The number 43

 I've happened to bump in to this number 43 a number of times recently. Wikipedia did not have much information about this mysterious number. After all, it's not mathematicians who bring all the good stories. Here are my 2 cents.

Most nerds must be familiar with number 42, as the answer for everything. The number that takes an alleged super computers years to come up with. Well, 43=42+1, doesn't it imply something? Perhaps and  answer for everything that will happen in the future.

43 = 12 (months) + 31 (days). Recently, it appeared in the Getting Things Done (or GTD) culture.  Started by David Allen, this action and time management framework or concept successfully convinced quite a number of followers.  A quick look at Wikipedia will bring out more details. In his work, David suggests to organize tasks into 43 folders, labelled with 12 months and 31 days of the month. Tasks are put onto these day folders, which in turn are put into the month folder. One would review, process, update and reorganize these folders frequently as tasks are acted upon or added.  Nowadays though, these all can be done via free or commercial software. For Mac, iGTD is the top choice. This denotionware is very well designed, as I found it's extremely to add tasks and create the infinitely long list of things that I am supposed to do (and finish some day). Strangely, it somehow makes me to review the tasks seriously and actually act on them.

The 43 things, a social network that has a substantial number of users. Basically, one lists his or her goals, from the most trivial and ridiculous to the dead serious ones. The network links people with similar goals together, so that can cheers each other on. The philosophy behind this, said in the Website, is that people get inspired by other's goals, discover new goals; and more importantly, they get focus and momentum when working towards the listed goals when connected to ones with similar interest. There is no explanation on the Website why it is named the 43 things, but not any other number. I sense a very vague connection between the purpose of this site and the iGTD concept: you working all year round (12 months a year and 31 days a month) to reach a set of goals.  Still, my biggest question with this social network is the real fundamental drive behind its success, i.e. what is accountable for that big number of users. In deed, it's already a new task on my iGTD, marked as "some day".