The Einstein Principle: Accomplish More By Doing Less | Hacker News Reader

The Einstein Principle: Accomplish More By Doing Less

calnewport.com

50 pointsnreece17 comments

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.

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".

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Einstein's way of marketing. Before Seth Godin, was.. Einstein.

What about The Von Neumann Method of Drinking Coffee or the Feynman Principal of Tea? :D

I think Douglas Adams has more mindshare when it comes to tea :)

That piece of text should be made required reading to own a hotel outside of the UK :P

Lemon and milk?

Give this guy a break. Atleast he's trying to be productive. And we can all check back on him during Thanksgiving if the Einstein theory really worked.

Who better than Einstein? Tesla!

http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2007/11/your_friday_dose_o...

chan anons could probably refactor this into some foul meme

or theory of patches...?

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

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