Plan.
Balance global goals with personal goals.
Recognize change as the only constant.
Everyone has behavior-governing codes, I don't think there isn't really any way you can escape them. This is particularly the case when one is engaged in social interactions.
The WOA is meant to be completely "philosophy-agnostic" and "POV-agnostic" way of discussing, re-evaluating, and, if the motivation arises, modifying, these codes of behavior. The WOA is really more of a meta-code for than a code. The only expectation is that AM Users should be willing to participate in some self-reflection, writing, and discussion, the goal of which is to make each of us a more effective participant in AM and (if I can be quite general) in our own lives. WOA adherents are free to make their own interpretation of the discussion topics, or add new ones about areas they think need to be studied.
In addition to helping each individual work more effectively, it is my feeling that WOA participation will facilitate communication that will help Asteroid authors work more effectively together. The watchword of the WOA is explicitness. The hypothesis is that if you are clear about where you stand and where you are going, you'll be more likely to get where you want to be.
In a volunteer and/or collectively run organization like AsteroidMeta, "personal" and "professional" can blur. You aren't obliged to talk about anything private in the WOA: quite the opposite, it is a place to talk about things that you think can benefit from public discussion. Those things will differ from person to person. But we can't communicate about these things telepathically. You are of course free to apply WOA ideas to private matters in your own time and space if you wish.
It is an express goal of the WOA to be sufficiently meta-level to apply to anyone. Furthermore, there are certain organizational matters that have been made a part of the WOA, for example, the Budget. The first reason for this is that these organizational things require clear thinking and ongoing revision, which is what the WOA is about. The second reason is that budgetary matters (for example) tie into "personal" matters like motivation, time-commitment, interests, and outside sources of income. To the extent that our organizational machinations "click" with the personal-but-public goals and strategies spelled out by individual participants, we can assume that our organization is serving everyone well.
The important thing about the WOA is to describe how you operate in terms that will help others work well with you, and help you clarify to yourself your own strategies for success, and to do these things again at the level of the organization. Too much discussion like this and it would be overkill. Not enough, and we will have a much harder time getting anything done.
Please use WOA to shed some light on this dark rock we call "AsteroidMeta" and to share some your goals, strategies, and aspects of your personal growth with other AM users. --jcorneli Thu May 05 15:41:54 2005 UTC (based on a conversation with akrowne)