Dear Wrapped and Confused:

Your current job evidently sucks, and you should probably let it go forever - but don't feel inadequate, or desperate, or anything at all. A job where the bosses don't respect you enough to give you the space you need to be yourself is evidently a job for a machine, not for a human being.

Cary and several of the letters have given you some excellent advice. *Integrate* all of that with your own ideas and you will have a pretty good plan to handle your situation. How do you do this?

Check out a powerful generic aid to problem solving and decision making called the 'One Page Management System' (OPMS) to help you do the needed integration. You will need, first, to articulate a good Mission, say, something along the following lines: "To get myself a truly satisfying job".

Once you have chosen an appropriate Mission, the OPMS will ask you some 'trigger questions, along the following lines:

-- "What, in your opinion, are the THINGS TO DO, are the things you need to do to accomplish your Mission?"

-- "What, in your opinion, are the BARRIERS/DIFFICULTIES/ THREATS that may hinder/prevent you from accomplishing your Mission?"

-- "What, in your opinion, are the STRENGTHS (available/ required) that could help accomplish your Mission?"

-- "What, in your opinion, are the OPPORTUNITIES available that could help accomplish your Mission?"

-- "What, in your opinion, are the PREPARATION REQUIRED to actually avail the OPPORTUNITIES that come your way to help you accomplish your Mission?"

-- "What, in your opinion, are the WEAKNESSES that may hinder/prevent you from accomplishing your Mission?"

and, in general,

-- "What, in your opinion, are the factors that need to be taken into consideration while working to accomplish your Mission?"

You will need to spend a little time each day (say, from 5 minutes to 1/2 hour MAX), recording your daily thoughts about your Mission in response to the above trigger questions. These will be the 'elements' that you will build into your 'system to help you accomplish your Mission'.

From time to time, you will need to create models that reflect your current perceptions about how the various elements may "contribute to" (or hinder or prevent) accomplishment of your Mission. The modeling tools are based on the seminal contributions to systems science of Professor John N. Warfield - more information about Warfield and his work is available from http://www.jnwarfield.com and also from the library of George Mason University (http://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaead/published/gmu/vifgm00008.tp).

The OPMS is a process that enables the sophisticated tools of Warfield system science to be easily applied to any Mission by anyone at any level, so long as the user is *reasonably regular* in doing his/her 5 minutes to half-hour per day (or say at least three to four times a week, if daily is not possible) of reflecting on and writing elements about the Mission. It does take some self-discipline to accomplish this - but a good number of people have successfully done this!

In just two months or less, you will have a truly effective Action Plan (along with all needed sub-systems) that will help you accomplish your Mission. There's a very small amount of learning involved, along with a fair amount of 'unlearning' to create an OPMS for any Mission.

How to do the required modeling? I have the prototype OPMS software ready for use to help you do that - it's entirely free; even when my OPMS software is ready for full-scale marketing there will always be a highly usable version available for free use by anyone who is interested. The software is currently not quite 'finished' in a marketing sense, but it is very simple, intuitive and easy to use - and both concept and software has won high commendations in over 200 workshops conducted for individuals and for organizations ranging from small to pretty large. It's available to free download from my YahooGroup "Towards Democracy" - and I offer some (free, but limited) guidance to users on framing appropriate Missions; using the software; generating appropriate realistic elements; interpreting models constructed; "what to do next" at various stages, etc, etc. No fees or charges - but please do note that the guidance I can currently offer via emails over the Internet is necessarily limited. In due course, I hope to have a really good interactive website up to help people put the system to work on their own current issues of interest.

Write to me at gs (underscore) chandy (at) yahoo (dot) com for any clarifications or further information required.

-- GSC

NOT Lynndie England, Sabrina Harmon, and others of that level. Not that they are 'blameless', but they certainly do not 'own' these monstrous crimes.

GW Bush and his criminal Gang, that's who owns them!

And, till US citizens get their act together and put these criminals in jail for their crimes, well, the whole US nation must 'own these crimes'!

--- GSC

Ever heard of Vampires?

-- GSC

...drive a stake through their diseased hearts!

Seriously: just get out of it - fast.

GSC

What an excellent review of what is undoubtedly a marvelous book! Thank you, Ms Zacharek. I can't wait to read Suze Rotolo's memoir: "A Freewheelin Time".

--- GSC

"...if Bob Dylan were alive today..."

???

Bob Dylan IS very much alive today!!!

Do yourself the ENORMOUS favour of becoming a little less ignorant about the world you are living in.

-- GSC