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2 CHAPTER ONE
creativity, heartbreak, grief, and ruin all lurk to snare us as we move forward in this
endeavor. And passion makes it all possible! Personally, I feel it’s just as important to
understand why I’m doing these things as it is to actually do them. I am old enough to
realize that I will never fully understand my motives, nor should I. If I really found out
exactly why I liked this field, the fantasy would probably be gone and I’d have to move
on to something else.
Something is deliciously evil about trying to construct robots to carry out our bid-
ding when we do not even know our own wishes and desires. Think about that. Have
you ever seen the movie Forbidden Planet? It’s a great, old science fiction movie par-
tially based on Shakespeare’s play The Tempest. I won’t give away the movie’s plot, but
suffice it to say that a bright human gains control of a robot built by an advanced civi-
lization. What ensues, as the robot carries out his new master’s “will,” is mayhem.
My point is this. Let me persuade you to stop and think first. Spend the time to ana-
lyze your motives and desires. Take the time to plan. This is not just a spiritual or psy-
chological exercise, but it has a practical application and tangible rewards covering the
spectrum from personal growth to the success of the project.
Taking this a step further, let me teach you something about the “nontechnical” art of
project management first. It’s a little known fact, but practicing a bit of project manage-
ment makes it far less likely that your robot will run amuck and blow up the planet or
that your family members will have to change their names to show their faces in public.

Project Management

Classically, a project is an endeavor to carry out some specific purpose. One English
dictionary defines it as “a planned undertaking.” We should note, for the record, that
the Ape-English dictionary at www.ac.wwu.edu/ stephan/Tarzan/tarzan.dict.html has
no entries for the words project, plan, or management. So if we are to maintain our
species’ lead over the apes, let’s elevate our project management practices.
Why does a project require management? Webster’s dictionary says a project requires
planning. Webster did, after all, successfully finish his dictionary. Then again, we know
of few people who have heeded Webster’s advice in life. So let’s look deeper than
Webster’s definition. Generally, a project has three elements: a deadline, a required out-
come, and a budget. Maybe the project has no deadline, and maybe we don’t know what
the outcome is to be yet, but the project probably has a budget; any project always has
some kind of financial limit, beyond which it will be cancelled. I’d like to make a case
for having all three elements in the project.