The idea is that you create a framework of good habits that keeps you focused on a task at hand, and that also forms as a mental safety-net in case of failure (thus, not pushing you off the wagon). Using a habitual process, you can make incremental progress overall (keep improving the framework) and you keep adding or removing features (goals) depending on the demands from your system. This is in contrast to having a goal-based approach where your entire framework is hinging on one goal/feature.

> For example, you often hear them say that you should "follow your passion." That sounds perfectly reasonable the first time you hear it. Passion will presumably give you high energy, high resistance to rejection and high determination. Passionate people are more persuasive, too. Those are all good things, right?

Related to this is a great book by Cal Newport "So Good They Can't Ignore You" (http://www.amazon.com/Good-They-Cant-Ignore-You/dp/145550912...) where he lays the case against "follow your passion" in a very methodical way. Here is a talk he gave at Google: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwOdU02SE0w

1: http://www.amazon.com/The-Power-Habit-What-Business/dp/14000...

"Throughout my career I've had my antennae up, looking for examples of people who use systems as opposed to goals. In most cases, as far as I can tell, the people who use systems do better. The systems-driven people have found a way to look at the familiar in new and more useful ways."

He's talking about success as simply a single point in the statistical sampling that is your life. This is an extremely correct, scientific, and most importantly helpful way to look at the world and your work.

For example: Agile/Yourdon/waterfall/XP/ISO9001/whatever. Our goal is a working system on time and budget (or whatever your goals are). The strategy is, perhaps, iterative waterfall, or agile, or more likely, some hybid approach (hint: how likely is small scale scrum to work to build a new Boeing, and how likely is the ideal Boeing process likely to create a great social web app). Systems are based on a number of assumptions about your goals; assumptions that may not apply, or that may change over time. If you aren't continually testing your chosen strategy (I prefer strategy over system, but I more or less mean the same thing here) against your goals, you are likely to be anywhere from sub-optimal to completely wrong.

So I live in a world where everyone is currently chasing Agile, without questioning whether it even fits the problem, or what its weaknesses are (even if it fits, it has weaknesses, and you should be aware of it so you can mitigate them). I live in a world where people grind through business processes, without questioning whether this is taking us where we actually need to go, or whether things have changed and our goals, which inform the system, still apply. To use the example in the article, it makes no sense to search for another job if you are retiring in a year. If the externals change and system does not, you are in trouble.

>>So I live in a world where everyone is currently chasing Agile

No, Agile is only for people where incremental improvement is possible in exchange of super cheap failures. People in construction businesses, space technology, medical electronics, micro processors, aircraft industry and many others would run into expensive disasters if they choose agile.

You develop strict tests, implement it in an agile way, then only let it pass to next stage once those tests are okaying it. In fact that's how you should do agile.

In a goal-oriented system, someone might choose to lose 30 pounds as their goal, then they'll work toward that goal through exercise or diet. Upon achieving it, they'll either continue (setting another goal) or fall off the wagon (going back to previous habits and gaining the weight right back). I've known enough people who have tried to diet repeatedly--and have succeeded in their weight loss--only to fail miserably and gain the weight back within a few weeks.

In a system-oriented approach (or maybe you could call it a habit-oriented system?), you focus on building up or improving your habits so that they meet whatever goals you set. Using the example of losing weight, you'd focus on diet and exercise by making fundamental lifestyle changes to your behavior and eating habits that simply happens to produce weight loss as a byproduct. People who exploit this system by changing their habits consistently keep the weight off because their day to day behavior has fundamentally changed. To put it another way, their habits would have to be dramatically altered in order to go back to putting on the weight they lost as a consequence of this approach.

Now, what I'm at a loss on is how this might apply to businesses, software development, or the likes other than to suggest it's a matter of developing good habits. To use his restaurant example: Instead of focusing on income goals, focus on making the best food in town and serving customers quickly. On second thought, maybe there isn't anything more to it other than habits? Maybe there's no "secret?" Develop good habits and plod along until something falls into your lap as a byproduct.

That does give me some insight. To translate this to a habit-oriented system, you could improve or streamline your commit process, reorganize things to deal more readily with possible distractions (or deal with distractions in a single chunk of the day, such as the morning, to leave more time available for coding in the afternoon), and work on honing your habits. By doing so, getting certain goals done each day--and increasing the number of goals reached--would be a side effect of improved habits.

I guess I've been stumped because I'm looking at it from the wrong perspective (and I'm not especially prone to insight). Dumping goals entirely and focusing on the tools and techniques to get there seems more pertinent than establishing some baseline to work toward for a tangible reward. In some ways, it's like the football team example: If the team focuses on improving their fitness and practice habits (making progression itself a habit, such as the mile run by 5 seconds every few days), their competitiveness will improve as a consequence and become more predictable.

relativity theory (goal-oriented - macro solutions) vs quantum theory (system/process-oriented - micro solutions)

For example, the guy that was always looking for a new job... isn't that just a repeating goal?

On a personal note, I need to lose weight. I've done it before: I lost 74 lbs, but now several years later I've gained back just over 90 lbs. I reached my goal, and lost all motivation for eating healthy, and steadily gained it all back and more.

I'm trying to structure my life around doing healthier things (better food, more exercise). How can I systemize that? Or have I already? I have "goals" of walking X times per week for Y distance. Is that the wrong approach? Should it be "after having walked, walk again as soon as possible but not sooner than 1 day?"

I guess I could use an example of some systems that were not just repeating goals.

Don't go to the gym or workout or eat good just because you want to lose weight. Do it as a habit. Be motivated by the good feeling you get post workout everyday, not because you want to lose 10lbs or bench 200... Don't weight yourself, don't set a "goal". Just go. five times a week. Just keep going. Find a running club, and run because it's a good way to hang out with friends twice a week. Play a sport. Eat vegetables. But don't force them down, experiment with ways to integrate them into tasty meals. Then keep playing with recipes, and suddenly you're eating super healthy just because it's fun to try cooking some crazy plant from the store and you're making all these cool dishes.

I will consider these while I try to work out what the difference is between what Scott Adams calls a goal vs a system. I can be very pedantic, and I think that is getting in the way of understanding.

I googled "systems vs goals" and actually found another Scott Adams post on the topic, even about excercise :)

http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/systems/

I'm trying to get a more direct handle on the difference so I can better apply it generally.

It seems that when Adams says "goal" he is specifically talking about an endpoint. A destination. And that's a common definition I think.

His use of system seems to still have goals, they are just smaller and easily achieved. They also seem to be more related to triggers or starting points. For example, "go to the gym" not "workout" or "do X reps."

He also provides a relief valve in this case (not having to work out once he gets there if he doesn't feel up to it), so that the pressure of the expected follow through to "going to the gym" is relieved and thus not a deterrent.

So if I were to apply this to walking, it could be something like "put on walking shoes, exercise clothes, and go outside, everyday."

Or for better food: "Go to the store, buy some veggies I like," and maybe add on "go through prep work for cooking them." The relief valve could be that "I don't have to cook and eat this for dinner, but i do have to buy and prep."

The problem comes at the "meta" level, bargaining with ourselves whether we feel like going to the gym, so we hem and haw over putting the shorts and shoes on. Allowing this self-bargaining process to become involved is adding mostly negative emotional energy in a way that does not pay a useful dividend.

Presumably the relief valve has value in cutting short certain kinds of excuses. "Fine. If I am outside with my shoes and gear on, I do not have to go to the gym. Just getting the shoes on is easy enough, right? Once I am outside, maybe I will want to stroll around the block. But I can decide that once I am outside and ready -- no sense in dawdling now."

You need to be incredibly self conscious of approximately how many calories you're ingesting throughout the day (no, you don't have to weigh your food. Just a rough estimate). And you have to maintain this system forever, basically.

How you actually implement the system, such as specifics of what foods to eat, what form of exercise, etc., can wildly vary, but you need to always remember the fundamentals.

Just go out and walk, don't think "I have to walk because I need to lose weight", do it as an habit.

You don't think "I need to wash my teeth because I don't want them to rot", or shower every day because "I don't want to smell".

We probably could avoid washing and brushing our teeth for a day, without ill effects. But we do it every day because it's so ingrained in our daily routine that our day does not feel complete if we skip it.

It's much harder to break a rule than to break an exception, and routine is much more powerful than willpower.

Wait, how long has this been going on? Do most people really take showers every day? Most people I know (myself included) only do it when they get smelly/sweaty, which is roughly every day in the summer, every 1.5-2 days in the winter. Is this a US thing?

I guess this is one of those cultural things, and people just do it half because it's good sense and half because it's the custom.

South African here. I shower daily, no matter the season (as does everyone I know). Sometimes another quick shower just before bed on a hot day.

I just don't feel clean otherwise. Climate accounts for the seasons, but we do it in cold-ish Winters as well.

I think there's a distinction between hygiene and social/cultural 'etiquette'. I will always make sure I am very clean before meeting someone, casual or otherwise.

Yes, it's pretty broad, and it's a neverending learning process. But become a systems thinker and you'll be able to see how the world works scientifically, instead of based on false personal opinions or narrow perspectives.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Edwards_Deming

The concepts are aimed at manufacturing, but they're more generally about management and how to create quality as a culture, not simply as a product. It's brilliant, but it clashes against most American business thinking in the last few generations (all about punishment, motivation, raises; basically about tuning the individual), so it largely goes ignored. It's also why you should listen to it, given that most American businesses in the last few generations basically suck.

Ignore his hokey names and lack of bedside manner. Pay special attention to his 14 points, and 7 deadly diseases. Think about everything in terms of statistics and process. Apply everything to your own business experiences, and you'll start to see how he's entirely right, and all your assumptions and everything you thought was true about business, manufacturing, quality, and especially people (your workers, your employees) are basically false. Turn it upside-down and start fresh with real science.

Find a thing you like doing that happens to involve a lot of body motion. Ideally, find multiple things, so that if one stops for whatever reason you're still doing the others. But it can be hard to find that kind of time and energy.

Walk/cycle whenever possible. (You may need to move if you live in the car-oriented suburbs.)

Start thinking of the entire world as a gym. See a low-hanging branch of a tree? Try doing some pull-ups.

Hard is deciding every day whether you feel like going for a walk by arguing with yourself over whether you will feel better afterwards. That is effort spent with no satisfying payoff.

But the more you learn about the system (which only really works when you do it every day)the better you get at solving your problems whereas people who rely solely on out-of-the box software improve rather little.

You already have a system - you need to change it. Take a look at your eating habits.

Systems are habits

For weight loss, that's the key. Exercise will help, but the input calories is a much bigger factor.

If you are like most people I suspect you will find you snack a lot, and possibly drink softdrinks.

Monitor your calories (see the MyFitnessPal app/website) for 2 days, and I bet you'll find if you change your eating system to avoid those snacks and softdrinks you will lose weight.

The way I would describe this is that my "goal" in life to improve my everyday habits, the way I work, the way I manage priorities, how I structure my lifestyle, the broad direction in which I am taking my career, the kind of people I am meeting and attracting in my life (which is a result of my overall lifestyle, priorities etc.) etc.

You constantly tweak these things to take your life in a broad direction that you want to take it towards.

As a few concrete examples, if you are not meeting enough women in your life, or the type you want, the answer is not to go out to a bar. The answer if to change your lifestyle in a fundamental way which makes meeting women of the type you want a natural outcome.

If you are not happy with your health, fitness etc. the answer is not necessarily (in this approach) to join a gym or hire a trainer for 3 months. It is to understand what makes a healthy lifestyle, slowly change your dietary habits, figure out an exercise scheme that makes sense for you, figure out how in your current lifestyle you can get plenty of sleep etc. Basically something that would make being healthy and fit a natural outcome.

A necessary condition for this to work is that because it is such a systemic approach, the system has to be congruent with your overall lifestyle, and you have to be happy with executing the system. This is a big reason, why I feel, most dietary plans, or hobbies don't pan out enough. It is very short term goal drives and not something which is seamlessly integrated in a systemic way in your life.

These are two examples where I have applied it (with a reasonable degree of success). I am using something similar for my overall work life, but whether it has succeeded or not is something I guess I will only know in another 10 years or so :)

I hope that answers your question.

Or when you're buying stock, you might expect the stock to go up by 100 points 10% of the time and down by 3 points 90% of the time. Just because the stock lost 3 points doesn't mean you were wrong to buy it (you expect to make 7.3 points in the long run).

See also: Expected Value

Her premise is people have a "fixed" mindset or a "growth" mindset. (I'm not sure of the terms; the book isn't here with me.) The main difference is the growth mindset sees everything as a learning opportunity (like Adams talking about putting the manure in a garden and hoping the cows come back) whereas the fixed mindset sees everything as a test of ones abilities.

For instance I recently decided to read an academic paper every week. It is posed as a challenge, but if the results are good I will simply continue reading an academic paper every week and voila, a system.

I've used a similar approach for pretty much every good habit I keep. Start with a goal, then just don't stop. This has worked for everything from working out 3 times a day, to writing and programming.

Start with a goal, end up with a system.

Let me give you a tip to increase your luck.

Put some more info about you on your site.

I'm not seeing it.

If it's there it's to hard to find.

Important people might stop by and think "who is this guy and what can he do for me". There is no way to know what exactly you know or are good at. Make it easy for people to connect or bring opportunity to you.

Be more like Dan Shipper.

( see http://danshipper.com/ I don't know him but I know who he is and what he can do ..)

When I was first trying to raise money on Broadway the number of times I failed was astronomical.

Being consistent and just going out there and continuing to ask and learn from my experiences is what got me through.

I can't stress this enough: Consistent effort creates data that you can use to improve and can help you find what works.

It's been far, far more rewarding...Projects that I wanted to do a year ago seem so trivial now...I can't overstate how much of an impact making the development process easier and less of a strain on your real life can really pay off...being able to accomplish bigger goals with better results ends up being a very nice side effect

You setup daily habits and it encourages you to keep doing those habits every day.