But in general, I think it all depends on how you look at this. That is, we can make a ‘program’ for other people to follow; in which case we are considering this from the point of view of how it affects others. In this case we can only talk about generalized changes, because everyone is unique – so we can only really deal with things that affect everyone. This in my opinion is why a lot of personal-development programs don’t work for a lot of people. Although we have generic building blocks, people in general are not generic. And this maybe a part of the paradigm change you are talking about.

On the other hand, I tend to look at personal and self development in an individualized way. Not how it affects others, but how it affects me. This makes it a matter of our own individual change and allows us to get down to specifics, rather than vague generalities.

What needs to be changed? Well that is up to the individual. We just need basic guidelines for how to most effectively implement these changes.

If you want to be literal about your analogies then sure we can call it perfecting the machine. But I feel that goes back to the generalized “catch-all” idea of applying themes to all humanity, rather than focusing on ourselves as an individual. I prefer to focus on an individual learning to become aware of how they personally function rather than how everyone else functions. Those two aspects tend to be vastly different.