#startup #brain I would regularly wake up in the middle of the night and see my brain here: ![[Pasted image 20231102093517.png]] Ironically my brain would often go from this, to a few hours later to this: ![[Pasted image 20231102093921.png]] After a while seeing this pattern I just understood that I could not rely on my conscious brain under a specific set of variables. The solution is to shutdown the conscious mind, and for this I would use one of these: - Read a book - Focus on your breath (meditation) - Imagine yourself in a comfortable environment (auto hypnosis) ![[Pasted image 20231102094304.png]] In reality our brain is always in a constant fight between our "monkey mode" and "rational mode". The animal brain, and the human brain in particular, evolved from a monkey brain that took care of all the basic things for survival (also the lower layers of Maslow's pyramid) to the new things we use every day (~~planning your fictional story for investors~~, thinking about what the guy you're pitching to is thinking, checking to see if his body language means he didn't understand your pitch, or whether you're going to that party or to bed tonight). ![[Pasted image 20231102094449.png]] >We human mammals are the victims of a recurrent dispute: a tussle between the old reptilian brain, which unconsciously runs the survival machine, and the mammalian neocortex sitting in a kind of driver’s seat atop it. This new mammalian brain—the cerebral cortex—thinks. It is the seat of consciousness. It is aware of past, present, and future, and it sends instructions to the old brain, which executes them >- Jeff Hawkins, A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence In other words, our new brain is superimposed on the old one, constantly fighting for control, while the old one is probably making all the wrong decisions in relation to the new one. >It’s an alignment issue. It’s a society of mind issue. A permissions structure issue. The conscious mind is used to not having to ask permission. It just sits there, like a God-king, thinking what it thinks and shaping behaviors and preferences for some unspoken, poorly understood goal that may or may not be reproduction, but it’s not like it’ll ever just tell you that, will it? >- Bryan Johnson / Zero, Don't Die The trick now is to maximize the time you spend focusing on the right thing while your brain has all the right variables aligned, and minimize your conscious time while your brain is under the wrong variables. For example, in the morning your brain and mind is clear, easily focused, while at night, has collected a lot of noise throughout the day, and take the worst decisions, mainly driven by your monkey mind.