Testing questions?
have we exceeded our species' ability to self-organize?
From “Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler’s Ninth Symphony” (http://www.amazon.com/Night-Thoughts-Listening-Mahlers-Symphony/dp/0140243283, http://www.ccdmd.qc.ca/media/pdf/en/EEE_SevenWonders.pdf), page 61:
So far, we have learned how to be useful to each other only when we collect in small groups - families, circles of friends, once in a while (although still rarely) committees. The drive to be useful is encoded in our genes. But when we gather in very large numbers, as in the modern nation-state, we seem capable of levels of folly and self-destruction to be found nowhere else in all of Nature.
As a species, taking all in all, we are still too young, too juvenile, to be trusted. We have spread across the face of the earth in just a few thousand years, no time at all as evolution clocks time, covering all livable parts of the planet, endangering other forms of life, and now threatening ourselves. As a species, we have everything in the world to learn about living, but we may be running out of time. Provisionally, but only provisionally, we are a Wonder.
We can discover the meaning of life in three different ways: 1) By creating a work or doing a deed; 2) by experiencing something or encountering someone; and 3) by the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering.
“
| — | frankl |
LessonsLearned: for my expert interview series, I’ll drop the conversational transcription format in favor of a from-scratch article like MarkForster’s: http://ideamatt.blogspot.com/2006/11/conversation-with-mark-forster.html
I couldn’t *imagine* being productive without emacs. outline mode, very fast key-based navigation, macros - whew! Thanks to my grad school and programming background!
IdeaMattBlog: OK, Gmail’s new interface has some serious limitations
around contacts, but the URL update is *awesome*. use it with
Firefox’s smart keywords to speed up email without getting stuck
(i.e., seeing) the inbox
Matt’s Idea Blog: A few thoughts on vacations & GTD, used time management books, a few productivity tips, and heroes - both super *and* real
http://ideamatt.blogspot.com/2006/08/few-thoughts-on-vacations-gtd-used.html
scroll to “Productivity tip: Firefox smart keywords”
Productivity tip: WebDrive is very cool (Windows): http://www.webdrive.com/products/webdrive/index.html
Use it with SyncToy: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/prophoto/synctoy.mspx
Sweet!
You know you really need email help when…
… you need a disclaimer about “falling through the cracks!”
came up because of this email reply:
> If you don’t hear from me, there’s a chance your
> email “slipped through the cracks” (I get over
> 300 emails a day), so please have patience and
> re-send your message if you don’t hear from me
> in a day or two.
