About

A synthesizer, not a clinician

I'm Joao, a software engineer. I am not a psychologist. I am a curious reader who thinks best in diagrams.

Over the years I've read a lot of self-help, and most of it says overlapping things in different vocabularies. As an engineer, I wanted one model I could reason with: the system, its inputs and outputs, and the places where a small change has a big effect.

This book is that model, drawn as a loop. I'm writing it first for myself, to consolidate what I've learned and to build a decision tree for the problems life throws at me. I'm publishing it as I go in case it helps you too.

The ideas come from people who did the research. See Sources for who they are and what each one contributes. Any mistakes in how they fit together are mine.