74 A Programmer’s Guide to the Mind
The Mercy person needs sincerity and dislikes insincerity. I suggest
that the corresponding trait in the Perceiver person is a desire for integrity
and a hatred of hypocrisy. The person who is insincere broadcasts
inconsistent emotional messages which confuse Mercy automatic thought.
In contrast, the individual who is hypocritical makes it difficult for the
Perceiver storage shed to come up with a reasonable set of facts. How do
you describe a person who talks one way and acts another, who
communicates one set of facts with his lips, and broadcasts completely
different information with his body? If you listen to what he says, you
reach one conclusion. On the other hand, if you watch what he does, then
you come up with a totally different result. If the facts about this two-faced
individual are accepted in totality without questioning, then Perceiver
thought itself becomes fragmented. Consequently, the natural reaction of
the Perceiver person is to despise the hypocrite, and to reject him as
„wrong.‟
For example, I remember having a deep conversation with a girl
recently married. I gathered that she was a person of real integrity. Imagine
my disgust when, several weeks later, I discovered that she had run off and
abandoned her husband. I wasn‟t so much annoyed at her. Rather, I began
to doubt my ability to detect integrity. And without an accurate, operating
„hypocrisy detector,‟ I felt vulnerable.A
Unfortunately, the Perceiver person himself is often somewhat of a
hypocrite. I suggest that the blame for this state of affairs can be laid at the
feet of two culprits: The first is associative thought. Remember that the
thinking of the Perceiver person is naturally scattered. Gathering of
thoughts is a lifelong process. Obviously, with this type of memory
organization, inconsistencies can sometimes be overlooked.
The second culprit is the interaction between confidence and emotion.
Perceiver strategy may be totally confident about right and wrong—as long
as the emotional pressure is not too severe. However, once personal
feelings enter, then confidence can crumble. The Perceiver person is
famous for boldly saying “This is the truth,” and then adding a meek “I
think” as others turn to listen. He often recognizes this trait within himself
and may struggle to avoid „being a hypocrite like all the others.‟ Later on,
we will examine ways in which Perceiver strategy can gain lasting
integrity.
Finally, I suggest that the Perceiver person‟s mental storage shed
creates a real hunger for new ideas. The Perceiver person hates clichés—
statements which have been repeated so often that they have lost their
A Notice the nested levels of knowing. In the situation, I lost confidence in
my ability to determine confidence. We will see later that Perceiver
confidence affects both general knowledge and the knowing associated
with personal identity.