266 A Programmer’s Guide to the Mind
emotionally vulnerable. Things could turn out either very good or else very
rotten.
The result is that Teacher thought wants sequences, explanations, and
outlines which are as short and general as possible. Whenever Teacher
strategy is faced with any sort of complexity, it tries very hard to come up
with some kind of universal explanation or theory which incorporates all of
these diverse elements, and makes them simple again. The Teacher person,
as a child, tends to be somewhat of a „know-it-all.‟ He seems to have an
answer for everything, and his solutions are very simplistic. In fact, he is
emotionally driven to find a simple explanation for everything. He feels
good when he succeeds, and he feels bad when his theory falls apart or
someone else finds a hole in his answer. Pity the parent who does not
understand the workings of his young mind.A
Good Teacher emotion comes from noticing order within complexity.
A heap of items does not feel good—the complexity has no order.
A single item gives no feeling—there is order but not complexity.
A pile of items that order themselves into a structure feels good—
there is order and complexity.Teacher order can occur in many different areas. Let us look first at the
subject of visual outlines, because Teacher theories here are the easiest to
visualize. A smooth curve, for instance, produces good Teacher feelings
because it is a general shape, without any specific bumps and squiggles.
However, the best Teacher emotion occurs when a smooth curve ties
together a number of specific lines. A violin is one example of an object
whose visual outline produces a good Teacher emotion. The shape of the
violin is a smooth curve. But, within this outline, there are more specific
curves and angles. It is when a number of different curves are combined
into an overall flow that Teacher strategy feels best.B The symmetry of the
violin also adds to this Teacher feeling: The same smooth curve occurs on
both sides of the instrument.
A This problem is worse for the male Teacher child, who emphasizes
abstract thought, especially when his mother is a Mercy person.
Subconscious Mercy mode is more active in the average female Teacher
person, adding some „humanity‟ to the „inhuman‟ feelings of Teacher
thought.
B Normally, when a person looks at a violin, the feeling which he has is a
combination of Teacher and Mercy emotion. Teacher emotion will be
emphasized if the violin is backlit is such a way that only the outline can
be seen. On the other hand, if the violin is played, then that is a different
matter. Mercy strategy, for instance, is sensitive to melody.