Understanding Me 287However, notice that in all of these situations I am using the same
mental equipment—I am thinking. For example, I am using Perceiver
thought to work with facts about math, to remember definitions of French
words, to compare prices in economics, to analyze malfunctions in the car,
to work with musical chords while playing the piano, and to compute
trajectories while hitting the ball. In all of these situations, Perceiver
thought has to sort through a pile of Mercy experiences in order to figure
out what is solid. That is what I mean when I say that the mind is fractal: I
am using the very same strategy—often at different levels of complexity—
to carry out these various quite diverse tasks. Everything I do, in fact, is
carried out by one of only seven different strategies.
Therefore, I suggest that it would be more effective for me to approach
each individual situation as a specific aspect of the general task of
developing my mind. This is the „fractal‟ approach: I recognize the order
which ties together all of the complexities of life. In plain English, I look
beyond symptoms—what I do, to underlying causes—the strategy behind it.
How is this done? Do I have to add „complicated thought‟ to the
normal stress of life? Who said anything about complex mental analysis? I
only need to recognize which mental strategy is handling what activity; in
other words, what mental rooms are active in a given situation. For
instance, if I run into a certain problem, I ask questions such as: Is it
Perceiver thought which is stymied? Do I lack confidence? Is Mercy
strategy hurting? Is Teacher understanding inadequate? Anyone should be
able to perform that much analysis. After all, we constantly take extra
pains to recognize who does what when dealing with real people. Just try
to publish a book without referencing who said what. If we can do that
with live people, then why not with mental rooms?
But what is the point in figuring out which mental room is responsible
for what? What practical use is there in this exercise in mental
nomenclature? I suggest that it will reveal the situations in which I am
following contradictory strategies. Often, we are like the proverbial frog in
the well, going one step backwards for each two steps forward. If that poor
frog could discover where he was making his backwards step, he could
literally triple his progress with no more effort.A Like the frog, I suggest
that much of our activity consists in satisfying the desires of one or two of
our mental rooms while at the same time hurting or damaging one or more
of the other rooms.
A Work it out. 2 forward + 1 back = 1 forward. 2 forward + 1 forward = 3
forward: three times as fast.