Dewey

Not the one related to Donald Duck :-)

I'm sitting in the library as I write this, thinking about the Dewey Decimal System. All those books lined up in organized rows, in an easy-to-find and easy-to-maintain manner. It continues to serve libraries 133 years after its introduction, despite all the changes in the world since 1876.

Ease of use, performance, maintainability - these are hallmarks of software design too. What would happen if we took these same principles and applied them to attitudes?

• Ease of use: attracting (and keeping) what you want in your life.


• Performance: how fast those things you want manifest themselves.


• Maintainability: changing of goals mid-stream.
  

Whenever there's an opportunity in your life, something you feel isn't there yet and you're impatient for it, ask yourself what design changes you can make to facilitate it. Ask yourself how you can make your mind support you like the Dewey Decimal System has supported libraries so well.

"Soft"ware

My career and hobby is software development. I often think of it as the process of shaping electricity to meet a need, whcih probably sounds weird. I've been called worse :-).

The end result of this process is that a device (a computer, a car, a toaster even) gets "told" what to do. Some call it programming, or coding, and as you imagine there's a wealth of information on the topic. If you're interested in delving deeper I recommend you start with the Joel on Software blog, or you can visit the IT wiki and follow the links.

The software development process is similar to what we do as we carry on our day and strive for improving our lives. Your brain is all about moving electricity around - neural patterns strengthen (and weaken) according to your thoughts and practiced motion. It is the "soft"ware between your ears (and no, I'm not calling you "soft between the ears" ). Here, the device is your life.

So today, for fun, think about how you're shaping that "soft"ware. Each moment brings a choice, a different way to program your life. What will you choose?