The famous Nick Douglas (who isn't this famous Nick Douglas, nor that famous Nick Douglas (and while I'm laying on distraction upon distraction, I'll just note that Tom O'Neil has a different view of that Nick Douglas's death and any culpability the Hollywood Foreign Press Association might have)) is producing a daily online video show called Look Shiny.
Much of the reporting on the show has noted the influence of the show with zefrank by Ze Frank.
This isn't a bad thing, per se, of course. It's not as if the stand up or piece to camera is a new technique. Anyway originality is over-rated. If I was only going to be distracted by originality, I'd probably never get distracted at all. I'd be getting real work done all the time, and then where would I be?
Oh, and speaking of distraction and not getting work done: another in the 'acerbic commentary from some guy alone in front of a camera without professional lighting' genre worth missing a few deadlines for is Nate Burr aka Blunty3000.
Blunty isn't Australian is as good a place as any to start but the one that set me off on a multi-hour meander away from useful effort was his MeatSpace Pilot. It isn't in the one-guy-with-a-camera genre. It's rather nifty stop-motion animation with lego. It's got the required amount of ascerbic commentary, nonetheless.
Getting back to the point (or the thing vaguely resembling a point). Look Shiny is worth letting at least one important deadline passing you by. And it's worth missing that life-changing deadline because of his 2007/03/02 show: Not Getting Things Done.
This episode not only outlines a programme for ensuring distraction rules your life but goes one step further than Ze Frank on the same subject. Where Ze Frank offers only practical tips, Douglas has a full-blown system, almost guaranteed to ensure you have both a full time sense of impending doom and an overwhelming sense of having too much else to care about to face said doom effectively.
So much more interesting and distracting than actual attempts to explain procrastination.
Thanks for linking to my article about Nick’s show. I don’t claim to be original in thought, it was written after seeing a single show (the preview show at that).
I have since commented to Nick a few times that the League of Awesomeness certainly has room for him, as he clearly is following in the footsteps. And as I am sure has crossed his mind, with Ze exiting stage left this month, there may be an opening for those Sportsracers looking to feed their craving
I am not saying he’s a calculated genius, I’m just sayin…
Again thanks for the writeup and keep reading, I have covered quite a few distractions lately, like my ongoing Line Rider series, my Guess the Google game and the ever popular Stick Arena.