On Value

Tom Krueger's comment to a past post has gotten me thinking about value and MasterList Professional, so I thought I'd share my prospective both as a software developer and as a "micro-Independent Software Vendor"

In MLP, value identification and quantification is at the core of the application. I assert that one of the keys to success is spending your time on and for high-value tasks. Further, unless you have a instant way of constantly reassessing the value of your proposed actions, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, in post-industrial societies to consistently invest your time in high value tasks.

What MLP sets out to do (and I hope succeeds in large measure) is to give each user a variety of quick ways to assess the value they hope to get from the time they are about to spend.

As for the business side, I assert the best way to get sales is to pay people with value for their time. That's why I created MasterList XL, a free Excel-based "younger brother" to MLP that I plan to continue to enhance and give away. And that's why I've restarted Office Tip of the Week, because just about everyone uses Microsoft Office, and after all the years of working with it, I've learned how to find value in some of its more obscure features.

What is value? For each person, its that which aligns closest to their values and their sense of what the world should be and their spot in it. So, MLP is deliberately designed to leave it up to his or her owner to set what value is. And that's the way it should be.