Comments on: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

By: Michael Randall

Michael Randall — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 17:08:39 +0000

Damn, I think I match *all* of those.

>bear with me while I let my brain leak for a bit

I love that phrase. Or how about “excuse me while my brain does a little wee on the carpet”?

By: Recently, it’s been like this… » Productivity soldier

Recently, it’s been like this… » Productivity soldier — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 17:37:03 +0000

[…] According to a short list of productivity system user profiles over at Million Monkeys Typing, I’m a Soldier. Sometimes that forces me to be a Tinker, but I have very little Tailor or Spy mentalities. (That is, until I find something that works, and then I try to make it nicer - hence, the evolution of the inbox, tickler, etc.) I detest myself when I tink for tinking sake. […]

By: CJ Bailey

CJ Bailey — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 21:20:30 +0000

Are you hiding in my closet? Have you looked into my pen case? You saw the four generations of binders and my treo didn’t you? I am a well dressed spy and depending on my lists can be a dedicated tinker from time to time. If only I can turn into a soldier and finally justify the cost of my obsession!

By: Taper Wickel

Taper Wickel — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 23:20:32 +0000

Tinker. Some aspects of spy (4-function space pens, with stylus! Fossil Wrist PDA!) , but hoo boy tinker tinker tinker. I actually went to the extent of developing Julian Day Planner calendar pages, based on the Julian day count and decimal fractions of the day, to keep myself motivated to be organized. (Here is informaton about it, though I’ve switched fonts to Blue Highway to better mesh with the DIY Planner; I’ve put up the PDF of January 2006 if people want a look at that. I find it tough to imagine anyone else actually _using_ it, though.)

By: jeff

jeff — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 19:50:11 +0000

The funny thing is that George Smiley is a spy who’s really not anything like a Spy. OK, maybe not “funny” funny, but… nevermind.

As a card carrying Tailor (I vary my fountain pen based on mood, and have a variety of inks for different circumstances) I must admit that my productivity is always suffering because I know that I should be getting more pleasure out of my system — and that a perfect system would leave me feeling so refeshed that I’d never want another. I tell myself that if it looks (or feels) good enough, I will finally stick with it.

My salvation (I hope) is embracing a minimalist aesthetic. If I can get comfortable (even excited) about cheap cardstock, them maybe I can reach the end of my journey.

By: Larry Wright

Larry Wright — Sat, 07 Jan 2006 23:02:42 +0000

Tinker. I think I should get bonus points for actually owning a “Tinker” model of Swiss army knife too…

And I’m a compulsive listmaker as well, as you can tell: http://www.approachingnormal.com/articles/2005/12/22/the-power-of-lists

Thanks for putting a name to my disorder

By: Abby

Abby — Sun, 08 Jan 2006 02:45:24 +0000

Very insightful!
I have to classify myself as primarily a Soldier… I am loyal to my productivity blogs, try everything they suggest (that I can on a Windows machine and student budget) and somehow can’t drop the idea that my One True Perfect Tool is just one Bloglines click away.
Still, there is more to it than that. There are systems that do NOT work for me that I absolutely wish would. The HipsterPDA, for example, is just so sexy but I simply cannot be satisfied with paper’s messiness.

By: David Allen

David Allen — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 01:58:25 +0000

Douglas - very keen observations!

There’s something niggling in my brain about the overlay with the archetypes of Magician, Warrior, Lover, and Sovereign…

But since you framed this as people who “take so much time tweaking their systems” it may be only a subset of those of us who have an interest…

By: Another voice to join the melee » Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

Another voice to join the melee » Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 10:28:28 +0000

[…] A million monkeys typing has an article about different classifications of obsessive productivity groupies; appropriately labeled Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. […]

By: caelyx

caelyx — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 14:20:08 +0000

I’m a tailor; hopelessly. As Larry put it: Thanks for putting a name to my disorder

By: Katina French

Katina French — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 16:42:21 +0000

LOL–I think I’m a hybrid Spy/Tailor. Bleeding-edge Adventure–with Style and Class.

I agree with the esteemed Mr. Allen about the four Archetypes connection, but I’m not familiar with the archetypes you mentioned. It reminds me very much of David Boje’ four spiritual paths: The path of Unity (Intellectual Understanding is the Highest Value), the Path of Devotion (Beauty and Ritual), the Path of Work (Git-R-Done) and the Path of Harmony (Synergy and Holistics.)

By: Milan Ilnyckyj

Milan Ilnyckyj — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 00:48:20 +0000

None of these really match me, though I am closest to the spy. I would certainly never shell out ten pounds for a presumptuous notebook.

By: Somewhere out there! » Grow your brain with by meditating

Somewhere out there! » Grow your brain with by meditating — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 13:43:43 +0000

[…] Also from but she’s a geek, a classification of productivity archetypes in an article about the Tinker, Tailor, Soldier and Spy. (Visited 1 times) […]

By: George Walkley » Organisational Types

George Walkley » Organisational Types — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 22:15:42 +0000

[…] I really enjoyed this post on organisational systems, categorising users as Tinker, Tailor, Soldier or Spy. My own take on GTD seems to have elements of Tinker, Soldier and Spy. Not a bad combination, I suppose… […]

By: Drew

Drew — Wed, 18 Jan 2006 01:25:23 +0000

A tinker? A tailor? A soldier(’s things)?

Emmm… you weren’t, by chance, listening to Tom Waits whilst writing this, were you?

I guess not. There’s no spy in that song…

By: tinkertailor

tinkertailor — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 07:25:13 +0000

ah, this reminds me of my blog

By: Teri Pittman

Teri Pittman — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 16:19:51 +0000

I’m in the “all of the above” cateory, although the Tailor side doesn’t do it for appearances. I think my biggest problem is that I’m fascinated by systems in general. I love the idea of setting up a new system to use. When I’ve finished that one, I start on another one! And when I figure it out in one operating system, I move to the next. So far, I’m still disinterested in Pocket PCs but that’s about it.

Is there a 10 step program for this yet??

By: DIY Planner

D*I*Y Planner — Mon, 08 May 2006 15:06:26 +0000

The “Official” D*I*Y Planner Development Software…

The software used to produce the D*I*Y Planner is a source of continual confusion for newcomers to the project. I get at least two emails per week from people asking for “the OpenOffice.org files” so that they can use them to create their own variati…

By: The Potential Blog

The Potential Blog — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 09:38:45 +0000

[…] While writing this I am reminded of this post I stumbled across on Douglas Johnston’s blog, A Million Monkeys Typing which outlines various types of organisers (as in those who organise). It’s a bit old (four whole months!) but still relevant. […]