John Perry
John Perry
thinking people done
I was surprised by how many people think of themselves as procrastinators, but, like me, seem to get a lot done anyway.
essence people done
The essence is that many procrastinators are "structured procrastinators," people who, like me, get a lot done as a way of not working on what they should ideally be working on.
way flaws being-pretty
While procrastinating is not a flaw, being a structured procrastinator is actually one way of being pretty productive.
mean steps may
You may lack will power, but that doesn't mean you can't take a lot of steps to make yourself more productive.
jobs real life-and-death
Nothing focuses attention like a real deadline. If you are in a field where life and death, or having a job or not having a job, depends on not missing deadlines, you need to learn to manipulate yourself to meet them; often a good way of doing this is teaming up with non-procrastinators.
bars tasks common
The fantasy of doing a task perfectly is common with procrastinators; they set the bar for success very high. Then they are afraid to approach it. As the deadline approaches, they must set the bar lower.
assessment perfection tasks
Task triage is the habit of making a realistic assessment of what degree of perfection is required for a task at the point of accepting it, so one doesn't need to rely on one's habit of procrastinating to lower the bar.
smart cookies
Voltaire was a smart cookie.
book school boys
The anceints devoted a lifetime to the study of arithmetic; it required days to extract a square root or to multiply two numbers together. Is there any harm in skipping all that, in letting the school boy learn multiplication sums, and in starting his more abstract reasoning at a more advanced point. Where would be the harm in letting the boy assume the truth of many propositions of the first four books of Euclid, letting him assume their truth partly by faith, partly by trial?
motivational comfort doe
Hope provides comfort, and hope does not always require probability.
government targets
The government targets 'Anonymous' for the same reason it targets al-Qaida - because they're the enemy.
business copying kids movies seeing sharing stick
There are a lot of kids out there copying and distributing movies - not because they care about seeing the movies or sharing them with their friends, but because they want to stick it to the movie business.
audience large living musicians performance relationship ticket
Musicians by and large make a living with a relationship with an audience that is economically harnessed through performance and ticket sales.
believes consensus country force involve manage rather ruling virtuous ways
I think the 'counterculture' believes that there are ways to manage being the world's most powerful country that involve creation of consensus - ruling by virtuous example rather than by force of arms.