Chapter 1

Mental Leverage

Wise teachers throughout the ages have emphasized the important role that our thoughts play in our lives. Given the infinite diversity of thought types available to us, the question becomes, "Which thoughts?"

We can concentrate our attention or let it wander where it will; think about the past, present, or future; ask questions or think of answers; make minor decisions or those with significant impact.

We can direct our attention to our feelings, internal dialogue, or mental images; flavor any thought with a positive or negative attitude; electrify any notion with passionate caring; or diffuse it with ambivalence.

We can amplify our awareness with the energy and attention of synergistic dialogue; think about detailed issues or high level concepts; or vary our minds' brain waves between beta, alpha, theta, and delta.

All of these thought types can occur at various levels of conscious awareness and be organized within the context of heart frequencies or mind frequencies.

If the hundreds of thousands of words in the English language can be formed from an alphabet of just 26 letters, imagine how many different thought combinations there must be. How are we to coordinate the mental dance between these various thoughts?

Scale                 Range of Thought
Focus                 Daydreaming<-->Concentrating 
Awareness             Subconscious<-->Conscious 
Time Orientation      Past<-->Present<-->Future 
Decision              Minor<-->Destiny Shaping 
Question              Questions<-->Answers 
Modality              Kinesthetic<-->Auditory<-->Visual 
Attitude              Positive<-->Negative 
Emotion               Passionate<-->Ambivalent 
Brain Wave Frequency  Delta<-->Theta<-->Alpha<-->Beta 
Dialogue              None<-->Many People 
Detail Level          General<-->Specific 
Metaphor              Orientation<-->Ontological<-->Structural 
Frequency Center      Heart<-->Mind 

Using willpower, we can decide to think in various combinations, yet it takes energy and other mental resources to make decisions. The prospect of decisional stress increases as "infoglut" expands and our choices multiply. In his classic book, The Effective Executive, Peter Drucker writes that effective executives don't make a great many decisions. They concentrate on the important ones. They think through what is strategic and generic, and focus on making a few important decisions at the highest level of c onceptual understanding.

The idea is to focus our decision-making engines on thoughts that are likely to give us the most bang for our mental buck. In his book, The Fifth Discipline, Peter Senge describes the concept of leverage using a trim tab metaphor. A large ocean liner would require several tons of force on the bow to make it change direction. Instead, a rudder is used to swing the back end of the ship around, which causes the ship to turn. However, the rudder on an ocean liner is so large that tremendous force is required to turn it as well. So the technique is applied again by placing a trim tab on the rudder. When the captain turns the wheel, it turns the trim tab, which turns the rudder, which turns the ship. In this way a small action, properly focused, can have a much greater impact on the overall system.

Figure 1.2 Layers of "Conceptual Understanding" at Which Decisions can be Made.

Chapter Overviews

                 Conscious <-----> Subconscious
        Individual Thought <-----> Dialogue 
           Left-Brain Mode <-----> Right-Brain Mode
          Detailed Thought <-----> High Level Thought

• Chapters 2 and 3: The interplay between conscious and subconscious mental processes. The key to mobilizing our vast subconscious mental resources is learning to direct our brain with effective self-communication.
• Chapter 4: Thinking alone vs. engaging in dialogue. Something special happens to our thinking whenever two or more people discuss an issue they care about.
• Chapter 5: Right-brain vs. left-brain thinking modes. Each brain hemisphere is specialized and mental leverage can be obtained by overcoming the common tendency to favor one side.
• Chapter 6: Detailed vs. "big picture" thinking. Just as information has structure, so do our thoughts. At the highest level, there are processes we use to perform key mental activities and they can be optimized.

These chapters lay down the foundation of the Brain Dancing strategy. Each chapter presents you with two types of information:

  1) underlying principles; and
  2) what to do differently based on these distinctions.

Chapter 7 then describes how to apply all of these ideas toward learning software faster, which is becoming an increasingly high leverage use of our time. It takes energy both to learn and apply these ideas, so Chapter 8 discusses my favorite strategies for increasing personal energy. And lastly, Chapter 9 describes some lessons I've learned about maintaining balance while striving to mobilize untapped brain power.

Each chapter focuses on high level strategic decisions you can use to work smarter, learn faster and manage information more effectively.

We are "In-Formation"

An extreme example of this occurred when I was twelve years old. My father died suddenly and unexpectedly of a heart attack at the age of 49. Dad died, at least in part, because we lacked the information that could have saved him: that his arteries were blocked by arteriosclerosis. This information could have led to some decisions that might have made a difference. I have no way of knowing for sure how much the "hand of fate" had to do with this.

Information literally shapes my life in countless ways: what and how I eat, when and how I exercise, how I carry myself, smile, think, communicate, etc. The most powerful information is "MetaInformation"¾information that improves the processes we use to interact with information¾which is what this book is about.

A Word on Personal Ecology

For this reason, I encourage you to study the work of Stephen Covey (The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People ) and M. Scott Peck (The Road Less Traveled) in conjunction with this text. These books deal with the issue of character development and are written so brilliantly that it often astounds me to read them. They give specific instructions on how to build the mental and physical infrastructure that makes learning and applying Brain Dancing techniques "ecological." This gives your subconscious the go-ahea d to open up your awareness to areas of new growth and learning.

"People who succeed in the computer industry tend to accumulate more and more power until they implode." – Esther Dyson

You may already be beyond the need for these books, but I can tell you first hand that I've imploded a few times and it was not fun. Chapter 9 addresses this issue in depth.

Powerful Questions

"A powerful question can be vastly more useful than any answer." – Peter Senge