Designing the Mind

I was offered a copy of this book in exchange for feedback and a fair and honest review.

This book explores techniques for improving your algorithms of thought. Although the particulars of this book are quite good, I am slightly put off by the strict focus on improvement and the general attitude that the book has "the" answers. While we certainly all have room to improve our algorithms of thought, I think the real power of these techniques is they allow us to engage in a curiosity led journey of self discovery with respect to our thoughts. For example, the chapter on emotional self mastery takes a very instrumental view of emotions. While I agree with equanimity as a goal, the idea that the only purpose of emotions is to advance our goals leaves me a bit cold.

The book covers common cognitive and emotional biases as well as techniques to counter these biases. Cognitive biases prevent us from seeing the external world clearly. Emotional biases reduce the clarity with which we see our internal use. Combating our biases helps us judge rightly about our lives.

We can learn to align our lives with our deepest values. We need to realize that many of our goals come from our desires or the defaults set by society. Instead, we need to analyze our values and use those to drive our goals. By continually refining our values and goals we can create a life aligned with those values. When we have goals that do not align with our values, we will be less motivated to work toward them.

Once we have value aligned goals, we can learn to control our emotions. We do this not by rejecting our emotions but instead by changing how we react to our negative emotions. The goal of emotional regulation is to generate a sense of equanimity. You want to feel emotions without being controlled by them.

We also need to control our desires. We can choose which desires we want to focus on — ideally, the ones that align with our goals and our values. Willpower is hard to maintain and easily backslides, so the more our desires align with our goals, the more we're be able to build up maintainable habits. We can also make sure our desires are put in the proper perspective. By focusing on intrinsic desires, practicing giving up desires, and having a diversity of desires to focus on, we can become more resilient in the face of unfulfilled desires.

The culmination of all this is the ability to master your own behaviors. This allows you to direct your life toward the goals and values you want to be true to. If we align these our values, goals, and desires, then advancing our goals will become effortless and playful rather than tedious and work-like.

Self mastery is is accessible to anyone in any circumstance, no matter how good or bad. Working to improve oneself should be a life goal of every person. Doing so can help people realize their potential.… (més)