View Full Version : Slightly OT: Lifehack Defined?
12hourhalfday
08-19-2005, 01:09 AM
While going thorugh a lot of the GTD sites and blogs around the net I come across the term LifeHack quite a bit. What exactly is a lifehack? Is there a clear definition anywhere on the net? It was not listed in wikipedia.
TesTeq
08-19-2005, 01:55 AM
I found the lifehack definition at http://www.wynia.org/wordpress/?p=160.
You can find examples of lifehacks at http://www.lifehack.org/.
emuelle1
08-19-2005, 03:50 AM
It's something that catching on among computer people who are into productivity. A hack is a way for you to modify a program. For the sake of this discussion, we'll assume pure motives and say that it's like writing a macro to make, say, Microsoft Outlook perform in a way that is customizable to you. A lifehack is just a hack that you apply to the circumstances of your life to cause things to change, often to make them easier for you. As it catches on, I'm sure a formal definition will be drafted and agreed upon.
gnugrep
08-19-2005, 10:37 AM
In computers a hack is a quick and dirty way to get something done. It generally has a negative connotation. It usually isn't the "proper" way to do it, but just something to get the program working.
TesTeq
08-19-2005, 11:48 AM
In computers a hack is a quick and dirty way to get something done. It generally has a negative connotation. It usually isn't the "proper" way to do it, but just something to get the program working.
But isn't it the main goal of programmer to get the program working?
In my opinion the whole GTD methodology is a lifehack because it uses some real features of our brain - not the theoretical model of project management.
The main feature used in GTD is the ability to work faster and more productively when you are focused on the physical, immediately doable actions (when you are in the zone as Jason describes it). So GTD consist of two different modes of operation:
"dumb" execution - for example collecting or doing;
"idle" thinking - for example processing or weekly reviewing.
Do not think too much when you are in the execution mode and do not (physically) do too much when you are in the thinking mode (record the results of thinking only).
fossicker
08-19-2005, 02:11 PM
In computers a hack is a quick and dirty way to get something done. It generally has a negative connotation. It usually isn't the "proper" way to do it, but just something to get the program working.
Hack means so much more than that. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hack_(technology_slang)
I think lifehack fits more into the "clever solution to a problem" meaning of hack.