You’ve Been Punked… By Your Brain!
I may seem to be leaning a lot on Lifehack.org lately. I don’t mean to. It’s just that there’s a really good reason why they’re one of the top blogs on Internet. Anyway…
In Your Brain is Not Your Friend and its followup, Three More Reasons Why Your Brain is Not Your Friend, Lifehack.org author Dustin Wax describes how easily fooled our brains are, and how seemingly determined they are to stay that way:
Whether because of the brain’s internal structure or the way social and cultural pressures cause our minds to develop and function, in the end the result is the same: minds that are not only easily deceived and frequently deceptive in their own right, but when caught out, refuse to accept and address their errors. If you have a mind — or even half a mind — you might be best off losing it entirely.
It’s long been my opinion that the greatest driving force of a human being is not the desire for survival, but the desire to be right. (People will die for their beliefs, but they rarely believe they are going to die. Or something like that.) Mr. Wax’s articles reinforce my opinion, so I’ll agree with him… thus perpetuating the cycle.