Reason #852 why it's awesome to work for Google: the company frequently brings in really interesting guest speakers and gives you the opportunity to attend for free. Also, in another Google act of web benevolence, most of these lectures are recorded and posted on the Google Tech Talks YouTube channel where anyone can view them for free. One of my coworkers pointed me to Merlin Mann's lecture on time and attention and I've been hooked on the channel ever since. Usually I just let it play in the background while I'm working, but that doesn't always result in the best comprehension so I usually end up listening to each talk a number of times. In the past week I've spent a few hours listening to each of these speakers:
- David Allen talked about some principles of his Getting Things Done (GTD) system, which is all the rage these days among organization freaks (like, ahem, yours truly).
- Tim Ferriss - entrepreneur, mixed martial artist, record-holding tango dancer, and author of The 4-Hour Work Week - explained some of the tips he uses to save time and travel the world.
- Soren Gordhamer gave a talk called "Stress Relief for the Creative and Constantly Connected," based on his book of the same name.
It's kind of funny that I've been listening to all of these lectures on personal productivity and stress relief this week; I've never had fewer tasks to juggle (one) than I do at my current client.
Other cool-sounding talks that I'm queuing up for next week:
- How Ant Colonies Get Things Done
- Cooperation and Engagement: What can board games teach us?
- Poker Teaches, presented by Charles Nesson, Harvard Law professor and founder of the Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society
Google, I heart you.
