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Health & Fitness

Is Your Brain Like an iPhone? Which App is Running Now?

Its been a great shock to me to find that people do not act or think logically most of the time. Find out what's really going on in our brains.

Years ago when I was younger and knew everything … I thought logic ruled the world. As a student in the '70s at the University of Chicago, I studied math, science and economics. I thought it would make me smarter, but looking back the reverse is true. My professors all taught me our world is a logical place. 

It was all math. Quantum mechanics was math. Math was math. Even economics was math. Now I realize I would have learned more about the world studying history or Shakespeare.

It's been a great shock to me to find that people do not act or think logically most of the time, especially in politics but also in my work in software sales. You can’t fight illogical thinking with logic in politics, in the workforce, anywhere.

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Why is this? Well on Saturday I was stunned to find I agreed wholeheartedly with an article in the Wall Street Journal.

Of course we didn’t have iPhones back in the '70s, so how could we know that the brain is like an iPhone?

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Like an iPhone, the brain has lots of apps. Some apps you choose to run, and others run without your consent.  Frequently, these apps are not consistent with each other. They don't even care about each other.  

For example, for logic to prevail in a conversation with someone, you both must be running the logic app at the same time. What are the chances of that happening?  Some people don't even have a logic app! Human interactions are most enjoyable when people are running the same or complementary apps. When you have something in common with someone with, it's great. You both start running the same app. This explains why I like weddings and funerals: Everyone is running the sentimental app at the same time. 

So while I may be running the logic app talking to you about the SMART train costs and benefits, you might immediately launch the “I love trains” or the "public transit is a bargain" app.

Why don’t diets work? Well sometimes the “hungry” app runs in the foreground leaving the “Vanity and Health” apps running in the background powerless to intervene. 

I work in the software industry, so now I realize to know someone you have to know their apps. You have to talk to the apps they are running, not the ones you wish they were running. 

What are your favorite apps? Which ones do you wish people were running more often?

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