Personal Goals

Let's look at goals in more detail. I've already introduced two types of goals personal and practical but there are also corporate and false goals. Personal goals are simple, universal and, well, personal. Paradoxically, this makes them difficult for many people to talk about, especially in the context of impersonal business.

PERSONAL GOALS

Not feel stupid

Not make mistakes

Get an adequate amount of work done

Have fun (or at least not be too bored)

Apologists, in general, are very troubled with "not feel stupid." They are proud, intelligent people, and they thrive on confronting complex situations and mastering them. Hmm, sounds a lot like high-tech, Silicon Valley entrepreneurs to me. For example, as a courtesy, after writing down Ted's new-TV story, I sent it to him (he's an accomplished, independent, high-tech entrepreneur), and he replied:

I wouldn't say I'm made to feel stupid grappling with the 40-page manual. It's more a situation of wanting to be spared the aggravation of spending time on unwanted tasks indeed, on learning things that might have to be relearned again later. (Will a power outage, for example, require reprogramming, with reference to the manual again?)

Ted is an apologist. To even say the S-word impugns his ability to master the TV set in spite of its difficulty. He'll admit to aggravation, time wasting, or needless redundancy, but not to even the appearance of stupidity, which is why I am reluctant to substitute another word. I use "stupid" precisely because it is so difficult for competent, intelligent, hard-charging, type-A, Silicon Valley software gurus to say it. As they do say, the first step to fixing the problem is admitting that one exists.

Personal goals are always true and operate to varying extents for everyone. Personal goals always take precedence over any other goals, although precisely because they are personal they are rarely discussed. When software makes users feel stupid, their self-esteem droops and their effectiveness plummets, regardless of their other goals. Any system that violates personal goals will ultimately fail, regardless of how well it achieves other goals.