Work the System

I’m excited about this new book I’m reading call ‘Work the System‘ by Sam Carpenter’. I read over 50 just over the weekend. One thing that I learn from ‘The Well Read Life’ by Steve Leveen and Bookography method is that if a certain book speaks to me, which it does, meaning that if a book is in sync with one’s own interest, it will take the reader past the 50 pages in a short amount of time. If one struggles to get to 50 pages, then the book is not speaking to that particular reader. This book speaks to me on several levels and it made me realize that I’ve been trying to improve certain systems in my life. One of which is a better reading habit. I saw these series of mini organization systems which I’ve research to find the right product or method or books to improve. One of the documentation process of Bookography is to write down when a book is discovered. About a week ago, I discovered Work The System (WTD) one morning as I was driving to work. I heard on OPB an interview that Christian did with Sam Carpenter. The emphasis was that Sam had reduced the work week from 100 to 2 hrs. Although, I think this is great but the deeper message and meaning is that Sam’s perspective looks at the world and work through a series of mechanical systems.

This book speaks to me because it encourages writing down and documenting the process. It has made me re-look at the Steven Covey system of Goal Setting or other paper writing down methods of goal setting which Sam calls “The Strategic Objective”.

Although, it is a book about mechanics and systems, Sam writes from the heart. He has lived through the chaos. There is the element of narrative and epiphany as our hero become changed and improved. It has ingredient for a good story.

It made me realized that I was working (and still am) the system of paper and software organization in my pursuit of Getting Things Done (GTD). It is just a system of my entire daily work. Work the System (WTS) also relates to GTD because it is based on logical and mechanical percepts. I recall the flow chart from GTD. GTD is a micro of the WTD macro. Even though, David Allen encourages the reader to ‘Trust the system’, have faith and believe in it, I re-look at GTD as a system under the umbrella of WTS. I also search my mind for what else was under this system and to my surprise, David Schnarch suggests that Marriage is a System in his book ‘Passionate Marriage‘. The two seems to contradict each other. How can a system be passionate and how can one get passionate about a system?

There are some people who will not like the underlying message. Looking around the world which functions with out guidance from human beings or a supreme being.

I’m still reading and taking notes but I thought that I put it out there for your consideration.