68 A Programmer’s Guide to the Mind
why I as a Perceiver person would want to study the mind: It connects with
so many other topics and situations.
Third, what we are looking at is a diagram of mental symmetry. Over
the years, I have discovered that there are amazing symmetries within
human thought. My reflection in a mirror provides an example of physical
symmetry. The image that I see in a mirror looks just like my body, except
that left and right are flipped.A The same principle seems to apply to
cognitive styles. Take the personality traits of one thinking style, „flip‟
them with a certain type of „mirror,‟ and you end up with the traits of
another style. For example, there is a symmetry between Perceiver and
Mercy thought. Both think associatively—here the mental „image‟ is the
same, but one works with abstract facts and the other with concrete
experiences—here the image is „flipped.‟ Perceiver thought is always
looking for symmetries. This kind of a mind is constantly reflecting mental
images and concepts one way and then another in order to try to match
them up.
By now some of you may be asking: “If this book is a description of
Perceiver thought, why do the rest of us need to read it? Let the Perceivers
have their facts and connections. We do not need to bother with all of this
esoteric information.” I have often received this type of response, and it
needs to be addressed. After all, libraries are full of books written by
people trying to impose their mental approach upon other thinking styles.
I would like to suggest two reasons why this book is relevant, even for
those who do not have the cognitive style of Perceiver: First, while
Perceiver persons like maps, we all need them. It is true that studying the
map is not the same as being there, but being there is much more enjoyable
with a map. Think of the courage of explorers such as Christopher
Columbus and Ferdinand Magellan, who sailed off into open sea not
knowing when, where and what they would find. In our day of well-
marked freeways and established rules and procedures we forget the terror
associated with the lack of a map.
I had my own experience recently of wandering around terra incognito
without a map. When we go to the store, in North America, we all assume
that we will find the corn flakes next to the bran flakes, and that the car
tires will be in the section with the car batteries. However, when I visited
A Here is a silly question. Why are left and right reversed in a mirror image
but not top and bottom? The answer lies in the fact that a mirror does not
flip an image, but reflects it correctly. We, in fact, flip left and right when
we turn to face another person in real life. In order to answer this riddle,
one must uncover the implicit assumption: We think that standing face to
face is normal and not reversed. Time and again I have found that apparent
paradoxes resolve themselves when I let go of my assumptions and ask the
right questions.