Potato I have

Another welcome reminder that words are our friends, this time applied to the dogged, never as simple as it ought to be widgetification of stuff. Eighteen months into GTD, and still so much room for improvement. This simple verb chart is now at the top of my actions file, and on a post-it on the wall. By itself it looks useful; as I add my own language it will only get better. Déclic.

All these years of badgering developers to use the right words in their code, and I forget to apply it in my own pursuits.

Note that this is from some nearly lost GTD materials that look to be worth the search.

If you’re into GTD and you somehow haven’t come across 43folders, check it out now. Merlin gives geek cred to something I probably would have otherwise dismissed, and that would have been more than unfortunate. Getting this from a geek who is living and breathing the stuff makes a huge difference.

I missed reading Steve Jobs’ commencement address at Stanford this past June, but it showed up on digg a few days ago and I found it pretty good. Here’s a text transcript and a youtube video (14:33). Being a confirmed story addict, I like his “just three stories” format.

I’m setting off in a new, uncertain direction myself, and so I especially appreciate this:

you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

And I share his “death is your friend” sentiment as well — is that morbid?