Merlin Mann,

I really dug your show, man. Your interview with Chris Wetherell was great. I particularly enjoyed how the two of you parsed the perfectionist's dilemma of wanting to have the best research at one's fingertips before engaging in a thread but also actually wanting to be productive. This also applies in general--it is almost always better just to get something done (or just to reply) rather than have something be perfect (or to have prepared every possible resource before starting a project). Reminds me of what some friends of mine used to call "writer's vanity" where the would-be serious writer who does nothing but procrastinate (like myself) is able to keep a lofty notion of himself intact by not writing. Actually writing would force you to know the reality of what you're like on the printed (written) page.

I work on the East Coast at a huge internet company and I'm just beginning to get my proverbial sh*t to gether. Your sites are great. I dig the hPDA and other, relevant, intelligent ways of surviving the "information rat race". Jeffrey Veen's simple, Google-issue engineering notebook, things like that. Where would you recommend someone like me start (I who most recently lived in a small rural area for years and am only now slowly returning to concrete civilization) These techniques remind me of things I used to do in grade school intuitively (when my OCD/creative tendencies had better outlets) but forgot about when I entered the corporate game. Basically, thank you for your work.