Our struggle to put first things first can be characterized by the contrast between two powerful tools that direct us: the clock and the compass. The clock represents our commitments, appointments, schedules, goals, activities — what we do with, and how we manage our time. The compass represents our vision, values, principles, mission, conscience, direction — what we feel is important and how we lead our lives. In an effort to close the gap between the clock and the compass in our lives, many of us turn to the field of ‘time management.

If you’re tired of hearing about Lean Startups I recommend giving Fred’s post a quick read. It addresses most of the criticisms you may have heard. My only negative observation is that “being lean” is an old idea that Eric Ries has done a great job of explaining anew. When I led search on the Yahoo home page we were completely data driven. I worked with a team of great designers and engineers, and we came up with many cool (and many lame) ideas for how to improve the visibility and usefulness of search.