Boss Level Podcast

Today's topic is personal productivity and my guest is David Allen, author of Getting Things Done.

Getting Things Done - often referred to as GTD - is a time management method, described in a book of the same title. It helps you capture all the stuff floating around in your brain, process it into your next actions and projects and then just get them done. The method has significantly improved productivity of probably millions of people.

I read the book roughly 10 years ago and have since applied it pretty much every day. It has helped me to get stuff done and to feel less stressed about stuff.

In this episode, we walk through some of David's history and talk about how he came up with the ideas and models behind Getting Things Done method. We also cover the basics of the method itself and give some tips on how to get better at it.

If you're interested in learning more about the Getting Things Done method, I strongly urge you to find the book and read it.

Sponsor link

• Academy of philosophy: https://filosofianakatemia.fi/en

Links for the episode:

• Getting Things Done -method's website
• David's intro on gettingthingsdone.com
• David on Twitter
• Getting Things Done -book on Amazon
• GTD in 15 minutes -guide

Links for the podcast:

• Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
• iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
• Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
• Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
• Sami’s website: http://www.samihonkonen.com
• Sami’s blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com

For this episode I sat down for a chat with Tim Hwang. Tim has been labeled by Forbes magazine as the ’Busiest Man on the Internet’.

First, he started ROFLcon, which stands for Rolling On the Floor Laughing Conference. It was a conference that studied internet culture through memes.

After ROFLcon, he founded The Awesome Foundation For Arts And Sciences. The foundation’s sole aim is to promote awesomeness in the universe. It has donated over 2,5 million dollars to various projects through grants. The foundation operates through autonomous chapters that independently fund the grants and make decisions on recipients.

He then started a law firm called Robot, Robot and Hwang to study how lawyers could be automated. Currently he advises Google on the impacts of artificial intelligence on public policy.

Tim has done a lot considering he just turned 30.

At the end of the interview I asked him what his next project is going to be and his answer was not exactly the kind of answer you normally get.

Sponsor links:

• Talented: http://www.talented.fi
• Columbia Road: http://www.columbiaroad.com/bosslevel

Links for the episode:

• Tim on Twitter
• Tim's website
• xkcd
• Clippy
• Three wolf moon t-shirt
• Double rainbow
• Grumpy cat
• Ridiculously photogenic guy

Links for the podcast:

• Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
• iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
• Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
• Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
• Sami's website: http://www.samihonkonen.com
• Sami's blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com

For this episode my guest is Alf Rehn, a professor of management from the Åbo Academi University. When appointed, Alf was the youngest chair in Finland. Now after more than ten years on the job he has gained a wealth of knowledge especially on the topic of innovation. In addition to his academic endeavours Alf sits on boards of several companies, for example Veikkaus, the Finnish gambling monopoly.

Alf thinks we’re spending our innovation resources on the wrong things. We’re inventing gadgets when we should be solving poverty. In his opinion, we need better discourse on innovation. During the interview Alf also shares some of the things that he has seen that can make a company more innovative.

In addition to innovation we discuss management. I was trying to get him to dis the bureaucracy at the university, but I failed to do so. Alf is definitely not a fan of bureauaracy, but he sees plenty of benefits arising from the traditional uninnovate parts of organizations.

Sponsor link:

• Enersoft: http://www.enersoft.fi

Links for the episode:

• Alf Rehn on Twitter
• Alf's website
• Alf on How Innovation Is a Lot Like Manscaping (or, Why You Should Pay As Much Attention to an Innovation Project As You Would to Shaving Your Balls)
• Sami on why money needs to be decentralized

Links for the podcast:

• Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod
• iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043
• Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com
• Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen
• Sami's website: http://www.samihonkonen.com
• Sami's blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com

An interview with Spotify's VP of Operations, Simon Marcus. We discuss the concept of a minimum viable company, how Scrum and Kanban are a gateway drug and who should do the thinking in organizations. Regarding Spotify we cover the hierarchy in the company and how the chapters, tribes and squads model is essentially just a matrix with fancy names.

Links to the podcast:

• Website
• iTunes
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Host: Sami Honkonen

Links to stuff mentioned in the episode:

• Person: Simon Marcus
• Company: Spotify
• Person: Marc Maron
• Framework: Scrum
• Framework: Kanban
• Videos that cover chapters, tribes and squads: Spotify Engineering Culture - part 1, part 2
• Person: Daniel Ek (Spotify CEO)
• Person: Henrik Kniberg
• Person: Will Evans
• Person: Jabe Bloom
• Book: Henrik Kniberg: Lean from the Trenches
• Person: Arne Roock
• Company: Jimdo
• Person: Håkan Forss
• Person: Chris Argyris
• Company: Crisp
• Crisp DNA
• Book: Peter Thiel: Zero To One
• Book: Jack Welch: Winning
• Book: Stephen Bungay: The Art of Action
• Book: Pascal Dennis: Getting the Right Things Done

Related blog post from Sami's blog:

• How to fix 90% of problems at work

Thanks to:

• Timo Londen
• Jari Aarniala
• Ville Valtonen
• Tyyppimuunnos
• Mervi Honkonen

My guest is Rutger Bregman from Holland. He’s a historian and an author. His books Humankind and Utopia for Realists were both New York Times Bestsellers. You might also know him from a viral video of a speech he did in Davos or from an unaired, but leaked interview with Fox News that completely pissed off the host Tucker Carlson.

We discuss how how we should move to a more benevolent view of human nature and how that would change the way we run our companies.

Sponsor link:

• MinnaLearn