Life Hacking - Learn From the Nerds How to Get More out of Life

[john a thompson]

I am a nerd. I've been one all my life. The proper news is that ultimately, it's OK to be a nerd. Cool, even.

It wasn't usually cool. Before generation and data took over our economy, nerds had been seen as, properly, nerds. Uncool via definition.

I become never cool. I wasn't stylish; I wore Keds sneakers and whatever changed into on sale in the "husky" department at JC Penney's. I wasn't the man you would name to return over and paintings in your hotrod Camaro. You'd call your cool friend for that. You called me while you needed assist writing a ebook document. Then I changed into your exceptional pal.

Girls did not like nerds a whole lot back then. I wasn't a huge hit with the ladies. When I coerced a adorable lady to marry me 22 years in the past, oldsters have been shocked; they nonetheless are.

But here's my point: It's cool these days to be a nerd, and the nerd way of life has coalesced on a set of Web sites dedicated to some thing called "life-changing hacks."

A era creator named Danny O'Brien created the term "existence hack" after surveying a collection of effective geeks on their paintings techniques. O'Brien observed a pattern the various most efficient programmers: The first-rate of them - the nerdiest of the nerds - all had created bizarre tricks and shortcuts to get their paintings done faster or higher. O'Brien shared his research in a report called "Life Hacks: Tech Secrets of Overprolific Alpha Geeks." The term "lifestyles hack" spread via the nerd community like a pc virus. Today there are many books, podcasts and websites on the subject. One of the dreams of lifestyles hacking is to make lifestyles simpler. Life Hackers say it helps people to get extra achieved, quickly and effectively, with easy answers. Merlin Mann created a weblog called 43 Folders, that is one of the most famous existence-hacking sites. Mann shows having everybody stand at some stage in conferences so no one will waste time. Another idea from Mann is to check emails on a normal schedule in preference to reacting at once to each e-mail that arrives. (A wonderful many life-hacking thoughts relate to managing electronic mail extra successfully.)

The Hipster PDA is any other lifestyles-hacking idea. It's an alternative to using non-public virtual assistants, or PDAs, along with Blackberries and Palm Pilots. The Hipster PDA is actually a few index cards held collectively with a paper clip. It's a "machine" I've been the use of for years, since tiring of my Palm Pilot and its annoying stylus, batteries and synchronization hassles. People chortle at my low-tech notecards, but now the top geeks in the united states have encouraged my gadget! My model of the Hipster PDA fees about a penny per notecard, plus forty five cents for a pen. My version is unique in a single important respect. Many nerds deliver more than one index cards clipped together; I convey simply one. If my new activities may not healthy on one card, that tells me that my lifestyles is complete and I want to reprioritize. You'll locate tons greater at 43folders.Com.

Lifehacker.Com is a website that takes a lifestyles-hacking approach to saving money. It can inform you how to: have a meal for under $three, increase the life of your laptop battery, and preserve cool in the warm weather. It tells you the nice days to make major purchases and much more. It's like Hints from Heloise on steroids.

Another website, Lifehack.Org, gives each day advice on matters consisting of how to turn around horrific reports and sleep your manner to better fitness. It additionally offers pointers for tourists, guidelines for those who need help beginning conversations (consisting of nerds), and recommendation on making the workday extra conceivable. The internet site has one hundred and one Extraordinary Uses for Ordinary Things. Learn how you may use tape to check out nail polish shades, save you plaster from chipping off walls while hanging photos, and set up flora in a vase.