When it rains

It rained for a few days down here near the water.  Some nerve. The forces of Nature do not always honor my requests. We think that somehow we can control that, but in truth we are losing control rapidly and creating more chaos and destruction. But that is another topic.

When it rains here I get to read many things from various sources.  I read several articles about how too much "screen time" is not good for our brains. The average game app is played for about three minutes while waiting for the dentist, or a line to move or a wife to get dressed.  We can now not only fill up every vacant second, but we often double or triple fill by turning on music, watching TV and texting a friend, all at the same time.  Many studies show that this only confuses our brains, inhibits learning and limits creativity.

I also read a good article that (again) trashed on my profession.  It was about the "Legends of Psychotherapy" conference held last month in California.  I will write about that next time.

But I read a column by David Brooks in the NYT that I want to comment on.  I usually like to read his stuff.  He is a thoughtful conservative,which I am obviously not, but he often makes a good case.  What he wrote about last Tuesday is something I strongly agree with, and have really been talking about in many ways here. -- In the article he wrote about how we usually only read things we agree with, but I don't think that was why I liked it so much, but who knows.

He wrote about "mental flabbiness" that has become rampant in our culture.  People have become lazy thinkers.  With all the information that is constantly available there is less time to consider what is real, what is worthwhile, and what to do with all of these bits of information.

Brooks quotes Charlie Munger of Berkshire Hathaway who lists our natural weakness: confirmation bias; we pick out evidence that supports our views, and we are cognitive misers; we try to think as little as possible.

I often see in my practice how people are very vulnerable to slip-shod thinking, surface conclusions.  People easily settle for simple solutions, based on distorted half-truths, that are harmful to them.  That's why there is so much debt, so many kids on prescribed drugs, so many obese people and so much free-floating, misdirected anger.  It's not that people are stupid, it's that they have been encouraged to be lazy thinkers.  Our society calls for it.

If you are a lazy thinker you are much more likely to buy a shitty product at an exorbitant price, and to think you need it.  You will get angry at Obama because you think he's a Muslim.  You will eat bacon cheeseburgers and then go to Jenny Craig.  You will believe that climate change is a hoax because you don't want to put any limits on the energy you use or the waste you create. You will blame "illegal aliens" for taking you job, when you never really wanted to work fourteen hours a day picking lettuce. You will think it's normal for women who are 5'4" and weigh 118 lbs to have Double D tits. You will believe that your six month old son should be watching a computer program that teaches him sounds and colors and shapes, when you should be holding him and cooing to him yourself.

It's no wonder my business is booming.

I made the mistake of picking up my messages today.  I have almost as many new people wanting appointments as I do people who I was seeing before I left.

The world is very complex.  Take the time to think about it. It is good to think -- Try thinking this way: If I do this then this will happen.  If is even better to think -- If I do this then this will happen, and that will make this or this happen and I have to be ready for that too.  But that is difficult.  It takes time.  It takes some kind of reflection and consideration.  We are all capable of it, but it's difficult. You may have to give up some time playing "Angry Birds."  At least in the beginning.  Then this thinking thing gets easier. Then it gets to be kind of fun.

Try it.  You will save on your therapy bills.