Comment by InfinityX0 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by InfinityX0 | Hacker News Reader

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John Siracusa had a great point about Merlin. There was some criticism that a "productivity expert" not being able to ship is quite paradoxical. However, as Siracusa stated, the reason Merlin has so much to say on the subject is because he's spent so much time struggling with his own failures in that area. Someone who's trying to lose weight isn't going to learn much from someone who's 80 pounds and has been their entire life, because they've never really faced the struggle of ever losing the weight themselves. On the other hand, Jared from Subway may be an apt subject to learn from because he has faced the path and difficulty of obesity and continues to fight it.

That, combined with the ADD he is diagnosed with, means that I find reading his advice and loving it while still knowing that shipping stuff for him is an extremely difficult thing to do completely acceptable.

Just to add: you can listen to Siracusa's comments re: Merlin on Hypercritical [1].

Also worth listening to is Merlin's own podcast (with Dan Benjamin) called Back to Work [2]. A lot of his recent talk has been about his book, the challenges in meeting the deadlines (along the lines of 'a few thousand words by next week') and how he manages the process. Merlin himself is like no-one else, and I can assure you that you won't be bored by his show.

[1]: http://5by5.tv/hypercritical/15 [2]: http://5by5.tv/b2w

On the boredom thing, I think it depends. I think there is a lot of wisdom in what Merlin is saying, but sometimes it can take him 15 minutes worth of mixed metaphors and magical tangents to get to a point better found in a minute or so. This show is particularly guilty in the earlier episodes.

For me, I think I prefer reading his writing. While also lengthy, it's been edited and trimmed back. It focuses on just the metaphors that full apply.

(Although for long car/train rides, Back to Work is fantastic.)

I don't see why you were downvoted on this--Merlin cracks on himself when he doesn't answer a question directly (which, by his own admission, happens very frequently).

  was some criticism that a "productivity expert" not being
  able to ship is quite paradoxical.

Not any more paradoxical than a [sport] coach that can't themselves win at [sport].

Doing, and teaching others to do are very different skill sets.

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