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[Rick Moen]

On Tue, Jan 6, 2015 at 5:54 PM, jim <jim at well.com> wrote:
> an archive for sf-lug and other lugs and such        <----
>    strikes me as a great idea that might be quickly   <----
>    adopted.

No personal criticism intended in any of the following.

I keep seeing people, at LUGs and elsewhere, attempting to do good and
constructive things but without process thinking.  I'll define that
term, as it's one of my own devising.  Process thinking means working
out step by step, starting from the present situation, how to do
something, making sure you understand the mechanism and the way things
interact.  Non-process thinking is fixating on, and advocating and
organising for, a desired end-objective but assuming that the steps
required to get there will get somehow worked out.

Process thinking gets things done, and is typified by small, pilot /
prototype / proof-of-concept experiments that then are adapted or
scaled up to solve some significant problem.  Non-process thinking
most often leads to wastes of time and energy, especially where
computer technology is concerned.  Or, at best, the people who indulge
the habit of non-process thinking spend a lot of time talking about
'ideas' (vaguely imagined end-goals), but at the end of the day
nothing worthwhile happens.

One of the real strengths of open source software is that you can
prototype without expending much more than just your time and effort.
Doing so can help you spot the problematic bits and pragmatic
concerns, as well as also spotting opportunities and advantages you
otherwise might have missed.

If you think something is worth doing, prototype it.  Don't just go
around _only_ talking about how cool it might be if
someone-nobody-in-particular were to figure out a way to do it.