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Outlining doesn't hurt or help fiction. What can hurt is trying to write your stuff using someone else's approach. I was just reading some pompous article of an author explaining how one should write, because hey, it worked for him, so it must be the only way. It's not the first piece I've read from that angle.
I would agree with vydor, but I'd say it in a different way. There is a right way, it just isn't the same for everyone. Until someone lives your life in your head and weaves a worthwhile story from that, they aren't qualified to tell you how it's done.
For my part, in a lot of my longer works I often use some initial spiral outlines to help connect people and concepts (something that looks a lot like mind mapping, I dunno, maybe it is mind mapping), and I often put together lots of external character background that never gets anywhere near the text but I never use linear, formal outlines. I am finding my process by addressing the challenges that come up as I'm writing. When I do borrow technique from someone else, I borrow as little as possible to fill a known hole and see if it fits. I try to avoid fixing things that ain't broke.
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