As an introduction, I intended to use the following which describes the lifecycle of a software solution to a problem. We will review this quickly and then go on to talk about "debugging your life" (which really lives in the code/test phase).

The generic Software Development Lifecycle - Generally this lifecycle describes how we go from a perceived need to a solution that meets that need…There are as many methodologies for building software are there are developers We essentially go from Problem->Solution.

Problem -A Problem/Need is discovered/identified Requirements -Requirements that describe what a resolution could be are Gathered and Prioritized. Constraints on the solution space are identified. Design -A Solution for meeting that need is designed/assumptions are defined/abstractions are created Code -The design is brought to life via coding Test -The coded solution is verified against the original intent (requirements, design) Integration Software lives in environments, We must integrate and test our solution there. Now the idea is embodied in a machine within a machine within the world. Maintenance
-The solution is ported to new environments and lives on. If the solution no longer meets a need, it’s resources are released back into the world.

As I mentioned, there are as many ways to develop software as there are developers. This was recognized early and a branch of knowledge (now called Software Engineering) was created. In this area of knowledge, people have tried to codify our experiences in developing software. Many methodologies have been (and are being) created, to try to make our forays into the software lifecycle more effective, more predictable, more powerful.

I believe that this can serve as a good metaphor for helping us to understand our own lifecycle better, and to create(or rediscover) tools/methods/methodologies that will make our lives better - to improve the quality of our lives.

We will come back to this model in a few minutes, let us consider ourselves:

Humans also follow a physical lifecycle They are conceived and a flurry of biological processes are started that lie largely outside of their control. Their genetic makeup begins doing what it does, creating a physical body that allows us to have this conversation tonight. Assuming that massive trauma is not experienced, these processes will go on until they slowly stop working and physical death is experienced.

Humans have a lifecycle of cognitive development, a pattern of development experienced by the majority of humans as described by our ‘ologists’ (sociologists, psychologists, etc.). Our normal abilities develop over time, moving from a very concrete view of the world (if you have ever played peek-a-boo with children - they believe their senses, when they cannot see you, you are not there) to a very abstract view of the world (as adults we regularly work with abstractions whose nature that we don’t understand, i.e.. Money, time, mathematics, language). Our modern education system of kindergarten to grade 12 attempts to create abstract thinkers of each pupil as it gradually changes(guides) how students think.(Public schooling also has played an important social and economic role in modern society that we will ignore at this stage). Although citizens develop/practice the various ways and modes of thinking for most of their school life, they are seldom taught the meta-language of thought. I will leave this point by saying that once people believe that their cognitive development is complete they stop developing new strategies, even though their learning is not yet complete.

This is the purpose for this talk tonight - "life hacking" or "mind hacking" is concerned with better understanding how things actually work and how we can tweak them to better do what we want.

As we can agree, this subject of thought and action and of perception is very large. However to narrow our discussion tonight I will only overview the first few steps and then quickly get down to our real subject "debugging our life".

From our model mentioned at the beginning of the talk - before we talk about debugging, we should mention the very important work that comes before.

Problem/Ideas We first inherit this mind space from our immediate culture. Nearly invisible in our language, we are introduced to our world and its structures but those who have created it and the richness of this world is dependant upon the time you live and the location and the people group you are born into.

For most, the individual threads that together makes up their  reality is consistent and  enough. For some the threads are frayed or missing - inconsistencies between what they know and what they have been told drives them to re-ask the question that others have already provided answers to. Like Kepler, they begin to measure their own celestial sphere of experiences - measuring and making calculations.  They ask again...
What am I? (What is my essence, abilities and capabilities, nature,) 
Who am I?  (Persona's are created to serve our nature, what have I created)
What is my society if not reality? What are the myths that lead my forebears? 
What do I define my purpose to be? (what have I selected to convert my life energy into)

Requirements Knowing your own nature and your life’s purpose, you decide how you will manifest your life. You decide what will measure your life - what do you wish to experience and how will you know if you have met your goal.

You may place yourself back within your culture, to achieve together an end with your fellow travellers.  This will lead to limitations as well as strengths.

Design How will you achieve your desires ?-So you design and plan. Again, there is a myriad of information on life design - not for tonight.

This begins our conversation tonight. You have dreamt and planned and now it is time to do and see. We must act and evaluate.

So how do we do it?

  1. Commit Yourself to your human development- to living and experiencing this life. a. This is the most critical step - you must determine that you will continue and complete steps 2,3 and 4. That which has held you back in the past is not gone. That which humbled your will before still lives inside of you, however today is the day that you will strengthen your will.
  2. Pick one thing to do a. Pick too many things and nothing gets done as you have an excuse that you did a bit of everything (and probably avoided that which you must do). So I say, pick one thing. So how do you pick? Pick the most important thing on your list of tasks. (I originally added - ‘that you are capable of’ - but since you do not know what you are truly capable of, you may as well do what is the most important). Write down on a piece of paper what you will do today - just that one thing.
  3. Do it a. Now, before you go do it, lets get out the truth. What you want to do seems hard (or you would have done it already). The you that didn’t do it yesterday is the same you that woke up today (but is different from the you who will have done this thing by tomorrow). The only difference is that you made a commitment in step #1 to do this. If you are normal, you will want to try and psyche yourself up - this probably won’t work for you (or you would have already done this thing). Ultimately, you….just…do.
  4. Evaluate the results a. On the back of the paper where you wrote down what you did, Write down what happened. How did it make you feel before you started, how did you feel when it was done. Would you do it the same way again the next time? Is there something that you learned about the process of doing the task (that was not directly related to the task itself). Should you plan to do it again so you can try to get the results that you wanted? b. Share what you learned with someone, let others learn from your experience, try to match your experience with someone else

KISS - keep it simple stupid Occam’s razor Simplify, simplify

One day task - Tasks that you can complete in the time available in one day (for some people this could be the whole day, for other 15 minutes - do not leave the task undone - if the task is too big for a day, break it up to two tasks that must be completed on consecutive days). Do just one task a day.

Front of Index Card Back of Index Card Date:
Today I commit to:

What happened? If I were to do this again, next time I would: What I learned in general... So big deal, how is this different from what you currently do... I think that the key difference is step #1 and step #4 - intention to do the difficult and Evaluating the results . My observations of myself and others is that most of our lives we are doing step #2 and step #3. We are quite good at filling the days with activities, by our doing. Most of us do not adhere to step #1. I think that we are not often committed to doing that which is hard. Thus in in Step #2, we usually pick that which is most urgent as opposed to that which is most important or that which is most amusing over that which we consider the most important. In software it is not enough that you do the right thing, it is that you do the right thing right. If your habit is to fill the time allotted to each day with the urgent, the important can be left avoided, and if the important is avoided significant psychological work can be avoided(thus picking the easy). Time passes so quickly and the work of our life is shirked. The longer we wait to do the important, the greater the inner tension and the less satisfaction the busy work can provide. My second observation, and perhaps a more important one is that the consequences of our actions are often left unexamined. We do (and most of us are doing things all the time), seldom do we take stock of what our doing is getting us. Perhaps this is because of the loss of quiet time (the modern human environment is full of everything but quiet), perhaps because we have created a pervading sense of the loss of personal power. Regardless, in order to improve we must be able to ask ourselves a la Dr. Phil \"How's that workin' for ya?\". So what am I getting at? In order to actively and predictably improve your life you must take the time to evaluate the results of your actions. If you are unable to interpret the results, you may want to compare the exposed pattern to the experience of others for the sake of comparison and adaptation. Examples for discussion : Current Result: Our idea society is small in numbers Premise: Our results are a consequence of our actions which are created by our attitudes, aptitudes and an exercise of will. Examination of root cause: What do we believe that has created this reality (attitudes) What skills do we need to develop to change this reality (aptitudes) What do we need to do today to change the course of this reality (actions) Corrective course of action to implement today: Current Result: Our environment is rapidly changing as a result of our actions. Premise: Our results are a consequence of our actions which are created by our attitudes, aptitudes and an exercise of will. Examination of root cause: What do we believe that has created this reality (attitudes) What skills do we need to develop to change this reality (aptitudes) What do we need to do today to change the course of this reality (actions) Corrective course of action to implement today: Current Result: Our personal relationships are unsatisfying. Premise: Our results are a consequence of our actions which are created by our attitudes, aptitudes and an exercise of will. Examination of root cause: What do we believe that has created this reality (attitudes) What skills do we need to develop to change this reality (aptitudes) What do we need to do today to change the course of this reality (actions) Corrective course of action to implement today: