2-1-23 the human mind: Novelty

-          We prefer to have wide variety of input instead of having the same input repeatedly

Scientists have found that:

-          Average people can stay paying attention to something that doesn't change for 10 minutes, and the maximum individual time is 30 minutes

-          After that, the mind's attention starts to shift to somewhere else. The attention really declines

So,

-          Every 10 minutes you should give something new, interesting, different to people in order not to lose their attention

-          The moment you get boring, the mind (people's mind or your mind itself) will shift attention to something else 

-          You should make something new every 10 minutes when you are doing the same thing for a long time:

-          Change posture

-          Yawn and stretch your arms

-          Eat, drink something

-          Sing a little

-          Change the way you do things

-          Tell a joke

-          Act a very small scene

-          Move around

-          Jump

-          Change seats

-          Do 10 push ups, sit ups, squats

-            Look at something else

Don't be engaged in distracting activities to refresh audience/yourself. For more info check this infographic image:    

source: http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/the-hierarchy-of-digital-distractions/

2-1-22 the human mind: Scarcity

Another thing:

We tend to value more the scarce things (rare in numbers or for limited time)

For example:

-          Limited number of products

-          Limited number of offers/discounts

-          Offers/discounts for limited time

-          Limited editions of products

-          Subscriptions and registrations opened only for limited time

We love to feel especial and distinct. And we feel that "it must be soo good if too many people want it and I have it"

So, how would you use this in your favor?

-          Inject the scarcity element in your offer, use it to encourage sales every now and then

-          May be 'producing enough' is not always a bad thing

-          It is a tool to encourage customers to make a decision (whatever the decision is) … if time is available for people, no one will make a decision and you don't have enough time for all this shit. The feeling of 'going away' is why people hurry and make decisions

-          You need to find a good reason for this scarcity. People will ask for the reason of this scarcity and they won't love that you are doing this to make them buy it

2-1-21 the human mind: Absence blindness

Another bug in our brains:

We are very good at noticing that are there, but we sucks at noticing the things that are not there

-          A manager that manages things without problems, whose work flow seamlessly and silently are far less noticed than managers who come every day to put down the fires they made in the first place … they appear heroes

That's one of the reasons why experienced managers are soo valuable and money-worthy … they are excellent at seeing things that are not there. They have more mental patterns that are so profound in their minds that they notice every little missing detail

The best way to overcome this is "Check-listing" … make a checklist of everything so that you don't get lost and keep things under notice 

2-1-20 the human mind: Association

Our brains don't store things individually, they always store them contextually ….. we tend to store things in groups based on relations to each other

Marketers always use this profound characteristic of our brains to link brands with positive things. For example:

-          Nike and Michael Jordan … wearing Nike won't make you be like him in anyway

-          Perfumes and celebrities

-          Sexy alcohol advertisements

-          Samsung and Messi …. What is the god damn relation ??

-          Coca-Cola and that always-happy people in their advertisements

-          Volvo: safety and security

-          The secret of Victoria: what do you think of right now? :)

The thing they are trying to do is to make your brain group this successful, sexy, attractive, famous, loved people with their brands, or even a certain positive emotion, situation …. A happy state of mind that it is forced to think of every time you mention their brand

-          Even if you are totally aware of what they are trying to do, your mind still store them together

-          Most of these associations don't make any logic, are not true, deceiving … and it still can deceive your brain

-          Associations (also it is called: positioning) you see now for most brands- are developed over very loooong long time and it is worth it totally

So, plan to associate your product with desirable characteristic- positive state-of-mind, and even if there is nothing logically true about that association, the qualities actually do from a psychological standpoint rub off, which is why it works. 

2-1-19 the human mind: Contrast

Is the ability to differentiate things by comparing it to similar things

-          We suck in comparison when it there are no things with similar characteristics to compare with, when we try to compare with the absolute

-          Another bug: we tend to limit ourselves in contrasting with the smaller environment of what we are trying to evaluate

That's why suits shops put some of the most expensive suits for show so that everything else in the sop appear relatively cheap and affordable

  So, in your marketing; make sure to use this to make people perceive what you offer them in a favorable way 

2-1-18 the human mind: Scope limitation

We have to always remember that the info our brains can process is limited:

-          At some point (a threshold) we stop analyzing at the same level and start abstracting

-          There is a quote that says:

"One death is a tragedy, but a million is a statistic"

For example when one dies and we know his story and the feeling of his family, we are kind of bonded with him and feel bad about him. But imagine a million people die in a war, we don't the same sad*10^6 …. Even that we know that there are more sad and tragic stories than the first one … even if we know about every story of them …. We just start abstracting the number and get the collective feeling

-          Apply this theory to what a CEO may think and feel of the employees in the lowest level in the company, of course he doesn't think about them as human-beings with responsibilities and burdens like the way he does with his close friends and family

Far more; think about the way he thinks about the stakeholders ….

  This is just how our brains work. So what is the best way to overcome this structural bug in our brains?

1-     Internalizing:

Bring the people outside your circle inside. Make sure to get very close to one or two of those outside your circle, emotionally, so you don't forget about the human side in them and continue treating them as numbers or obstacles

This is really effective method especially for high class jobs. A main reason that presidents and kings were turned into sadistic tyrants is that they kept very far from the citizens and lost that feeling that they are responsible for the lives of people who are just like them

2-     The newspaper rule:

Imagine that your decision is printed in the headlines of the biggest newspaper in the city. Or think about what your grandchildren would tell you about that decision 30 years later 

2-1-11 the human mind: Mental simulation

Another profound ability of our brains:

The ability to take something we are imagining and test out the potential consequences of doing it

-          We force our brains to go through the experience virtually and figure out whether it is likely to do it or not

We can call it imagination + expectation. It is like extrapolation of certain deeds to get the potential, most logical results first in our brains before getting to do it for real 

2-1-6 the human mind: Reference levels

Continuing talking about the "Perceptual Control" concept: what are the types of the reference levels (the comfort zones) outside which we have to take action

1-     Range:

Acceptable range, above or below which is bad

E.g. sleep hours 

2-     Set point:

A threshold, a minimum, above which is good, below which is bad

E.g. liquid assets

3-     Error:

Set point is zero here, no "below". The absence is good, presence is bad

E.g. pain, complaints

Q:  What are the types of action available when people are out of these reference levels?

1-     Change the factors

-          The behaviors 

-          The surrounding environment 

2-     Reset the reference level to be compatible with the new changes 

2-1-17 the human mind: Structural determination

I am not going to talk about how to use your willpower points well. Instead I am going to talk about how to waste it. There are two main things:

1-     Use it all up in the morning

Sleeping at 5am when you have to wake up at 7am, see how much points will be consumed

2-     And the main topic here:

Use it all on things that you can prevent

You can easily alter the environment around you to make it conducive to your behavioral change. The structure of your environment plays a huge role in your behavior

If you want to have\avoid a specific behavior in you… changing the things around you will just save you the effort from resisting this behavioral modifications and keep forcing them again using the precious willpower points 

Some environmental factors:

-          Foods, drinks

-          Placed you visit

-          People you know

-          Paths-ways you take

-          Certain equipment

-          Staying places

For example, I think the stupidest thing to do in life is to keep temptations around you while you are trying to avoid them:

-          Keep a box of donuts within the reach of your arm while you are on diet

-          Keep hanging out in bars and keeping small bottles of alcohol everywhere when you are trying to stop being alcoholic 

And the stupidest fake claim I have ever heard of so far is by doing that we are testing our willpowers. NOOOO STUPID; you are WEAKENING it nothing else

So, know that environment is an extremely strong force. It has the ability to eat all your goals and plans for breakfast

Know that you can save a lot of your willpower to use it later on the real important stuff that really matter instead of wasting it trying to keep avoiding temptations around you all the day long

2-1-16 the human mind: Ego [willpower] depletion

When you do things you do it by the force of either two things:

-          Love and passion: the infinite power supply to do it

-          Willpower: you force yourself to do this in the hope that u finally reach satisfaction and pleasure

But pay attention to that willpower is not an infinite power supply, it is more like a power gauge; it is finished and recharged. However it is an inevitable option, we don't love and can't also force ourselves to love all the tasks, jobs we have to do

Think of it like you have 100 points of willpower every day when you wake up. And you don't like your job, you have to stick to a diet and workout. So you have to push yourself through all these stuff using only willpower. You finished your job (70 points taken) and worked out (30 points taken) and then just before sleep you  didn't have the enough willpower to resist eating, so you opened the fridge and ate all the food in it :(

Also look at this marshmallow experiment; I think we all know it

Scientists found from that and from other studies about colleague students:

1-     There is a link between delaying gratification (satisfaction of desires) and being successful on life

2-     People who use up a lot of their willpower earlier, will do worse later in the same conditions (they have finished all their willpower)

For example; when they try the marshmallow experiment again at the end of the day, most of the kids fail at it in much less time than they did earlier  

3-     Sleeping, raising blood sugar slightly are good ways to recharge the willpower gauge

4-     The environment has a great influence on your willpower

So,

-          Know that willpower is not an always-there power, and you need some of your jobs\tasks to be done with passion and love to get all things done by the end of the day

-          Use willpower wisely 

2-1-15 the human mind: Threat lock-down

When we were cavemen and we are faced with a death threat, our bodies instantly enter the "Threat Lock-down" mode. Our bodies prepare to:

1-     Fight  

2-     Flee

3-     Freeze

What do we choose; we make a very fast mental simulation and what expectation has the most chances to do. If we can overcome the threat we fight. If we can save our lives by outrunning the threat, we flee. If neither one is possible we freeze in the hope that the threat won't notice us

-          That is what our bodies ate toned to do for hundred thousands of years and unfortunately till now

-          The threat nature has changed a lot nowadays: now it is 99.99% of the time not a life-or-death issue, and it lasts looonger than the old threats (chronic vs, acute)

-          So the threats nowadays are not threats in the literal way and should not be treated the same way

As we can't now fight of run away from the threats in our lives, the only thing our minds are accustomed to is to FREEZE

And freezing is the worst thing to do in today problems. It just prevents us from start solving the threat in a rational, logical, high-brain way

Unfortunately, we are toned to

-          Deliver our control units to our mid-brains when we are faced with threats

-          Stay focused on the threat instead of the solution as long as the that fake threat exists

 What we need to do:

1-     Know that if isn't a matter of life-or-death then it is not a threat

2-     Detach ourselves form immersing into the experience and don't shift our controls from the high brain to the mid-brain

3-     Solve the threat: mainly by

a-      Eliminate the threat: you will need this option very rarely and this leads to life-decisions and huge life structural changes

b-     Deal with it as a normal stress thing (perceptual control): that you have been out of your comfort zone and you need to fix this

-          Describe the problem

-          Know the goal

-          Understand the why

-          Take decision\s

Note; see what I am trying to do here, REINTERPRETATION; giving you info, filling some planks and trying to make you reinterpret the profound experience in you and trying to look at it in a different way. Hope this works (Y)  :) 

2-1-14 the human mind: Loss aversion

The 2^nd type of motivation (moving away from something) is originated primarily from a basic behavior, we call it: loss aversion

-          People HATE to lose more than they love to gain/acquire

Studies show that:

-          The magnitude of the feeling of losing or threat of losing a certain thing is twice as strong as the feeling of gaining/acquiring it

-          We are more likely to notice threats and respond faster to it than opportunities

The basic clearest explanation of this is the bond we create over time with the stuff we own, whether they are tangible, intangible, soulless or living. We even hate to replace an old, torn toy with an identical one; they don't just feel the same

 That's why (Risk Removal) is very important kind of service (refund, payback, guarantees) \ stand-alone business (insurance), because it satisfies a basic human need  

2-1-13 the human mind: Motivation

It is the drive, the force that makes us want to do stuff

It is the link between our mid-brain (emotions) and the high-brain (actions)

Motivations lie only in two categories. We do things based on 2 types of motivations:

1-     Motivation towards something (the reward)

2-     Motivation to go away from something (pain-danger)

-          The motivation to go away from something is always more urgent than the motivation that will bring up the reward. Understand and make use of that 

-          When you are trying  to analyze the motivation to do something, break it down to the 2 main structures

2-1-12 the human mind: Interpretation: fill in the planks

We never have complete info about any topic or situation we encounter in the real life, so our experiences and patterns we make are always somewhat subjective and not 100% based on mere facts

-           when we simulate a situation in our brains, that consequences (the extrapolation to the results) the missing info are filled-in by our brains based on the past experiences we had 

-          Also, when store experiences or patterns, our brains forget small details about them with time. When we restore them to look at them again, these missing info either are filled up by previous experiences OR make rearrangements to that whole experience

So when we reinterpret a past experience OR make mental simulations, we always look at them in a different way from that we used to look at them the previous times. This would give us a vast, versatile, mature, new look at things and may change our opinions or decisions about it

When you feel uncomfortable with a specific result or situation, recall the whole experience again, REINTERPRET it in a completely different light and you will see how things look different from the way you used to see them 

2-1-10 the human mind: Mental simulation

Another profound ability of our brains:

The ability to take something we are imagining and test out the potential consequences of doing it

-          We force our brains to go through the experience virtually and figure out whether it is likely to do it or not

We can call it imagination + expectation. It is like extrapolation of certain deeds to get the potential, most logical results first in our brains before getting to do it for real 

2-1-9 the human mind: Pattern matching

One of the most useful basic abilities of our brains is the ability to recognize patterns

Anything we do has a rewarding or painful result; we know the pattern to get the reward/pleasure or to avoid the pain resulting from doing that specific pattern 

It is a thing we learn since we are young: if I cried I will eat, mama will come ….etc.

The best way to learn and recognize patterns is to expose yourself to A LOT of input (experience a lot)

The more you input you have, the more out you are gonna get and the better you will recognize successful patterns and know the Know-How of anything 

2-1-8 the human mind: Conflict

When 2 control systems with different and opposing reference levels try to take over a perception (a variable) …. Conflict happens

-          For example; I have work to do, but I am very tired and want to sleep, watch TV ….etc.

-          That conflict causes a lot of stress within you and trying to accomplish one of the 2 things won't make you any less stressed, comforted unless you resolve that conflict first

For the conflict to be resolved you need to go through 3 levels:

1-     Expression of the conflict: the ability to understand the conflict very well without any tweaks or complications

-          I have a project to do vs. I am very tired

2-     The goal of the conflict: what the 2 systems trying to do

-          Get the job done vs. sleep- rest

3-     The situation of the conflict: how this conflict happened- understanding the cause of the conflict

-          I have been stressing myself through work for the last couple of days till I got very tired and bored of work

Getting to understand the cause of the conflict will make you resolve the conflict and choose which system will take over the job to change the conflict to its favor= to its reference level 

So, for any conflict: describe it, know your goals, understand the why…. and decide what to do

2-1-7 the human mind: Reorganization

When things happen that get us out of our comfort zone, and we want to get back to the reference levels but we don't exactly know what to do; this where our brains do this "Reorganization" thing:

Just keep throwing us with very random thoughts, ideas, and solutions, a kind of trial and error strategy till you find an acceptable idea and figure out what to do

 

-          So if you are feeling lost and find that your midbrain is coming up with these crazy, very random ideas; DO NOT panic :) this is completely natural and normal process. Don’t fight it. Random thoughts are found to be the most creative ideas ever. 

2-1-5 the human mind: Reference levels

Continuing talking about the "Perceptual Control" concept: what are the types of the reference levels (the comfort zones) outside which we have to take action

1-     Range:

Acceptable range, above or below which is bad

E.g. sleep hours

 

2-     Set point:

A threshold, a minimum, above which is good, below which is bad

E.g. liquid assets

3-     Error:

Set point is zero here, no "below". The absence is good, presence is bad

E.g. pain, complaints

-          What are the types of action made when people are out of these reference levels:

1-     They change the factors

-          The factors related to them

-          The environment around them

2-     They reset their reference levels to be compatible with the new changes 

2-1-4 the human mind: Perceptual control

-          This is a theory to explain how and why people do the things they do, how we make decisions

To clarify this is an example: you go outside your house; the sunlight is too bright so you put on a hat and sunglasses

Why you choose to take this action? Because you get annoyed by the sunlight. The sunlight brightness and temp are not is the favorable range that you feel comfortable in, so you decide to tweak these conditions to the range you are comfortable in

-          Apply this course of action in every aspect in our lives. You are put in some conditions that you don't like; so you escape from, change, regulate the conditions you don't like or even change your comfortable zone  

-          This concept is called (Perceptual Control) and it applies from the basic cellular level to the very sophisticated behavioral cases in the universe    

The equation is: from instability (stress) > take action > toward stability (comfort stable condition)

-          For more readings about how and why people act the way they do: search for topics under (Behavioral Psychology)