A geek’s greatest hack wouldn’t be getting Vista to run as a virtual machine in OSX, nor would it be to organise his ToDo-list in bash.
It would be, in fact, a hack for the geek to take back his life – that would be the ultimate Lifehack.
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#The Ultimate Lifehack HowTo#
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1) Make a ToVisit list of websites and restrict yourself to that list. Do not explore more than 2 links deeper than the first page. Better yet, use wget (for Windows) and download the entire page plus everything else 2 links deep and stop.
2) Remove slashdot.org from your bookmarks. To really be rid of it, set your router to ignore everything from 66.35.250.150 (resolved address of slashdot.org). Stop making excuses that slashdot.org is important for your career. Everything that’s important on slashdot is probably already reported in major news sites. Everything else, well, is not worth your time. (For those of you not in the loop, check out wikipedia for an opinion on slashdot)
3) Set a cut-off time as to when that trial-and-error operation is going to stop. If that portable USB hard disk drive doesn’t work after you have tried a multitude of configurations, it means it doesn’t work. You’re better off posting in a knowledgeable forum to ask around. Stop at the stipulated cut-off time and do something else.
4) Set a day a week as CAD or Computer Abstinence Day. Kick yourself free from the wires and go out to do some exercise. There’s a world out there besides the screen.
5) Use pen-and-paper to take notes and draw. Yes, draw. Pen and paper are worth more than just to scribble down the partition setup you conceive to install the next bleeding-edge of OpenSolaris in. Go on, draw, you’ll be surprised that you can actually do better than Etch N Sketch. Besides, you get to activate the other side of your brain.
OPTIONAL: Get a girlfriend lover. No, for greater effect, get a girlfriend partner who can’t tell a bit from a byte.
In short, remember that a computer is a productivity-enhancement machine, not a time-machine that only goes forward. Make sure your time spent on a computer pays a positive Return-on-Invesment.
Kelvin Quee is a self-denied geek, lives in Singapore and has a keen eye on technology and how it shapes the tiny island he lives on. He is now pursuing a degree in accountancy.
