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> Why do we leave office workers to figure out on their own how to get things done? Maybe I'm dense, or oversimplifying, but the answer seems obvious to me: be

> Why do we leave office workers to figure out on their own how to get things done? Maybe I'm dense, or oversimplifying, but the answer seems obvious to me: because there's no one size fits all solution. Sure, people can be lost and confused, but being told there is one and only one way to things feels like a straitjacket to me. It's the same reason I despise the term "best practice" as if some arbiter of "best" determined that every other way of doing something sucks. I'm very much of the eclectic school. I don't follow GTD strictly, but I pulled what I found useful from it and went from there. Honestly, it's been so long since I reviewed the method, it's probably time to go back and review it again. You can't just rest on your laurels; as another good (but often overpraised) productivity book put it, you need to sharpen the saw every once and a while, and this includes always questioning "best" practice.

KSteffensen 6y ago
There are many ways to write software but there some ways that are objectively bad and some ways that are objectively better, if not perfect or even good. Guidelines and trade-off discussions on these are taught in schools/colleges/universities. The same type of guidelines and trade-off discussions could be taught in e.g. high school. I'm pretty sure just getting people to reflect on this stuff would bring huge improvements.
- npsimons 6y ago
  > The same type of guidelines and trade-off discussions could be taught in e.g. high school. I'm pretty sure just getting people to reflect on this stuff would bring huge improvements. On this I agree. And even just putting out a single, simple, effective method, while mentioning there are other ways would be fine. Those that are curious should be able to ask after lecture as to what those ways are. I do resent I was never formally taught any sort of study skills in high school, and I feel this falls under that same banner. But I still stand by my assertion that people shouldn't be punished for deviating from a "one true way", unless those deviations are objectively harmful.

KSteffensen 6y ago

There are many ways to write software but there some ways that are objectively bad and some ways that are objectively better, if not perfect or even good. Guidelines and trade-off discussions on these are taught in schools/colleges/universities. The same type of guidelines and trade-off discussions could be taught in e.g. high school. I'm pretty sure just getting people to reflect on this stuff would bring huge improvements.

npsimons 6y ago
> The same type of guidelines and trade-off discussions could be taught in e.g. high school. I'm pretty sure just getting people to reflect on this stuff would bring huge improvements. On this I agree. And even just putting out a single, simple, effective method, while mentioning there are other ways would be fine. Those that are curious should be able to ask after lecture as to what those ways are. I do resent I was never formally taught any sort of study skills in high school, and I feel this falls under that same banner. But I still stand by my assertion that people shouldn't be punished for deviating from a "one true way", unless those deviations are objectively harmful.