But that would also be anecdotal, not evidence. As our testers keep telling our developers, "it works on my machine" is not an acceptable investigation into the problem.

Also, that presumes that what I am doing is actually working, which is a matter that could easily be debated.

If I were to personalize a 12-step into something workable for me:

  1. Admit that your enemy is yourself--the problems you can solve come from you.
  2. Realize that no one other than you can save you from yourself.
  4. Analyze those parts of yourself that war against each other.  Reconcile them.
  8. Explicitly list the undesirable side effects of your behavior.
  9. Apologize to others where necessary.  Forgive yourself.  Pledge to do better.
  10. Think about consequences before acting.  Be one unified self in thought and action.

From my perspective, several of the 12 steps involve intentionally fragmenting one's personality even further beyond those that must already exist in order to perform self-destructive acts. The "God" character is you, pretending to be someone that cares about you, perhaps with a parental figure pasted over it as a facade. Other people are then able to coach you and give direction on how to play that character, which may not necessarily benefit you.

My problem with this ultimately lies in the fact that I have a personality fragment that delights in positing conspiracy theories and unraveling deceptions, who just immediately pokes holes in all attempts at self-deception, even when it is for the purpose of self-improvement. Since religious self-deception is an integral and indivisible part of every 12-step, that rules out 5 of the steps altogether, and there's no particular reason to proselytize half of something, so that rules out the 12th, too.