Who can tell me sth about YOUR dream?

[SteveDallas]

Ya gotta chase that dream, buster!!!

[xoxoxoBruce]

But chasing makes you thirstier and compounds the problem.

[DanaC]

"HOWEVER, I do hope that when I switch my medical team in Novemeber, that they will provide better care for me, and then I can get back to making new plans. And that's all I can say for right now."

Good luck with that Lady Syc. Let us know how it works out.

[Catwoman]

It is very difficult for me to work out what I want from the future knowing that the future doesn't exist. Sitting here trying to think of my goals and dreams, I come slightly unstuck as every dream relies on the future. I dream of now being different, but now will never be different to what it is.

Lady Syc hit the nail - dreams of accomplishment and acquisition rarely satisfy. Of course, some things take time to complete, like Mari's writing and Dana's teaching. As long as the process or journey toward this dream is also your dream. If you're writing in pursuit of money or critical acclaim then writing isn't your dream, self-definition is. If it is creation that flows through you via the particular channel of words, that is the right reason.

I got a little caught up in this dream-making some years ago. Attracted by the glamour, money and fast-moving lifestyle, I set my heart on an advertising career. I liked the idea of sitting around in a studio bouncing ideas around a table, of winning flash new clients to the pleasure of my hard-to-please boss, getting promoted at a lightning rate and earning more in a year than both my parents had in their lifetime. The reality of course is quite different. The 'glamour' of fast cars and top restaurants is fleeting and unsatisfying, and in any case reserved predominantly for those at the top of the profession. The 'bouncing round ideas' dream of unrelenting creativity is day after day surpassed by the uninspirational reality of deadlines and client-driven nightmares. It doesn't matter how good your idea is. Chances are it won't get heard because the boss didn't come up with it and even if it is it will be picked and battered to pieces by a client who doesn't want to spend money and especially does not want to change. Dreams of fast promotions and euphoric bosses flatten in the face of a plummeting economic climate, always forcing me to remember that I will never be as important as the next FTSE fluctuation. And the money goes on the drinks and coke and Guardian subscription you need to keep up with your less talented but more motivated peers.

All I am saying is that dreams are dreams and life is something very different. Make sure you're dreaming of reality otherwise you'll never wake up. Make your life your own dream, don't chase other people's.

Saying that, I hope everyone here finds the happiness they are looking for, and at the very least, if you insist on having dreams, that they don't turn into nightmares.

I agree, Cat. Life is about the journey, not the destination. In my case I write for the sheer love of it. There are many days when my creative spirit seems like a vast stretch of the Sahara desert, and all I feel is the frustration of my words evaporating of all meaning as they hit that dry desert sand. But then there are those moments when words pour onto the page and I can't type fast enough to keep up, and the whole endeavor becomes more than worthwhile. Like any creative person, I'd love to discover that what I do resonates with others. Since I can't seem to fit into anywhere in the regular world any more, maybe my writing can become the way I one day earn my living. Fame? Fortune? Those are not what I seek. If I recieved a fortune, I'd give most of it away. If I became famous, I would hide.

[Cyber Wolf]

Originally Posted by marichiko

If I became famous, I would hide.

Literary fame is the best kind of fame. Everyone knows you but not nearly as many will know what you look like, even if you have your picture printed on the dustjacket of your latest hardback. So you can still go to the mall or to the movies or get yourself into interesting situations and not be bothered much with people yelling "Hey!! It's ______!!!" If I am to be famous, that's the kind of fame I want. Of course, if someone's an attention whore, that won't work so well.

[smoothmoniker]

There are two very different types of grammys. The "rock star" grammys for best performer, rock song, yada yada yada are voted on by a stack of people who shouldn't be making any sort of decision about those things. I'd rather have 10 platinum records than one "Artist" grammy.

The technical grammys are a whole different animal. They are voted on by an exclusive group of people who are leaders within that field. The best analogy to winning a technical grammy would be Bret Farve, Joe Montana, John Elway, and Dan Marino all getting together and voting you "Best Quarterback". It's peer recognition of the highest form.

-sm

[Bullitt]

My dream? To live a full, happy life on the Southern California coast (back to my hometown) in a dinky house on/near the beach and not worry about having the newest, fanciest gizmos and crap. I would be more than content to be a single father and go surfing w/ my boy everyday of the week. Just me, him, and the waves; Its all I could ever ask for.
And if i can find a trustworthy partner (hasn't been successful AT ALL), she could tag along too. I've had my heart ripped out so many times i've all but given up on finding someone who I would like to grow old with.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

A friend of mine has patented a method which increases productivity and lowers errors in developing large systems. I am working with him to develop it, and my dream is that it will succeed and make the entire world more productive and better operational, effectively ending scarcity, changing the way all systems are programmed, and making me personally fucking filthy rich. We may know by the end of the year. Wish me luck.

Originally Posted by jaguar

I'm getting interested UT, can you elaborate at all?

Originally Posted by Undertoad

Sure Jag, I could talk about this all day! It's wild!

Basically, what happens when people set out to develop a complicated piece of software? Or even - something very complicated period, like an airport? They sit down and write specifications, sometimes in English with additional diagrams to map things out here and there. They may have a few tools like data flow diagrams and other kinds of flowcharts. They give all that to the programmer/developer/whatever to implement it, and since the specs suck horribly, the program/system/whatever doesn't work the way it was intended and/or doesn't work at all.

Some massive percentage of IT projects fail completely. Not just go over budget, not just go late... some major design decision that is critical to its operation is made incorrectly, or some connection is forgotten that can't simply be patched up without so much major rework that it's not worth completing.

My friend's idea ends all that. By placing certain specific logical constraints on how something is described, he's worked out how to avoid ANY missed connections, ANY missed information. And a system described in this way has special properties that make programming complicated systems almost *trivial*.

What my friend has developed is a new way of thinking about data design and process design. It expresses itself in flowchart form. It is utterly simple and yet utterly perfect in many different ways... ways you realize only when looking at it for days on end. It may in fact change *everything*! Everybody could develop this way. It could very well change how databases operate and even how most programming is done. We just don't know yet!!! It has to be pitched and licenses successfully sold to consulting houses, to give it the boost it needs so that we can continue to develop it, teach it, sell it.

What I wrote on the website:

---
The Business Architecture Method is a graphical business modeling tool.

It's a tool -- to document systems, processes, business rules... really, whatever you can think of. It kinda looks like a flowchart, but simpler.

Its basic, yet completely logical approach enforces how a system is documented. This, in turn, leads to huge advantages. The time to develop systems is reduced. An entire business can be modeled... and clarified to any detail. And its diagrams can be understood by just about anyone.

It creates new economies of scale. It details the scope of any system or project. It perfectly documents business processes. It produces ideal specifications to programmers. Anyone can be taught to read it in two minutes; anyone can be taught to write it in two days.

Its remarkable approach is U.S. Patent No. 5,418,942, 5,564,119, and 5,960,437.

Originally Posted by jaguar

2 questions:
Can we get a concrete example?
Looking for vulture capital?

Originally Posted by Undertoad

A concrete example is difficult right now only because so little has been officially published. And it requires the explanation in order to see the big picture. I could show a piece of it but you'd only say "what's the big deal?" because it takes two days of explanation to really get into why it works so well. You learn to read it, then you learn to write it, then you try putting it together yourself, then a little light comes on and bing, you realize how much better this is.

The guy is pretty resolute about not having investors. He can't see an up side, if the idea works well it will quickly become viral, he thinks. He is the sort who demands total control. Quirky, as one would need to be to think about data for long enough to come up with this.

I disagree with his approach; I think it needs to be marketed, and it would benefit from a load of money to kick it off. Marketed to the right people, but still.

Something I read somewhere else in the Cellar made this thread bubble up from the recesses of my mind.

UT, what ever happened to your friend's invention? Did he have any success with anyone over the last couple years?

[Cloud]

I would like to enroll in and complete a Masters Degree in Liberal Arts through Excelsior College

[yesman065]

I would like to be employed and be amply compensated in a position where I can actually use my best assets to make other peoples lives better and feel like I am making the world, or at least my small part of it, a better place.

[Flint]

Originally Posted by glatt

Something I read somewhere else in the Cellar made this thread bubble up from the recesses of my mind.

UT, what ever happened to your friend's invention? Did he have any success with anyone over the last couple years?

Hey, wow. I missed this the first time around. Fascinating. Am I understanding correctly that this system is designed such that new information is routed through a error-checking process before it can be assimilated? If so, that's exactly how my brain works. Did your friend diagram his brain?

Did he invent Project Management before Project Management was cool?

[Undertoad]

No, sadly.

There has arisen an entire field called "business architecture" and he has talked with a lot of the top people in the field, but they can't figure out exactly what to do with him, because he's talking on a different level than they are. Sorta like going to a welding shop and talking about the properties of particle physics in metals.

[Undertoad]

It's not really an error-checking process, but a flowchart (kinda) of describing things (and processes) wherein everything is broken down into its lowest-level component parts.

[Flint]

It's not really an error-checking process...

I know, but what I mean is that it functions like one... essentially it won't let you make an error, because of the way the information is organized:

By placing certain specific logical constraints on how something is described, he's worked out how to avoid ANY missed connections, ANY missed information.