Mind Hacking summary

You may not realize it, but attention comes in two flavors: voluntary and reflexive. You're experiencing voluntary attention right now by directing your mind to follow these blinks. Your reflexive attention, on the other hand, is when your mind reacts to an external stimulus – like someone calling out your name – without conscious effort. Thankfully, you can reclaim and retrain your mind to strengthen your voluntary attention and weaken the reflexive.

The first step is to reduce digital distractions. Based on Russian psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik’s research from the 1960s, people experience mild psychic anxiety until a task is finished. And since your mind interprets distractions as unfinished tasks, you actually feel happier without them.

Your mind runs programming loops just like a computer. A loop is a repeated sequence that only stops when it meets specific criteria. Think about a meeting reminder. The programming sequence is designed to check the date and time every second until the scheduled meeting is reached, which triggers your reminder. And that’s just a single loop. Your computer runs layers of sophisticated loops to deliver your user experience.

Taking the computer analogy further, you had the bare minimum installed as a newborn: poop, sleep, cry, eat. But, through trial and error, some guidance, a good dose of luck, and repetition, you learned new skills and laid down new loops as you grew. At around three years old, you became an expert at self-programming as you asked a multitude of questions. Over the years, you’ve built loops upon loops that have become more and more sophisticated and optimized – defining your habits, skills, and personality.

Back in 1997, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos had a clear vision for his budding company: one-click ordering. It was a tall order, but he knew it would allow customers to shop more easily. The first prototype had 12 clicks and a lot of reasons why a one-click option wasn’t viable. But Bezos persisted. After much work and deliberation, the team came up with an improved version – two clicks, one to order items and a second to confirm the purchase. They thought it was a great solution to making sure the customer wanted to make the purchase. But Bezos wasn’t impressed. Finally, after the team found a workable solution – an easy cancellation process – Bezos got what he wanted. Soon, other online retailers were playing catch-up.

For many, it’s easy to define what we don’t want – but, unlike Bezos, we flounder when articulating what we do want in life. Most people struggle when asked where they see themselves in five years, let alone ten or 20. But research proves that people who spend 20 minutes a day writing about their “best possible future selves” are happier, healthier, and more positive.

Benjamin Franklin, a mind hacker in his own right, designed an experiment around 13 virtues he wanted to adopt. The virtues included temperance – for moderating his eating and drinking; silence – for speaking only when adding value; cleanliness – keeping himself, his workplace, and his home clean; and sincerity for only saying what he meant. These became his positive thought loops.

He also developed a tracking system to gauge his progress each week. Using the virtues as row headings on a grid and weekdays as columns, he made a mark when he didn’t meet his ideal for each virtue. It helped him understand what he was after. And, over time, he saw fewer marks. Although he’d started this system as an experiment, he trusted it for most of his adult life.

There’s power in writing things down. The prolific inventor Thomas Edison wrote all his ideas down. It was the first step in a process to ensure the production of any viable inventions.

Think about the major decisions you’ve made. Whether they were life-changing or a simple New Year’s resolution, chances are they didn’t come to fruition if you didn’t write them down.

Nikola Tesla, the Serbian-American inventor well-known for his “War of Currents” with Thomas Edison, was a visual thinker. His seemingly disorganized way of working was caused by an unusual ability to see vivid pictures in his mind. He could run mental simulations to help make quick decisions and solve problems before they even existed.

You may not be as fast as Tesla, but you can also run mental simulations by imagining how a specific scenario will unfold.