А есть ли у нас анало�…

By the way, I just started reading Edwin Bliss’ Getting Things Done this morning. I like the 1-3 page mini-chapters that take a single topic and cover it concisely. Thanks for the recommendation!

After you write some more articles, collect everything you have written (articles, blog entries, etc) and put it in a book. Make sure the book has a good index.

Add links for buying the book to your website.

This has worked for Joel http://www.joelonsoftware.com/ and I belive it can work for you.

I like your web site and blog very much, because:

- The information/fluff ratio is very good, unlike many self-help books which contain a few good ideas and the rest is fluff. So my time is much better spent reading your site than reading self-improvement book.

- You write short articles which contain information. I can read for 10 minutes and get some useful ideas. Unlike in many self-help books.

- You reply to your readers and have honest discussion.

- You write on diverse topics. If I read a self-help book, I usually get 1 or 2 topics. If I read your site, I read on many topics, and there is a higher chance of finding an useful idea.

So, in my opinion your blog is better than most self-help books because of the issues stated above.

You could, after writing some more content, put everything into a book. The book should have a very good index, so if I have problem X, I can search for problem X and find all the articles about it in the book.

It seems like your current goal is to be a successful public speaker and produce professional personal development products. And your website is one of your tools to get people to invite you as a speaker and buy your products. Whenever you put any type of advertising on a site it seems like most of the time it makes it look a little cheaper.

I think you should be advertising your products (once you create them). How many books do you have to sell to eclipse that $40/day number that Adsense may or may not offer you? And why are you writing these articles? Is it to drive more traffic to your site to advertise other peoples products? Or is it drive more traffic to your site to show people that you and your products are high quality?

If you don’t need the money now, I would pass on the Adsense and leave it to other sites who don’t have the bigger and better goals that you have in mind.

On the other hand, it could turn out that people who visit your site become voracious consumers of personal development products (if they remember the 3% rule), follow your Adsense links and you make a killing with your Adsense income. Because of this outside chance, I’m posting anoymously so it won’t ever come back to haunt me.

Kate Lucas wrote (and Joel Spolsky cited) an interesting bit on software engineering:

> Every methodology I’ve come across has, at its kernel, a very small section labelled “do magic here”….

> …at the core of [Rational, Inc.’s software development process] is a small area where you have to use OO design talents…. if you don’t have them, it’s like having a methodology for running the 100m.

> “Step 1: write about running really fast. Step 2: Go and draw a plan of the racetrack. Step 3: go and buy really tight lycra shorts. Step 4: run really, really, really fast. Step 5: cross line first”

Contrary to what she’s saying, I think object-oriented design is mostly learned, not innate. But Rational needs more nitty-gritty in their process — and so, I think, do you.

Lemme rant on this for a bit. If you’re making software, you need to know how to maximize your code reuse, leave out inessential concepts, and ensure object interfaces are clean — not just that those are your goals, or that you’re supposed to set aside time for object-oriented design. If you’re trying to become CEO of WidgetCorp, you need to learn a lot about widgets and a lot about making money — on top of career-development skills like making a good impression over the phone and managing time.

I know from writing software that planning requires more than a method: good planners foresee the critical decisions and likely glitches, and bad plans, no matter how detailed, don’t. Similarly, reflecting on the nexus of need, talent, passion, and purpose will get you further if you’ve learned about each factor through varied experiences and self-awareness — and if you know how to hold down a job in the field you’re passionate about.

So what I’m trying to say about personal development is that it can’t survive as an isolated field. I’m not developing an abstract person; I’m developing me. I like your entries about doing lots of reading and finding models — because both steps take the focus off the methodology and shift it to the things that one person, in particular, must learn.

(http://www.fysh.org/~katie/computing/methodologies.txt, http://joelonsoftware.com/)