I feel like i have been Joe before and still am to some degree, are you just born as bob or are there actual fundamental things one can do to be more like bob ?
The value of stan systems is...
1. Take notes (documentation) on things.
2. Refer back to those notes (duh, might come in handy later when you find yourself doing the same thing.
3. Keep these notes in the same place.
Do ONLY the above and you probably get enough benefits to be worth it without dropping out because you failed to find the one true way.
Sounds stupid, but the hours I could have saved myself by writing things down for future reference add up. I can't just simply link to documentation, because the time I save is by documenting the spaces between the documentation. Stuff the writers didn't think to write because they already knew everything. But I'm not doing this simple thing if I have already said f*ck it, I give up, because I found the sword in the stone but it didn't choose me. I can't be king, so I go back to filling out spreadsheets.*
I couldn't find if it can be trained during bringing up of a kid.
(I thought that I was on to something big, and then had quite a shock when I saw it hit the front page of HN)
To clarify: by "thinking" I mean "thoughtful analysis and introspection" - that is, if you're not being productive, or if you're not able to organize your thoughts, actually sit down and think really hard about it until you start getting a better understanding of your problems and ideas to fix them.
My personal observations of those around me seem to indicate a pattern where those who aren't productive haven't done any analysis as to why (although I know many productive people who haven't done any analysis either).