Merlin Mann eschews "productivity pr0n" and shifts the focus of 43 Folders

<i>"If I’m not laughing at your joke, complimenting your insight, or leading the Standing O for something you spent 10 seconds pecking up on your phone, it may not be because I don’t get it; it may be because I think we’re both capable of better and just need to find the courage to say so. In as many characters as it takes."</i><p>That's clearly a stab at Twitter. It'll be interesting to see if Merlin's new focus will cause others to question their Twitter use (and interesting to see if it makes any difference in Twitter's traffic.)

<i>"...those extra cycles could be used to game the system so efficiently that you can sit in a hammock for 164 hours a week while people in India write birthday cards to your friends."</i><p>What's funny is: even though there is a ton of of things to criticize Tim Ferriss for, he chooses something that is actually pretty awesome: outsourcing repetitive, mundane tasks. The point of 4 hour work week is not to lay in a hammock the rest of your life; it's to do what you enjoy. I think Tim's an epic dbag (auto responder? - please.) and even I picked that up.<p>Sidenote: What the heck are those "digital nomad" ads? Those people sound like they should be writing the sequel to the Secret. Ugh.

Background:<p><a href="http://www.kungfugrippe.com/post/48588149/better" rel="nofollow">http://www.kungfugrippe.com/post/48588149/better</a><p><a href="http://www.43folders.com/2008/09/08/gears-shifting" rel="nofollow">http://www.43folders.com/2008/09/08/gears-shifting</a>

I have never understood the concept of a "productivity blog." Assuming a person can be maximally productive each post read would have diminishing returns for the reader.<p>To put it more simply -- how can following a productivity blog make me more productive?

&#62;&#62;<i>more bullshit than a limo full of lifestreamers</i><p>Love it!

Oh thank God. This needed to be said so badly. "GTD," "life-hacking" and everything in between are just things to make feel like they're getting stuff done without working. Plan, work, and learn, especially from your mistakes. <i>That</i> is the "life hack."

Just to be clear, the phrase "productivity pr0n" is used in the headline not because it's a direct quotation, but because it succintly describes a lot of what Mann is eliminating.

Looking forward to part 2!

The thing I take from this is that productivity (in how these modes define it) isn't a end in itself.<p>A useful hack is one that takes you from one mode of operating to were you want to be.

My God, there's a "43folders"? Are there any blogs not following the awkward-two-digit-number-plus-a-noun naming convention nowadays?<p>86monocles.com is available, if anyone is interested.

Mann's twitter stream is full of cock jokes.

To whom are the quotemarks referring?