| Frequently Asked Questions: Background | |
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What does this cost? |
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Do you know that you sometimes use sentence fragments instead of complete sentences? Yes. |
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What is the objective of this site? The site seeks to integrate standard psychological knowledge, principles, and practice into a set of tools that are readily usable by people seeking self-growth, self-improvement, and self-awareness. |
See, we can be pompous if we want to. |
| What do you mean by self-growth and self-improvement? What we mean is irrelevant. Nothing matters but what you mean by those terms. Look in the Topics venue for things that people often say they want to improve about themselves. If you find something that matches what you might want to improve, read on and decide whether it fits with what you mean by self-growth and self-improvement. | |
| Is this a puzzle? Growing self-awareness is a lot like a puzzle. We would have provided the solution if we knew it. But the solution is to become more aware of yourself. It is something you do, not something anyone can tell you. | |
| If nobody can tell me about myself, what can this site do for me? Tell you what other people have done about self-growth. If you try the same things, you may find some that work for you. Pretty much what you could expect out of a site that helps you lose weight. |
Quest Questions |
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What's so funny about self-improvement? The technical reason for our use of humor is that it activates other parts of the brain. You get originality and creativity from those parts. You may also get optimism and self confidence. And we want to suggest that self-improvement is not a duty but an opportunity. |
But you are free to treat it as a burden if you really like burderns |
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How can one solution work for all the problems mentioned on the Topics page? We are not offering any solutions. We are offering some tools to make it easier for your brain to find solutions that fit you. And any solutions you use will be the work of your brain, no matter where you find them,. |
Brain modules Using brain modules for fun and profit |
| What does this cost? Only your time and effort. What are you worth? | What are you selling? |
| If nobody can tell me about myself, what can this site do for me? Tell you what other people have done about self-growth. If you try the same things, you may find some that work for you. Pretty much what you could expect out of a site that helps you lose weight. |
Independence
Slogans You've got to cross that lonesome valley. |
| What are the conversations in the Head Office for? They show several common viewpoints on the topic. You may find that some of these characters are speaking for you. Or for people that you know. Read the discussion as you would read a play. Out loud if you like. See if some of the other characters begin to sound reasonable to you. |
Your Head Teams Politics in the Head Office |
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What is the main idea here? The main theme is unity. But it is not an idea. Ideas are just talk. Unity means getting the talking parts of your brain in tune with the quiet parts that do things. That's why an abstract description is worthless in this matter. So why are you reading this? |
Unity |
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Why is it so complicated? It’s about you. How simple are you? |
Self-Awareness |
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Is there any psychological research behind these
tools? Yes. Cognitive Engineering. Cognitive refers to
thinking and other stuff that may go on on in the mind. Engineering
refers to the use of technology to do something. So cognitive engineering is a
pompous substitute for Thinkerer. |
Cognitive Engineering |
| Why doesn’t this stuff read like psychology? We aren’t writing to psychologists. We are writing to people. We use several literary devices that commonly appear in non-technical writing. Check them out if you are not easily bored. |
Literary Devices The truth about myths |
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What other sources of self-growth are available? |
Other
sources Some that seem reasonable to us. |
| How does the subconscious mind fit in here? Subconscious mind is an old concept. We don't think it is useful here, because it suggests a lasting state. We prefer concepts such as attention and awareness. You control your attention and you shift it to serve your objectives. Other things in your head are not in your focus of attention at the time. You might call them subconscious, but you can make them conscious if you choose to pay attention to them. |
See Vulcan comment below
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Vulcan: You will have noticed that the
term "subconscious mind" suggests a fixed entity. The terms
"awareness" and "attention" suggest something that can change. These
terms refer to verbs: aware and attend. Even though they are nouns,
we immediately recognize them as names for events. |
Vulcan Fuzzy Phrase Warning |
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The Thinkerer
06/11/2008 Copyright (c) D. F. Dansereau & S. H. Evans |
Background | ||
| Famous fables | |||