Clay And His Cage Match
I ran into Clay Collins when he left an insightful comment on Zen Habits. I checked out his blog and was impressed with this little (okay, not so little) piece lovingly taking a shot at David Allen of GTD. Nobody takes a shot at David Allen. I’m surprised he wasn’t lynched. It’s like taking a shot at, I don’t know, democracy or freedom of speech.
Anyway, Clay’s bloggy home business a bit of a rising star (he guested on Dumb Little Man today, which is nothing to sneeze at) and he’s written a piece comparing the relative merits of Getting Things Done and Four Hour Workweek. While this may bore some of you senseless, here’s the neat part. He’s taken the idea that both Tim Ferriss and David Allen are into martial arts, and he’s turned it into a cage match. Think mud wrestling for productivity nerds. Here’s an excerpt:
“What do Steven Covey, David Allen, and Timothy Ferriss have in common? They’re dudes. Let’s face it, getting off on productivity is often a male thing. Here’s another thing men like: kicking the crap out of each other. Men have been perfecting that art longer than they’ve been tinkering with PDAs and other work fidgets. So when you think about it, combining productivity with kicking the crap out of each other makes good sense, especially since two of last year’s best selling productivity authors are also martial artists.”
If you’re nice and like it and have a Digg account, it would be pretty neat if you could go give him some love. He’s new and young and enthusiastic and I support that sort of thing.
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All I’m saying is that Tim would destroy just about anyone in the cage. Then he’d dance the tango with their lifeless body.
@Naomi – Wow, MMA & productivity…2 of my favorite topics. Thanks for sharing the link.
@Graham, I don’t know about that. Tim confessed that he won his kickboxing matches by cutting weight and pushing opponents out of the ring.
He’s also studied BJJ in Brazil, and Muay Thay in Thailand but it sounds like most of the training in different martial arts is done during brief mini-retirements that only last a few months. Don’t know if he’ll have the depth to really compete in an MMA match. But should be able to whoop on any other productivity guru.
Thanks for the link.
It is such a great article. Having someone questioning all this nonsense about systems delivering our lives to us is such a relief!
Following a system is no substitute for dealing with life!
Thank you, Naomi.
[...] get sent out until the next day. So not much comment love. Now I know why I keep getting Naomi’s updates so damned late. Lesson learned, though – so let’s get this edition kicked out [...]
Naomi … I Love your writing style and enjoy your blog. I was surprised to be reading your feed when I came across the mention of Clay’s article. I had came across his article after I had written one for my new blog in which I explain why I think the whole premise of “getting things” out of your head by writing them down is Wrong. If you’re interested … here it is … http://zendonut.com/wordpress/archives/12
- Mike
[...] get sent out until the next day. So not much comment love. Now I know why I keep getting Naomi’s updates so damned late. Lesson learned, though – so let’s get this edition kicked out [...]