Getting Organized in the Google Era
When I saw that Google’s former chief information officer Douglas Merill was coming out with a book on getting organized, I pre-ordered a copy. My life, probably like yours, gets busier and busier all the time. I already know technology has a tremendous amount to offer us in terms of organizing our days and weeks and I use quite a bit of that technology. I’ve barely cracked the book, but I am already impressed by a couple of things.The book starts out Merill asking us to picture a small boy sitting at a table in his family home in Arkansas in the 1970′s. The boy’s mother, who holds two masters degrees is helping him with his multiplication tables, again. We get the picture that he isn’t getting it in spite of the fact that his father holds a doctorate in physics. Obviously he has the right genes and environment, but something isn’t working right. It turns out that the boy is Miller and that the reason he isn’t getting it is that he has dyslexia, though at the time the family didn’t know this.
After I read that passage, I knew that I would finish the book. Miller gets my brain. He gets that no two brains are exactly alike and that we all have opportunities and challenges. He gets it not only because he has been there, but also because he holds a doctorate in cognitive science. The first seventy pages of the book are dedicated to how we think, memorize and organize. I am still in this section. I thought about skipping it, but I don’t think I will. I am intrigued by little tidbits like our brains organizing and remembering facts based on stories.
If you’ve already read Getting Organized in the Google Era, I’d love to hear what you thought via the comments on this post. I’ll also update as I read it and let you know how it’s going.