The Exocortex

There is a fabulous book that is part of the Pragmatic Programmer bookshelf:  "Pragmatic Thinking & Learning:  How to refactor your wetware".  From this book, I have lifted the term "Exocortex"  (Please don't sue me Mr. Hunt, I have bought several of your company's books! (and I don't have any money)).

The exocortex is your external memory.  All the "open loops" (in GTD parlance) that are clogging up your cogs of cognition are thoughts, ideas, to-do's and worries, which frequently pop up in your consciousness from seemingly nowhere, belong on your exocortex.  And, once these open loops have left you riddled with anxiety,  they sink back down into the abyss to be forgotten until the next most inopportune time to arise.  Encoding this information somewhere outside of your brain helps to unclog yourself, become more productive and also make sure you are working on  things that are valuable to you instead of always chasing your tail trying to put out fires.  Thats the idea anyway, hopefully it works.

This blog is going to serve as part of my exocortex, so there is going to be a gaggle of seemingly random posts on here.  Its mainly going to consist of ideas that pop into my head, and also technical hurdles that I overcome when working with the tools I enjoy working with.  I am guessing there is going to be of Java, Ruby, iPhone, and automated testing related posts here.