Category: cognitive psychology
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Sprinting to Enlightenment
I was recently asked why I haven’t done much with the Anti-Guru blog lately. My answer was, “I think I’ve said everything… at least twice.” I’m not that interested in beating the same horse, dead or alive, over and over, repeatedly, time and time again, ad nauseum, once more. So, it’s a rare occurrence that…
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You’re not intuitive, you’re lazy
Another bit of dried grass just fractured a even-toed ungulate’s spine. I may have to punch the next person who tells me they’re “intuitive.” (Of course, if they’re really intuitive, they should be able to see it coming and avoid the blow… but I’m willing to bet there’s a contusion coming.) Why so anti-intuitive, Steven?…
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Shoot me. Shoot me now! Why? It’s beyond a secret.
Let me sum up the following post in one word: AAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! If you can’t figure out from incisive and condensed comment what I’m talking about, I’ll elaborate (but only a bit, because I’m low on oxygen from screaming at the top of my lungs for the last 5 minutes). I’ve said before that the surest…
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Semper Ube Sub Ube
From the Latin… Translation (kinda): Always Wear UnderWear Twice today someone asked me, “But if you feel confident and visualize getting what you want, don’t you believe that you will, at least, increase the probability that you’ll get it?” The shortest answer I came up with was: No. The longer version is this story: I…
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Does my cat have free will… or is that a hairball?
A famous Zen story goes like this: A monk asks the master, Joshu, “Does a dog have Buddha-nature?” Joshu answers, “Mu!” This story has become known as the Mu koan — a koan being one of those semi-meaningless statements that, by beating your answer-seeking mind against the unanswerable statement, may, eventually, after a lot of…
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You don’t deserve your rights
I’m trying an experiment on this post. I’ll suggest a concept, and you tell me what you think about it. Here we go: You do NOT deserve… anything And, you do not have ANY rights Needless to say, I think those two statements are true. Tell me what you think (and why) and, if necessary,…
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Wrong about being right
Every now and then the “check oil” light on your car’s dashboard turns red… so you add a quart of 10w-40 and go on your merry way… or your grumpy way… or whatever way you were going. Some time later, the light lights, you toss in another quart (unless you’re driving in Europe, where you…
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If you think you can, or you think you can’t… who cares what you think!
Get this image in your mind: a small, framed, slightly yellowing needlepoint, hanging near the front door of a farm house, and stitched into it, among the flowers and butterflies is the phrase “Home Sweet Home.” It’s supposed to evoke calmness and happiness and appreciation and warmth. Very Norman Rockwell. I like to use the…
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We *are* in the Matrix
What follows is a book review for a book I haven’t read yet (I just ordered it). I’m reprinting this here not only to point to what seems like a great read, but because the review itself highlights some of my all-time favorite cognitive biases and thinking errors. While neither the book nor the review…
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The Freudian Trance, part 1
Freud was known to poo-poo hypnotism, which is ironic considering the trance he has placed Western civilization under for almost 100 years. Here’s an example: We love good stories. It’s like we’re wired to tell them, to hear them, to make them up. The earliest cave paintings seem to be stories of the hunt. We…
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Shave and a haircut, two…
How many of you automatically added “bits” to the end of the title of this post? There’s a great scene in a Steve Martin movie: We’re outside his hotel door and hear him practicing the tuba. A woman walks to the door. He plays the tune for “Shave and a haircut, two…” and the woman…