Mental Representation… an incredibly useful distinction and an incredibly rare capacity
I loved the book ‘Peak, the new science of expertise’, until almost the very end. Then I got angry.
Somewhere around 90% of the book I noticed that he uses an expression, a phrase, that means something to him, the author, but meant nothing to me.
Now I know how you feel when you read my articles…
The expression he used was “Mental Representation“.
Life is like being in a train: you can look out on the left side, the right side, the back, the front… but it won’t change that you are on a train that will arrive to its destination, no matter where you look.
Most of us live this way most of the time.
We do our jobs, we do our relationships, we do our projects, we do our lives this way.
Fulfilling? No. Enjoyable? It depends…
Ultimately we are plagued by a nagging sense that we are out of control, that no matter what we do won’t change anything. Some of us feel doomed. Some of
Some ten years ago I learned a valuable way of looking at making life meaningful, or living a meaningful life. The teacher suggested that we pick a horizon, a direction, and then look what’s blocking the way of getting there.
Since then I saw that even seeing the horizon is blocked… Blocked by seven boulders, lined up one behind the other, blocking your view, blocking your movement.
So, in my coaching practice, when I ask people to set a direction, and they can’t see any, I am inclined to suggest that they choose the direction: living a meaningful live, or a fulfilled life… without specifying what it is.
When Tai asks you, what is in the way of you growing, and starting to live the good life, most people have a ready answer. An answer they are sure is true. And an answer that they had seen a million times.
What no one seems to consider, that the saying “how you do anything is how you do everything” is more of a reason than you would consider.
One of them shows up an awful lot on my site: assuming to know. That is a how… falsely certain.
Falsely certain about what?
You are sure yo
This may be the most important article you read this year, this decade… because this article may inspire you to become a professional at living, instead of remaining a rank amateur… aka bumbling idiot.
You have two options. You need to choose. You need to choose the option that has the lower cost to your reproductive success if it turns out to be wrong.
Now, I suspect, that almost none of us think about cost in terms of reproductive success, but according to evolutionary psychology, you are a mere vehicle to your genes, your genes are only inte
Some days I have nothing to say. It doesn’t feel like there is anything to say that needs to be said.
Some people never have anything to say and they talk all the time. Others think that they have to first formulate it in their heads to say it, and it never comes together.
Professional thinkers, writers know that “it is hard to be silently brilliant. Lots of thoughts occur wen you open your mouth.”
Thinking is a lot like digging for gold. Someone or something has to hold the dirt, or you can’t get beneath it.
For something worth thinking, something worth saying
Everyday arrogance.
What is everyday arrogance? It is simple, and so everywhere, all the time, that it is invisible.
You see something. You hear something. And you know what it means.
That meaning that you know, and you know that you know it is everyday arrogance.
The fact that you know what is your job, how people are, what was the question, where you need to look, what is missing: without looking, is everyday arrogance. Already knowing…
Jumping to conclusions…
A few months ago I signed up to a service to create mobile apps, including a mobile app that would make it easier for cell phone users to use this site.
It was mighty expensive, but I thought that if I get just one new customer from it a month, it will pay for itself.
I signed up, and paid the $49 for a few months, but I never did anything with it.
I canceled it a few days ago.
In this article I am going to examine what is the dynamic of this phenomenon: you see something, you want something, and then you don’t do it, y
Few people are intelligent.
Intelligence is a state where you can see the sameness, where you see that life has no boundaries.
Of course it seems as if there were boundaries, but it’s an illusion… cells have walls, but it is permeable, you have skin, but it is permeable, you are a human, but you are just like everything else, built of cells, like most every living being, have genes, like every living being, and your body performs chemical miracles, every living moment.
But most importantly, you live as if you were
… when I snitched on my brother and he got beaten…
When you are young, and you don’t know you are an empath… life is very confusing.
It was confusing to me until, at around age 50, I decided to grow up. So it may be still confusing to you.
You feel being beaten when another is beaten. Very confusing. You feel their feelings, their emotions, and your own. It is often enough to push someone into schizophrenia. You are two people at the same time.
If you are not strong enough, you are gone.
Now, if your originating incident, the incident you made a big decision about yourself and