Timothy Wilken, MD writes: Human intelligence science has revealed that our enormous intelligence is the result of possessing dual minds. These dual minds create pictures of a dual world in which we live. Most of us don’t know we have dual minds and almost all of us don’t know we live in a dual world. We live in two worlds all of the time. ... The time-mind is concerned about becoming. To become somebody, I need to understand. And, if I understand something I know what it means. So understanding, allows me to develop meaning in my life. Meaning and becoming are tied integrally to understanding. Understanding leads us to predict what will happen and with accurate prediction, I can control. We humans judge our lives by how the events in our world compare to our predictions. So if nothing is going the way I predict it should—If nothing is the way it ought to be, I feel depressed. Depression results when our lives are not working as we predict they should. I predict a well deserved raise in my salary, but instead I get fired. I predict the pleasure and enjoyment of a brand new car, but I buy a lemon. I predict my wife will throw me a surprise birthday party, but she doesn’t even remember my birthday. When life does not occur as I predict it should, I am disappointed. When my experiences do not become what I expect they should, I am depressed. And, just the opposite, when things go the way I predict they should, I am satisfied and excited. I predicted I would win the award as an outstanding employee, and I won the award. I predicted I should get a new car, and I did and its even nicer than I imagined. I wanted my spouse to celebrate my birthday, and she threw me a marvelous party with all my friends.The space-mind makes a picture of the world as it "is". The space-mind’s purpose is to secure survival for the body. When it’s decisions produce high survival it feels pleasure. When its decisions produce low survival it feels pain. The space-mind tries to guide the organism towards pleasure and away from pain. ... The time-mind is in charge of understanding the world around it. The time-mind forms opinions of how the world could be or ought to be. It thinks in words and forms its words into opinions and predictations. We can have very low prediction accuracy—very low meaning. Life can be depressing. We can have low prediction accuracy—low meaning. Life can be disappointing. We can have high predictive accuracy—high meaning. Life can be satisfying. We can have very high predictive accuracy—very high meaning. Life can be exciting. Things are going the way I predict they should be going. My life is meaningful. I am becoming a success. I feel in control. (09/05/03)
I think this might explain a lot about how things go for people starting a business, and whether they persist in it or not. Some are able to continue even in the face of temporary very low or low prediction accuracy, most are not. As someone else has said, "Anything worth doing is worth doing badly at first." The key difference, not mentioned in Dr. Wilken's article, is belief - belief in oneself, belief in the outcome, belief in a larger value.
Saturday, September 06, 2003
Timothy Wilken, MD writes: Human intelligence science has revealed that our enormous intelligence is the result of possessing dual minds. These dual minds create pictures of a dual world in which we live. Most of us don’t know we have dual minds and almost all of us don’t know we live in a dual world. We live in two worlds all of the time. ... The time-mind is concerned about becoming. To become somebody, I need to understand. And, if I understand something I know what it means. So understanding, allows me to develop meaning in my life. Meaning and becoming are tied integrally to understanding. Understanding leads us to predict what will happen and with accurate prediction, I can control. We humans judge our lives by how the events in our world compare to our predictions. So if nothing is going the way I predict it should—If nothing is the way it ought to be, I feel depressed. Depression results when our lives are not working as we predict they should. I predict a well deserved raise in my salary, but instead I get fired. I predict the pleasure and enjoyment of a brand new car, but I buy a lemon. I predict my wife will throw me a surprise birthday party, but she doesn’t even remember my birthday. When life does not occur as I predict it should, I am disappointed. When my experiences do not become what I expect they should, I am depressed. And, just the opposite, when things go the way I predict they should, I am satisfied and excited. I predicted I would win the award as an outstanding employee, and I won the award. I predicted I should get a new car, and I did and its even nicer than I imagined. I wanted my spouse to celebrate my birthday, and she threw me a marvelous party with all my friends.The space-mind makes a picture of the world as it "is". The space-mind’s purpose is to secure survival for the body. When it’s decisions produce high survival it feels pleasure. When its decisions produce low survival it feels pain. The space-mind tries to guide the organism towards pleasure and away from pain. ... The time-mind is in charge of understanding the world around it. The time-mind forms opinions of how the world could be or ought to be. It thinks in words and forms its words into opinions and predictations. We can have very low prediction accuracy—very low meaning. Life can be depressing. We can have low prediction accuracy—low meaning. Life can be disappointing. We can have high predictive accuracy—high meaning. Life can be satisfying. We can have very high predictive accuracy—very high meaning. Life can be exciting. Things are going the way I predict they should be going. My life is meaningful. I am becoming a success. I feel in control. (09/05/03) 
