66 A Programmer’s Guide to the Mind
scatterbrained, it is because he is—this is the true nature of raw Perceiver
thought.A
Second, a map is based upon connections. Names, lines and symbols
are not just placed randomly on a map. Instead, cities which are linked by
roads are shown as dots connected by lines. Locations which are spatially
connected in real life are shown close together on a map—it is this
relationship which make a map so useful. These links are related to
distance: Locations which are not directly connected are further apart.B For
Perceiver strategy, the memory lies in the connections. These are all-
important.
Third, a map is abstract. The Mercy person remembers experiences
about real rivers, bustling towns, and towering mountains. In contrast, the
Perceiver person steps back and looks at the facts behind the experiences.
He actually thinks of towns as little black and red dots, and remembers a
freeway as a pair of green lines snaking across a piece of paper. For him,
thinking is like playing with Lego blocks: He takes the messy stuff of raw
experience and idealizes it into neat, square, well-fitting blocks of
information. Then he builds mental objects by playing around with these
abstract representations of reality.C
Fourth, a map represents reality. The dots and lines symbolize real
towns and physical roads. The Perceiver may be an abstract thinker, but he
does not build castles in the air. He may step back from reality, but he
never cuts the link that binds him to the real world. His bricks of thought
may seem idealistic, but they still have their basis in the real world. This is
because Perceiver thought can take the oozing clay of experience and form
it into the bricks of solid facts, but it cannot build memories out of thin air.
It is this mental limitation which forces him to maintain contact with the
concrete world.
Finally, a map varies in detail. Maps can be city plans which show all
the streets in a certain town, or round globes which depict the entire world.
Similarly, Perceiver thought can look either at the overall picture of the
„forest,‟ or focus on the details of the „trees.‟ Perceiver thought is equally
at home with major principles and with small details—mental bricks can
A Notice that I said raw Perceiver thought. The rest of the mind can help to
bring order and meaning to Perceiver associations.
B The presence of a road can bring locations close together which are
physically far apart, while the absence of a good road can make locations
quite far apart, even though they are not separated by great distances. We
will see later that this warping of maps occurs when Server strategy
influences Perceiver thought.
C In the language of Plato, Perceiver strategy works with the forms of
reality, and not reality itself.