Your subconscious is smarter than you might think
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Re: Your subconscious is smarter than you might think
#2Researching creative thinking processes over the last decade, this is a no-brainer (pun not intended).
There is so much complexity to the brain that it's hard to imagine a time when we, as human beings, will ever really understand how much of it works. It's no surprise there's a lot going on "behind the veil" of consciousness, and I'm glad researchers continue to show this is the case.
Similar studies have shown that the subconscious can recognize ambigious shapes without the subject consciously becoming aware, solve problems completely before raising solutions to the consciousness, and more.
How exciting to be driven by (or driving, depending on what you believe) such a vastly complex thing.
Re: Your subconscious is smarter than you might think
#3Why not link directly to PNAS article?
http://www.pnas.org/content/109/48/19614.abstract
Personally I don't like the BBC, if HN is going to censor RT it should censor rag BBC.
Re: Your subconscious is smarter than you might think
#4Why not link directly to PNAS article? http://www.pnas.org/content/109/48/19614.abstract Personally I don't like the BBC, if HN is going to censor RT it should censor rag BBC.
Seconded, BBC science articles are dreadful. I am sick of their 1-2 sentence 'paragraphs' and dumbing down of concepts. There is better science writing in the Daily Mail, which is a depressingly low standard to be beaten by.
Re: Your subconscious is smarter than you might think
#5Researching creative thinking processes over the last decade, this is a no-brainer (pun not intended). There is so much complexity to the brain that it's hard to imagine a time when we, as human beings, will ever really understand how much of it works. It's no surprise there's a lot going on "behind the veil" of consciousness, and I'm glad researchers continue to show this is the case. Similar studies have shown that…
> How exciting to be driven by (or driving, depending on what you believe) such a vastly complex thing.
Dancing with.
Re: Your subconscious is smarter than you might think
#6Researching creative thinking processes over the last decade, this is a no-brainer (pun not intended). There is so much complexity to the brain that it's hard to imagine a time when we, as human beings, will ever really understand how much of it works. It's no surprise there's a lot going on "behind the veil" of consciousness, and I'm glad researchers continue to show this is the case. Similar studies have shown that…
> driven by (or driving, depending on what you believe)
Belief requires free will, making "driven by" contradictory. There may be a mixture or a degree removed, but the idea that free will doesn't exist is always self-contradictory.
Re: Your subconscious is smarter than you might think
#7Researching creative thinking processes over the last decade, this is a no-brainer (pun not intended). There is so much complexity to the brain that it's hard to imagine a time when we, as human beings, will ever really understand how much of it works. It's no surprise there's a lot going on "behind the veil" of consciousness, and I'm glad researchers continue to show this is the case. Similar studies have shown that…
> driven by (or driving, depending on what you believe) Belief requires free will, making "driven by" contradictory. There may be a mixture or a degree removed, but the idea that free will doesn't exist is always self-contradictory.
Belief requires free will
Why?
Re: Your subconscious is smarter than you might think
#8Researching creative thinking processes over the last decade, this is a no-brainer (pun not intended). There is so much complexity to the brain that it's hard to imagine a time when we, as human beings, will ever really understand how much of it works. It's no surprise there's a lot going on "behind the veil" of consciousness, and I'm glad researchers continue to show this is the case. Similar studies have shown that…
> How exciting to be driven by (or driving, depending on what you believe) such a vastly complex thing. Dancing with.
i love this metaphor here.
i spent a long time struggling with mental illness, and it was only when i began to understand the need to work _with_ my subconscious instead of fighting it that things went better for me.
Re: Your subconscious is smarter than you might think
#9I really liked this idea– I think by Robin Sharma [1], but by many thinkers, really– that your subconscious is way smarter than you (where you = your conscious, thinking self. The spotlight of your mind). It has more bandwidth than you. It processes a lot more information than you.
Many, many great athletes, musicians, thinkers, etc– (there's a quote by Plato in Plato's Republic where he talks about how while you can create conditions for people to learn, the actual learning is a sort of madness) describe how their performance is something almost out of their control. They control the practice schedules, they do the hard training. The actual performance is something they surrender to.
So in life, generally speaking, if you want to "live fully" (harnessing all your abilities, perceptions, judgements, 'power'), you need to get your subconscious involved.
Dan and Chip Heath used an elephant-and-rider analogy [2]. You are the elephant rider. Your subconscious is the elephant. If you want to achieve great things, you have to enlist the elephant. To do that you need to get acquainted with it. Understand what it likes, dislikes, what it wants, etc.
And a very humbling and inspiring realization (for me, at least) is that the subconscious is harder to bullshit. If you're spouting bullshit, it doesn't get involved. It shuts off and stays quiet. For you to get your subconscious involved (and now I'm thinking about Elizabeth Gilbert's TED talk [3] about the muse, the genius, inspiration), you have to earn its respect.
You have to do the work, show up every day (also read– Stephen Pressfield's The War Of Art [4]). Winning over your subconscious is just as hard– if not way harder– than winning over other people.
There is really an endless amount of material about this. Charles Duhigg alludes to it [5] when he talks about the power of habit– we make very few decisions everyday, and mostly defer to our encoded behaviors.
TLDR:
If you want to do anything substantial, you're going to have to get your subconscious involved. And this is a very humbling process that the usual chest-beating motivational bravado tends to overlook.
Also recommended: Paul Graham's essay the Top Idea In Your Mind [6]
–
[1] http://www.robinsharma.com/blog/04/my-strange-success-ritual...
[2] http://heathbrothers.com/books/switch/
[3] http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius?languag...
[4] http://www.stevenpressfield.com/the-war-of-art/
Re: Your subconscious is smarter than you might think
#10I'm skeptical. For example, in my bedroom, I have 2 cabinets. A while ago, I moved my socks and underpants from one cabinet to the other. Afterwards, I kept going to the "old" cabinet every morning for quite a few days. I'm wondering if this is an indication how how smart my own subconsciousness is...