
The Einstein Principle: Accomplish More By Doing Less - nreece
http://www.calnewport.com/blog/?p=115
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ErrantX
On a related note this is my favourite fact about Einstein:

In 1905 when he published his 4 _extraordinary papers_ he was still "Mr
Einstein". The 5th was his PHD paper.

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philk
Focusing on just a few things is a great idea.

However, in his case study he doesn't list any outcomes. He describes what
he's going to do.

I think it would have worked better if he'd implemented it, then posted this
in a months time and said "I purged all these tasks, focused on these two
projects, and enjoyed $quantifiable_performance_improvement".

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eob
PHP is only capable of $quantifiable_performance_improvements at the cost of
ugly, ugly code :p

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edw519
What a great idea! Attach a famous person's name to your pet theory. And for
geeks, who better than Einstein?

I can see it now:

The Einstein method of parsing strings.

The Einstein theory of data minimalization.

The Einstein principal of funding your startup.

Who could resist? Before you know it they'll be naming everything after
Einstein, even bagels.

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eob
Einstein bagels.. man that brought back memories. Are they still around? EDIT:
It's a good article if you take the time to read it. Don't knock the guy just
for being good at marketing.

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edw519
The content is not bad. Basically, he says to focus on the most important
thing and provides antecdotes on how he accomplishes this. This is a recurring
theme here at hn:

<http://paulgraham.com/procrastination.html>

<http://paulgraham.com/hamming.html>

I'm not knocking the guy, but I would not agree that this is good marketing.
Am I the only one who is becoming immune to sensational titles and tactics?

Here's an idea: Just call your work what it is, promote it well, and let it
stand on its own merit. But, "The Einstein Principal"? Please.

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ankeshk
Sensationalist? Yes.

But who would remember the Newport Principle?

Using an Einstein story makes the whole idea more memorable.

Borrowing star power is a tool. Like any tool - it can be used for good or
bad. In this case, I think its a good use.

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jriddycuz
I just realized I'm distracting myself by reading a blog post on how to focus.

