Quick Roundup 402

Gus Van Horn, Post-It Boy?

Via Karl Martin Mertens comes the latest silly quiz, "What Office Supply Are You?" Here are my results.

You Are a Post-It.

You have a good memory. You're memory is so good, in fact, that it can be down right annoying at times.

You don't mean to nag, but you like to remind people what they're supposed to be doing.

You may be a bit of a pest, but you're awfully cute. So no one minds it all too much when you pop up.

You would make a good manger, salesperson or attorney. You can cram a lot of info into that head of yours.

If writing everything down counts as having a good memory, then I plead guilty as charged!

Martin Lindeskog Gets Things Done

And speaking of writing everything down, or "distributed cognition," Martin Lindeskog has compiled a list of GTD-related things he wishes to explore. The books look intriguing to me, so I'll list them here and ask a question.

• Making It All Work: Winning at the Game of Work and Business of Life by David Allen.
• Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time by Brian Tracy.
• Career Renegade: How to Make a Great Living Doing What You Love by Jonathan Fields.

Has anyone read any of these? If so, what are your thoughts? And if you've read all three, but had to recommend only one, which would it be?

"GTD with Brains"

A while back, took the free "Jump Start" introduction to Jean Moroney's "Thinking Directions" workshops and found that I wanted to recommend it to others. She's offering another on March 26, and will soon be presenting her all-day seminar in New York on February 23 and, possibly, again in Boston on July 2.

One thought I had after taking the Jump Start course was that, as one who uses many of David Allen's productivity techniques, this "gives a brain" to his approach, which certainly helps one implement goals, but not necessarily to set or clarify them.

Honesty is the best policy.

David Veksler writes, in "The One Minute Case against Cheating," that:

The lesson that students need to learn is that the choice between the practical and the moral is a false dichotomy. Morality is the means to a successful life, not an impediment. Teaching the practical, selfish value of honesty is the best way to discourage cheating.

The primary purpose of an education is to provide the practical knowledge and thinking skills that allow success in life and career. Cheating erodes both those goals. In a career, success of failure has material consequences on one's work and the people it affects. A grade on a biology exam is just a number, but a doctor who takes shortcuts with patients, or a construction engineer who takes shortcuts with buildings endangers both his career and other people’s lives. The ultimate goal of education is not a piece of paper, but practical skills and knowledge, and cheating deprives oneself of that knowledge. Whatever immediate benefit cheating provides is outweighed by the long-term harm. Educators need to stress the practical value of their lessons, and the harm students do to themselves when they forfeit their education.

Back in high school, I always wondered why some of my classmates cheated for this very reason, probably in large part because I was lucky enough to have parents who stressed what my education was for.

In fact, I would have found the idea of being "tempted" to cheat ludicrous.

-- CAV

Updates

2-14-09: Corrected a hyperlink.
8-4-09: Corrected a hypertext anchor.