The analytical part is concerned with the question “Why?” Since
this is the only question it knows how to answer, “Why?” is the only
question that it will ask. If your car will not start, “Why?” is a useful
question. The cause of the problem, in this instance, is an essential
piece of information. The proper remedy is different if the car has
no gas than if the battery is dead. Once the “why” has been discov-
ered, the problem changes to one requiring the creative part of
your mind to answer other questions, such as “How can I charge the
battery?” or “How can I obtain gasoline?”
Everything related to cause and effect is in the past. Historians
and economists study the past to understand the present and to
forecast the future. Scientists experiment with the physical universe
to determine rules that will apply in future instances. Sociologists
study large numbers of people to predict future trends. This sort of
analysis of the past works reasonably well for the physical universe
and for large numbers of people, but works very poorly when deal-
ing with yourself or just a few other people.
Logical people like to think that they make decisions for reasons
and often insist that others do the same. Even the most logical per-
son uses the creative part of his mind, however, if only to gather al-
ternatives for consideration. In some cases, you may have made
decisions intuitively—using your creative mind—and then invented
reasons later.
The analytical part of the mind tends to evaluate possibilities ac-
cording to criteria that are dualistic, almost like a moral code.
Clearly, we are presented with temptations regularly that challenge
our ethics—some decisions are actually moral or ethical issues. Dif-
ficulties occur if the only standards of evaluating possibilities are
good/bad or right/wrong. People using only these standards tend
to seek the right job or the right person—their standards of perfec-
tion are so high that excellent, but less than perfect, opportunities
are too quickly discarded and satisfaction is almost impossible.
Do not allow such perfectionism to prevent you from using the
methods in this book. They are probably new to you. Anything worth
doing is worth doing poorly at first until you learn it. Watch a toddler
learning to walk and falling repeatedly. If you had applied standards
of perfection while learning to walk, you would still be crawling.
The analytical part is very poor at making changes, because it’s
concerned with the past and justifying it. If you rely on it com-
pletely, the only changes that you will make will be after conditions
become so intolerable that you are willing to accept almost any136 Your Mind Is Not a Democracy