Friday Four

1. The subway dumped me into the middle of an unfamiliar town with a confusing street layout. I needed to orient my map. Enter my trusty Army Knife for Android, whose included compass immediately saved the day.

2. Not to be confused with David Allen's "Someday/Maybe" list is a suggestion by Jean Moroney for a "Maybe" list for gaining traction when confronted with a daunting task:

On the one hand, you do know a lot about the daunting task. And based on what you do know, you will probably find that you can make up a list of "maybe's" -- things that might help you get it done. After you have the list, you can then look through it and see which ones would in fact be worth doing to help you get started.

The post elaborates more, noting that this idea combines a couple of other solutions to the problems of overload and uncertainty.

3. I recently sent a link to the following story to my wife, titled, "Perspective for House Hunting:"

This summer, after receiving a job offer in Silicon Valley, I went on Craigslist and began sifting through housing listings: 'verrrrrryyy cheap bedroom ;),' 'great deal on rent!' A single room with a shared bathroom? Two thousand per month on the low-end. A small studio apartment, you ask? If your startup wasn't recently bought for seven figures, forget about it.

I perked up after finding a listing for $1,000 per month. Now this could work. Clicking through to the details section however revealed the offer was for a single bunk in a room with eight people, a set-up referred to as a 'hacker house' by an (evil) marketing genius.

And, if you're moving to San Francisco? Your reasons for moving will have to provide the perspective: The article is titled, "Rent Is So High in San Francisco That I’m a Software Engineer and I Live in a Van."

4. A woman's ability to smell people with Parkinson's Disease may well advance research about the condition and lead to earlier diagnosis and treatment.

Joy [Milne] only linked this odour to Parkinson's after joining the charity Parkinson's UK and meeting people with the same distinct odour.

By complete chance she mentioned this to scientists at a talk. They were intrigued.

Edinburgh University decided to test her - and she was very accurate.

Indeed, Milne detected the odor in a member of a group of people who weren't supposed to have the disease, and he was diagnosed with it a few months later.

-- CAV