Adding something is easy, adding value is harder. Is this thing I’m working on actually making the product more valuable for people? Can they get more out of it than they did before? There’s a fine line between adding value and subtracting value. Sometimes adding is subtracting. Too much catsup can ruin the fries. Value is about balance.
I’ve been thinking a lot about this for a while now. While 37signals raises this conversation about work projects, it’s applicable far beyond the office.
Depression may have an analytical upside. People hospitalized for this mood disorder display a flair for making good choices when many options must be considered one at a time, a new study finds.
Depression may prompt an analytical thinking style suited to solving sequential problems, such as deciding when to stop a house hunt and purchase a property or when to stop playing the field and marry a suitor, say psychologist Bettina von Helversen of the University of Basel in Switzerland and her colleagues.
In a rare interview with the New York Times:
My advice to other disabled people would be, concentrate on things your disability doesn’t prevent you doing well, and don’t regret the things it interferes with. Don’t be disabled in spirit, as well as physically.
I just finished my final paper for my undergraduate degree (that I started back in 2004). All I have left between me and graduation is a final exam that should be a breeze.
While I thought I would feel overjoyed, I feel … nothing.
Is this normal?
Living with OmniFocus is like having a garden. If you don’t take care of it, weeds take over and ruin it, choking out anything healthy. But if you tend it carefully, it will provide you with beautiful, bountiful results that are delightful.
I wrote this back in September:
At the end of the day, I don’t give a crap about categorizing tasks due to location, topic, tags or what color shirt I’m wearing. All I need is a convenient way to list tasks and their deadlines. Nothing more; nothing less.
Shockingly simple, I know.
For me and my simple needs, Things and OmniFocus are overkill. With systems like this, I spend more time entering tasks than doing them. When I was using Things, by the time I was done going over the day’s to-do list, it was time for lunch. OmniFocus just gives me seizures.
I was fortunate. I found many of my passions — the Mac, journalism, design and photography — all at once.
My high school had an excellent newspaper program. The paper — named The Panther’s Prey — has won countless awards over the years. My freshman year, I applied to work on the staff. While I enjoyed writing, and had dabbled in computer graphics, I was by no means an expert in anything.
A tornado ripped through Jackson, MS, south of Memphis earlier today. Here’s some incredible footage of the storm:
We are all so small.
Patrick Rhone1 back in 2008:
I would posit that if your principle motivation for anything – your career, your blog, etc. – is money, you will often find the value of those activities lacking. Be not concerned with the money that you gained or lost. Instead, be concerned with the time you had, the experiences and people that filled it, and the lessons and trust you built by using it effectively. And then, resolve to increase the value of that time and trust in the year to come.