How to Get Your Mind to Read ((article by Daniel T. Willingham (@DTWillingham) is a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia and the author, most recently, of “The Reading Mind: A Cognitive Approach to Understanding How the Mind Reads.” Republished from the New York Times
Photo: Credit Lilli Carré))
Americans are not good readers. Many blame the ubiquity of digital media. We’re too busy on Snapchat to read, or perhaps internet skimming has made us incapable of reading serious prose. But Americans’ trouble with reading predates digital technologies. The problem is not bad reading habits engendered by smartphones, but bad education habits engendered by a misunderstanding of how the mind reads.
We throw about big words, and we pretend that we know them. Even “scientists” just pretend. If they didn’t, they would be explaining, clarifying the words, but they don’t.
In the Starting Point Measurements the vocabulary number is what indicates this. I originally intended to call this clarity, but then I decided that if it refers to words, then maybe it can be instructive.
It hasn’t been.
So this article will be, mostly, about words.
Whenever we say conscious awareness, we are talking about words. No words, no conscious awareness.
Whatever you don’t have words for, whatever you mislabel, whatever you just have feelings or emotions about, no accurate words… are not conscious awareness.
The idea for the Muse came from Ariel Garten, personal vibration 120, a Canadian entrepreneur… curiously deserving a Wikipedia entry, while Dr. Joel Wallach hasn’t. Ugh.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rzlrItooG4
Canada is home of the lowest vibration on the planet.
I have 2-3 conversations a day with my students, conversations that should be made public.
Here is one from today:
Him: Wow. I realized on yesterday’s call that there are memes and voices when I am on the call and they are disturbing me to get things more than I am doing. Or disturbing me t
I just learned something terrible about myself. A lot of people hear me as if I were their father.
You see, in my family I was the dunce… meaning stupid. And even though I had straight A grades, and I was good at everything I tried, I remained stupid for my family.
How this works I don’t know. But this seems to be the dynamic: people make a decision about you, and then they never really look at you again.
You take it on, as the truth, and freeze into it. You allow it to guide you through life.
With me it was a little different, because I am defiant. I am not defiant to the person who speaks it, I am defiant to the saying. I am going to prove them wrong.
This week has been a success for Life, and a disaster financially. Everyone was spending their money on turkey, I guess.
So I am going to announce some sales for this coming week. I’ll make them good… so you’ll buy.
Now, about the successes that lead me to a huge insight.
All that people do is guided by memes, and they think they decided to do it. And you think they decided to do it from the goodness of their heart, from the badness of their heart, whatever seem to be the case. But in fact they never decided anything… It is the memes that are doing the deciding.
This is a totally different way to look at people, at life, and at what’s happening.
“It’s lonely at the top. 99% of people are convinced they are incapable of achieving great things, so they aim for mediocre. The level of competition is thus fiercest for ‘realistic’ goals, paradoxically making them the most competitive.”
-Tim Ferriss
Most people will never be truly successful.
The pull towards mediocrity is too strong. As David Schwartz once penned, “All around you is an environment that is trying to pull you down to Second-Class Street.”
Most people will never escape the pull.
Much of the thinking around us is small-minded. Most people are overly conce
I had an interesting unintended experiment this afternoon.
I have a loud burr coffee grinding machine.
I was ready to make some coffee (I drink cold dripped coffee) and ground the coffee beans while I was doing something else.
I found out that I am much better ignoring memes than ignoring loud noises. I could not hear myself thinking. I was making mistakes… I pondered what I was doing…
This gave me an opportunity to put myself in your shoes. What it must be like to be living in the constant jarring noise of the memes…
If you haven’t read the articles, here are the links: your success score article and the modeling article from earlier today I watched the 1995 movie Babe again this afternoon. I wept… again. I was deeply moved. By what, you ask? Question: did you watch this movie? Did you stop to learn something? what were … Continue reading “Followup on the “how to model yourself after successful people” articles”
If you haven’t read the articles, here are the links: your success score article and the modeling article from earlier today I watched the 1995 movie Babe again this afternoon. I wept… again. I was deeply moved. By what, you ask? Question: did you watch this movie? Did you stop to learn something? what were […]
How to Get Your Mind to Read ((article by Daniel T. Willingham (@DTWillingham) is a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia and the author, most recently, of “The Reading Mind: A Cognitive Approach to Understanding How the Mind Reads.” Republished from the New York Times
Posted on 
Him: Wow. I realized on yesterday’s call that there are memes and voices when I am on the call and they are disturbing me to get things more than I am doing. Or disturbing me t
If you haven’t read the articles, here are the links: your success score article and the modeling article from earlier today I watched the 1995 movie Babe again this afternoon. I wept… again. I was deeply moved. By what, you ask? Question: did you watch this movie? Did you stop to learn something? what were …