If you're like most people, you feel as if you are rational and logical, and most of the rest of the world is not. If you're right about this, then most of the world is illogical. If they're right, then you're illogical.
The fact is you're both wrong: neither you nor anyone else is as logical as you think you are.
You think and feel with your brain all the time, but how often do you think about your brain; its strengths and weaknesses and its limitations?
Your brain is a battlefield peppered with electrochemical explosions; a wet bundle of nerves, firing at each other within a glue-like soup. It does some things well and others poorly.
Not only do you think with your brain, you also use it to perceive: it's the primary mechanism by which you collect information about the world around you. It's a bit like the fox guarding the henhouse: the same entity that provides you with information is also telling you what it means. Any information you take in -- through your eyes, nose, ears, tongue and fingertips -- is heavily filtered before you are even consciously aware of it.
This is a necessity: if you consciously processed every piece of information you are capable of perceiving, you would be so flooded with sensation that you would be unable to function. A lack of such filters is one of the primary characteristics of autism.
Now, think of your brain as if it were a computer for a second.
Your hardware is the bundle of nerves that makes up your brain; it's simply gray matter.
Your applications are patterns of thought, which are built up over the course of years. Some of them, like basic algebra and how to read, were written by others; and some of them, like the way you kiss or buy clothes, you probably wrote yourself. Some of them run like clockwork, others are riddled with bugs; some are in beta, others are in version 9.0. If you're a life hacker [What's a hacker?] you have probably written more of your own "brain apps" than most people.
Your OS is the low-lying software that all the other apps rely on. How much do you know about it? Most people don't think about it much.
If you want to get serious about communication, it's time to learn more about the Human OS.
Understanding how your mind works will make you a more effective communicator, so you'll know the path of least resistance to getting people's attention and getting them focused on the things you think are important. If you do it well, people will even start to think that you're logical!
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Security and Ethics behind the Web
"This is our world now... the world of the electron and the switch, the beauty of the baud. I make use of a service already existing without paying for what could be dirt-cheap if it wasn't run by profiteering gluttons, and you call me a criminal. I explore... and you call me a criminal. I seek after knowledge... and you call me a criminal. I exist without skin colour, without nationality, without religious bias... and you call me a criminal. You build atomic bombs, you wage wars, you murder, cheat, and lie to me and try to make me believe it's for my own good, yet I am the criminal.
"Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. My crime is that of judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like.
"My crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you will never forgive me for. I am a hacker, and this is my manifesto. You may stop this individual, but you can't stop us all... after all, we're all alike."
"Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. My crime is that of judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like.
"My crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you will never forgive me for. I am a hacker, and this is my manifesto. You may stop this individual, but you can't stop us all... after all, we're all alike."
