Software for Self-Development:
A Work in Progress
by David S. Eggleton


Software for Self-Development is a distinct and unique category
of applications. The applications within the category provide
guidance and facilitation for selected aspects of "good
practice" (in self-development? or of ANY good practice? I
think it depends -- Yes, if the good practice will "rub off" on
the user). They support efforts of individuals who are
taking charge of their own long-term growth and development.

The guidance these applications provide demystifies such
activities as maintaining and increasing honest self-awareness
and employing effective techniques in thinking, feeling,
communicating, learning, and self-management. They facilitate
healthy and rewarding reliance on these fundamental yet
powerful activities. The best applications go further and
facilitate improved integration of these activities. This
integration parallels one of the worthy goals of
self-development effort.

These applications are functional tools. They do not establish
or require a separate training environment. They do not leave
adoption and implementation of the good practice to chance in
an indifferent or hostile work environment. Rather, once they
are installed, they are part of the work environment. Thus,
they readily and directly empower users to employ and profit
from the self-development practices that are meaningful and
promising for them. They can turn "I really should" into "I
did!" But for historical reasons, a special computing
environment may be desirable, if not necessary, for their
effective use.

Like other tools, Software for Self-Development can be used
again and again. Their use does not consume the value they
hold for the user. In fact, quite the opposite is usually
true: the more one uses them properly, the more useful and
powerful they can become. This is especially true of the
applications that elicit, store, and report information. A
meaningful, up-to-date database is itself a tool.

An application in the category of Software for Self-Development
promises one or some of the following:

- gives one new permission and "strength" to find or make
one's own way through life/the world;

- helps one know oneself;

- helps one clarify and stay focused on personal goals and
objectives;

- helps one process feelings and thoughts so one can use
them (not lose them) and/or

- enables one to more effectively manage (plan, track,
control, personal growth and development efforts;

- helps one learn and understand;

- acknowledges that many significant activities and
performances must occur away from computers, and thus
facilitates reflection upon and preparation for them.

Software for Self-Development exists today. It is developed
and published by various companies or it is developed by
personal computer users who do not publish their work. Although
I have not seen every application in the category as yet, I am
confident that users of each popular computer (IBM &
compatibles, Apple II series, Macintosh, Atari, Commodore) can
avail themselves of one or more of these applications. My
research shows that there are almost twenty products for the
IBM PC that meet several of the above criteria.

While there certainly are limits to the support a personal
computer may give a person with aspirations, it is just as
likely that the support it can give now is worthwhile and that
many of the limits will be redefined again and again by
innovative software entrepreneurs.

Software of such personal importance is very possibly what the
home "computer" market has been waiting for. And when you stop
and think about it, it is difficult to see the end of the
socio-economic, even political, implications of such software.
Thought tools that relatively few individuals have exploited in
the past to achieve personal success can now be made useful to
each person who can get near a computer.

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Author's note: Comments are invited from others interested in
software for self-development ... and you are invited to
participate in the development of a special interest group on
this subject within the Boston Computer Society. Contact
David at 20 Richardson Ave, Arlington, MA 02174.