ETCon 2004: Danny O'Brien on Life Hacks


Danny O'Brien talks on Life Hacks

Danny O'Brien gave a great talk on how alpha geeks manage their life. I was enjoying the talk and didn't take notes, but Cory Doctorow did. Some highlights:

  • Alpha geeks use shells
  • Alpha geeks use text-editors like BBEdit, vi, and emacs
  • Alpha geeks try every application, but usually end up back with editors and email. They don't trust complicated apps.
  • Private, secret blogs and RSS are taking the place of todo.txt files and email alerts.
  • Alpha geeks write scripts to take apart dull, repetitive tasks
  • All alpha geeks back up. They've all learned the lesson.
  • Alpha geeks make their ideas public, but hide their scripts.

This says what they do, but Danny also offered insights into why, which are somewhat surprising. Read the notes.


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Last modified: Thu Oct 10 12:47:20 2019.