The Past, Present, and the Future
"So how do I use nexting and later?"- my question
In a couple of posts I discussed the concepts of nexting and later. These two concepts in a sense are our way of controlling the near future and predicting the long term future.
For a moment think about a past event. I bet you will be able to recall it fairly easily. During your recall even things you can not remember will be filled in. There will be no black holes in your movie of your past.
How about a future event? Can you describe it in detail? Of course you can. Again no black holes in your movie about your future.
So our brains play a trick on us. Things that happened long time ago or have not happened at all are completely filled in with details. The brain is so good at this fill-in game that it is scary.
The reality however is truly different. According to Daniel Gilbert, our near past and near future are very concrete. They are the concrete how. We can recall the details very well of how something played or will play out.
BUT when it comes to distant past or long term future we are dealing with the fuzzy why. We gave a general idea of what happened and why we want it to happen the way we want it BUT we forget the details and the mind fills in the fuzzy parts with what seems real to us. We have to become more aware that the brain is filling these details and making it appear real.
Today's question is:
"How do you become more aware of the fuzzy past and future?
"So how do I use nexting and later?"- my question
In a couple of posts I discussed the concepts of nexting and later. These two concepts in a sense are our way of controlling the near future and predicting the long term future.
For a moment think about a past event. I bet you will be able to recall it fairly easily. During your recall even things you can not remember will be filled in. There will be no black holes in your movie of your past.
How about a future event? Can you describe it in detail? Of course you can. Again no black holes in your movie about your future.
So our brains play a trick on us. Things that happened long time ago or have not happened at all are completely filled in with details. The brain is so good at this fill-in game that it is scary.
The reality however is truly different. According to Daniel Gilbert, our near past and near future are very concrete. They are the concrete how. We can recall the details very well of how something played or will play out.
BUT when it comes to distant past or long term future we are dealing with the fuzzy why. We gave a general idea of what happened and why we want it to happen the way we want it BUT we forget the details and the mind fills in the fuzzy parts with what seems real to us. We have to become more aware that the brain is filling these details and making it appear real.
Today's question is:
"How do you become more aware of the fuzzy past and future?
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