I was intrigued by the last one. (Unprecedented keyboard support, eh? Hmm.) Here’s a link to save others a search:
I liked the down-to-Earthiness of the article. There’s nothing really new in there—of course it’s handy to make lists—but the nuances are refreshing!
The “physics” of knowledge work has always fascinated me, for instance. Adam mentions momentum, but there’s others. In my own reflections on the article (originally posted here) I thought of three:
- Inertia. The longer a project sits waiting for you—weighing on your mind—the harder it is to get it moving.
- Friction. Inertia is driven by initial friction. In parallel, of course, kinetic friction can make it hard to stop working on something. This is why multitasking doesn’t make sense with most projects.
- Surface area: It can be hard to attack a single, huge project idea, just like how a large ice cube melts slower than many little ones. List making is a key way of breaking up the surface of a project into smaller pieces, making it easier to handle. Increasing surface area also facilitates collaboration: it’s easier to hand off smaller pieces to others, and to put them back together again.
I’d love to discuss others if they occur to anyone!