The Truth About GTD Software Tools

Matt_M said:
Excellent reply. I laughed so hard at this. I just love a good Jerry Maguire reference! Remember to yell it, say it with feeling :)
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Sorry, but what's so brilliant about this answer?
From what I see, these are questions that should be asked, but that even David Allen isn't asking, and that should be implemented.
Seriously?

If such a client came to my company and ordered software, we would say very politely and firmly: First, consider your requirements and then come back to us.
 
Y_Lherieau said:
Indeed a solid starting point would be a proper list of CTQs, for example a simple table describing —> Required functionalities, to achieve what?, in which part of the GTD flow.
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Exactly. And then we can talk about specifics. But this is just talk for the sake of talk; it's impossible because David Allen said it. Dogma. Period.
 
I suppose this is where expertise from both worlds is really needed—GTD practitioners and coders—so that a proper translation can take place. In my experience, these two worlds often struggle to understand one another. Practitioners frequently shift the goal posts, making their needs unclear, while coders often have difficulty extrapolating what ‘good’ should actually look like. What’s really required is a translator—someone who understands the coding world well enough, but truly masters GTD, serving as the orchestrator in the middle.
 
Tom_Hagen said:
Sorry, but what's so brilliant about this answer?
From what I see, these are questions that should be asked, but that even David Allen isn't asking, and that should be implemented.
Seriously?

If such a client came to my company and ordered software, we would say very politely and firmly: First, consider your requirements and then come back to us.
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@Tom_Hagen

With all due respect, what precisely do you mean in regards to 'requirements' in 'consider your requirements' when asking:

"First, consider your requirements" ?

'Requirements' in regards to what ?

Thank you very much
 
Interesting discussion, Everyone!

Software developer:
Needs clear and specific parameters to understand the operational results to be achieved by the code to be written.

Software user:
Longs for a wild and wonderful GTD solution that works well to do whatever might be needed at the moment.

Liaison:* *with acknowledgements to @Y_Lherieau and @gtd solo-studente
Needs cooperation, good will, and discussion between parties in order to communicate and translate into reality the operational expectations, demands, recommendations, wishes, indications, directives, desires, suggestions, and postulates regarding this amazing GTD software.

Warmly, ;)

Emily
 
DavidAllen said:
To all of you involved in this thread--I just say "show me the money." If I've been so wrong, in simply describing my own thought processes for dealing with what has my attention, and suggesting the supporting questions I often should (and don't) ask have not been built into any software yet, howcum there ain't one out there yet? Would love to hear your answers to that.
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I got $17.37 and an old Bazooka Joe bubblegum wrapper. What kind of GTD solution will that buy me?
 
DavidAllen said:
in simply describing my own thought processes for dealing with what has my attention, and suggesting the supporting questions I often should (and don't) ask have not been built into any software yet
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I like the idea of having supporting questions mapped to the place in the process where they are helpful.

Is that somewhere in the document describing the characteristics of the software?

I would like to adapt it for use manually (i.e. put the questions where I will see them when doing that process). I've been building this over time in various ways (e.g. there is a sticker on my weekly review sheet that says NPM used on significant projects?).

The comprehensive list of this mapping would be a great help. And maybe I'm too lazy to search this thread or the software spec video/documents to find it. :)
Clayton.

Automation is easy. Easily used automation is hard. And no, I'm not going to train your LLM by restating my ask.
 
Mrs-Polifax said:
Interesting discussion, Everyone!

Software developer:
Needs clear and specific parameters to understand the operational results to be achieved by the code to be written.

Software user:
Longs for a wild and wonderful GTD solution that works well to do whatever might be needed at the moment.

Liaison:* *with acknowledgements to @Y_Lherieau and @gtd solo-studente
Needs cooperation, good will, and discussion between parties in order to communicate and translate into reality the operational expectations, demands, recommendations, wishes, indications, directives, desires, suggestions, and postulates regarding this amazing GTD software.

Warmly, ;)

Emily
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@Mrs-Polifax

Indeed

Undoubtedly without guarantees, respectful maturity through goodwill seems to at least facilitate the opportunity for appropriate liaison cooperation between parties for healthy and productive discussion(s) ?

In any event(s), like Mind Like Water . . . when life throws lemons; make lemonade ?

Meanwhile, perhaps it is also good to always remind oneself what Gloria Vanderbilt so elegantly expressed[?]:
Be kind to everyone, you never know what they might be going through

As you see GTD fit. . . .
 
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I haven't read the entirety of this thread (which frankly went off the rails a while back), so I apologize if I'm repeating things that have already been posted. But it's public information that the second time DA tried to get this off the ground he partnered with Charles Simonyi (click the link to get a look at Simonyi's pedigree). I find it hard to believe Allen and Simonyi failed to ask the right questions or do the right things to assess the market. Not their first rodeo, you know?

DA is a human being and like the rest of us probably doesn't respond well to the kind of rudeness (and worse) on the part of some forum members in this thread. Something like "Hi, @DavidAllen, I'm having trouble understanding how you arrived at the conclusion that the market wouldn't support this. Would you care to elaborate?" would probably have gone over a lot better, and resulted in a more productive discussion.

As for a particular poster's insistence that anyone who isn't on his side is a DA sycophant, we've seen this kind of behavior before. I've learned the best way to deal with such attention-seeking behavior is -- don't. I don't owe anyone my attention. Neither does anyone else.
 
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