Really hope there is something like reincarnation because next time I'm getting a life coach


INTRODUCTION

Ever notice how schools teach all about the body but never mention the mind? Don’t you think everyday people need to know something about this area? I mean really, thoughts are a big part of our day.

Attention all souls: welcome to planet Earth. You’ve been equipped with body and mind to receive a wonderful experience. Leaving anatomy for later, let’s discuss the non-physical parts of our existence. Namely, how feelings work. We’ll discuss status, motivation, how we form opinions, creative thinking, deep thinking, and the common way people get manipulated.

The basics of psychology go like this: physical survival comes first, then emotions. Some call this Maslow’s hierarchy. Included in emotions are status and a primary motivator, which are often connected. The three major motives are power, pleasure, and purpose—but one is usually dominant during certain stages of life. Opinions then come from a number of sources and can be influenced by your motivator.

It’s good to understand these concepts because psychology is found everywhere. Many who get it, like advertisers and campaign managers, tap into psyches all the time with the aim of manipulating you into buying certain products or voting one way. But this tactic doesn’t work on the acutely aware.

Carmen Sandiego is about noticing life. It talks about picking up keys to make a new point. The article, Creative Thinking, extends upon this notion and Deep Thinking says it’s lots of work putting those keys together so we mostly operate on autopilot. Finally, if my mission is to brainwash you, I’ll take advantage of your natural laziness by providing simple education that appeals to your primary motivator. Then once you’re mine, I’ll use you to take over the world. But if someone is mentally aware, my insincerities get unmasked and I may only appeal to your intellectual truth, something completely different.

All in all, knowledge worthwhile.


INTRODUCTION

Ever notice how schools teach all about the body but never mention the mind? Don’t you think everyday people need to know something about this area? I mean really, thoughts are a big part of our day.

Attention all souls: welcome to planet Earth. You’ve been equipped with body and mind to receive a wonderful experience. Leaving anatomy for later, let’s discuss the non-physical parts of our existence. Namely, how feelings work. We’ll discuss status, motivation, how we form opinions, creative thinking, deep thinking, and the common way people get manipulated.

The basics of psychology go like this: physical survival comes first, then emotions. Some call this Maslow’s hierarchy. Included in emotions are status and a primary motivator, which are often connected. The three major motives are power, pleasure, and purpose—but one is usually dominant during certain stages of life. Opinions then come from a number of sources and can be influenced by your motivator.

It’s good to understand these concepts because psychology is found everywhere. Many who get it, like advertisers and campaign managers, tap into psyches all the time with the aim of manipulating you into buying certain products or voting one way. But this tactic doesn’t work on the acutely aware.

Carmen Sandiego is about noticing life. It talks about picking up keys to make a new point. The article, Creative Thinking, extends upon this notion and Deep Thinking says it’s lots of work putting those keys together so we mostly operate on autopilot. Finally, if my mission is to brainwash you, I’ll take advantage of your natural laziness by providing simple education that appeals to your primary motivator. Then once you’re mine, I’ll use you to take over the world. But if someone is mentally aware, my insincerities get unmasked and I may only appeal to your intellectual truth, something completely different.

All in all, knowledge worthwhile.

Fundamentals

Learn about the hierarchy of social status, the mechanisms of motivation and the foundation of opinions.

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Thought Processes

Explore the Carmen Sandiego theory of picking up keys and the processes of creative thinking and deep thought. 

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Bias and Emotion

Discover what qualifies people as 

experts and the psychological disposition that lies behind personal bias.

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Summary

Similar to the field of economics, psychology has also experienced a paradigm shift. Thanks to wide betterment in the standard of living, many older theories no longer apply. Early practitioners found us to be vindictive, dishonest, and shrewd. They didn’t see much good in human nature. But things changed under new circumstance. Once our dispositions became brighter, ethics along with a more generous lifestyle emerged.

As Dante said, “It’s hard to live a moral life when forced to live in evil conditions, surrounded by random violence and rank injustice.” Sure, they still had laws and religion back then but it’s a dirty world when faced with consistent poverty and ignorance.

Civilizations also needed to learn a few things about people living together. For example, when it comes to child rearing, hugging and adoring your kids is rather new. So is accepting your neighbours for what they look like. As a result, hard earned knowledge in these areas has had enormous impact. But despite all the gains, Carl Jung said it’s amazing how little we know about the mind. (Granted, that was in 1959.)

Here is your summary:

  • Status is a huge part of internal workings. It’s crazy how much we care about it. Perhaps this is because without status, we fall off Maslow’s hierarchy.

  • Power, pleasure, and purpose are popular motivations
    • Pleasure is probably harmless though all good things can lead to demise.
    • Power in a defensive sense is fine (e.g., saving enough money to quit your job) but using it in an offensive manner is vile. You wish control over another person for the sake of feeling power? How much of a loser are you? Were you abused yourself and wish to keep this pattern going? Perhaps, this sentiment stems from more barbaric times when everyone was being abused but thanks to continuous efforts toward civilizing populations, we’re making strides in this arena. Then again, everywhere isn’t like Canada.
    • Purpose today is all the rage. Along with status it’s the driving force behind propaganda. And yes, it’s great to hold purpose but remember real purpose comes with a quality component and is never self-serving.

  • How opinions get derived is interesting and they really do come from multiple sources. That’s why there are no dumb people. It’s also good to acknowledge the role emotions play in our thoughts.

  • Carmen Sandiego was cool back in the 90s and still is today. The game involved picking up clues on the way to solving a mystery. Creative Thinking talks about putting those clues together and Deep Thinking introduces the concept of your autopilot. Then you’ll see why mother drilled all those manners into your head. Good autopilots make good people.

  • 7s and 8s suggests experts disclose what they know and what they don’t before starting any conversation. We don’t need any more biologists talking about law, or lawyers instructing us in economics. It also brought forward Kahneman’s theory that the human mind suppresses uncertainty. “We’re not only convinced we know more than we do, we figure what we don’t know is unimportant.”

  • Finally, PsD added an emotional prong to how we form opinions. When someone holds strong attachments to an issue, there’s no sense trying to reason.
 
We didn’t discuss the darker side, like why people sometimes perform genocide. Jordan Peterson (along with others) talks about this in his work. And though Jordan is a real psychologist, we’ve left him for the next section.