David Allen crows from the mountaintop

[Joseph Buchignani]

The king is dead. Long live the king. 

http://www.fastcompany.com/1793701/david-allen-getting-things-done

It took David Allen 25 years to develop his system. It took me 8-15 to develop Cyborganize, depending on how you're counting. 

His mass launch occurred in 2001, with the publication of "Getting Things Done". He then enjoyed 9 years of preeminence before better a solution emerged. 

The book's top Amazon review provides a good summmary of productivity history to that point:

"OK, first I have to admit I picked up the book at a local Border's where I had a copy on reserve. Having said that... I think I've tried every 'system' for organizing yourself out there. In the 80's it was Day-Timer and Day-Runner. Good calenders and address books, but not much else. 90's was Covey, and Franklin planning. Now we have 'roles and goals' which helps with long term planning but both systems were very inflexible when it came to planning your day to day stuff. I can remember Covey wanting me to plan out my entire week in advance. Nice in theory, but nowhere near reality for those of us whose jobs tend to be more 'crisis-oriented'. I've also tried Agenda, Ecco, Outlook, etc. but its hard to lug around your PC or laptop all the time. About two years ago I came across David Allen's tape seminar and I have to say its the best system I've ever found for organizing 'all' of your life. I can't say it's changed my life (I still have the same job, wife and kids and I still procrastinate too much <g>) but its certainly made all the difference in me being finally, actually organized on day-to-day basis. I'm now the only one in my office with a clean desk :)"

So we have two contradictory patterns here. 

The first is the obvious - one major productivity movement per decade. 

The second is even more obvious - the rise of computer productivity tools, reaching maturity just a bit later than David Allen's debut. (Wordpress, Org-mode and TiddlyWiki are all fairly recent, as is stable user-friendly Ubuntu.)

In the first case, we have a static trend - a new productivity movement every 10 years. And that trend is continuing uninterrupted - I'd say Tim Ferriss, Ramit Sethi and Zen to Done represent the new productivity wave. 

So the question is, does Cyborganize fit within that trend, or is it a new technology-spawned abomination? It is the first fully computer-based productivity system. So I think no, it does not fit with the previous trend, which was more a feature of human group behavior. This is the beginning of a new trend of TECHNOLOGY-driven personal productivity innovation. 

In the old trend, 25 years to develop a system was a normal lead time. These were the mature cogitations of industry thought leaders. 

In the new trend, a kid in his parents' basement can patch something together with the latest stuff that beats everybody else's model. Sort of like Dell and Apple with their dorm room and garage beginnings. That's why I was able to develop Cyborganize in only 8-15 years, depending on how you count it. 

I have no idea how these two trends are going to interact. I can't predict it. Will the technology trend subsume the decade trend? Will they cross-fertilize? Will some weird arrhythmic cycle develop? No idea. I expect cross-fertilization, which is the least predictable option. 

Also, what pace will the technology trend set? Dev times have been cut in half compared to the decade trend - does this mean that preeminence time will also be cut in half? If so, Cyborganize can expect only 5 years of preeminence before being unseated by something better. 

This is no contradiction with my statement that Cyborganize concepts will eventually make it to the Singularity or one of the immediately prior phases before becoming obsolete. GTD's concepts are embedded in Cyborganize and continue to live on, although GTD as a whole is obsolete for computer users. 

Anyway, I think it's reasonable to expect a minimum of 5 years and a maximum of 10 years of preeminence for Cyborganize. And I don't think the clock has started ticking on that yet. It's still at the "tape deck" or even earlier phase. Only once widespread dissemination has been achieved will there be there enough adoptees to make it likely someone will build a new synthesis on top of it, and also there needs to be enough time for cutting-edge productivity technology to move past my expertise zone, so I can be outflanked. 

I just hope I'm capable of recognizing and adopting the new when it arrives. Hopefully I can continue to significantly push the envelope, rather than resting on my laurels and merely elaborating and monetizing the system as David Allen has done. 

Realistically, though, do I think I can compete forever against the hungry kid in his basement who's got nothing but time to follow his passion? No chance. Hm, perhaps I should deviously employ a friendly forum to suck him in, coopt him into my organization, and thereby gain credit for his ideas. 

Then one day I can write my own Fast Company article, explaining that my system will eternally be the best. Which some kid will read, smirk, and share with his three alpha users.