermediate state is temporary. Good luck with your problem - I know it's been stressful for you. Thanks for reading!

[Drew Tarvin]

I just now got back to this in my RSS reader and I'm wondering if comments on a blog don't get better with age. Blogs and things like twitter seem to have more of an immediacy to them if you wish to actually have a conversation about them.

[matthewcornell]

Of course comments on MY blog age very well. Seriously, I look back at things my readers have said and I'm often blown away. For something like Twitter, a good percentage of posts are inconsequential, at least for me. My goal is to learn, improve myself, and live a full life. I'm sorry, but knowing that somone's taking a crap or on a plane matters very little in the big scheme of things. Then again, if it's my wife then I do care...

Thanks, Drew.