HOW MY BRAIN WORKS

 

My brain is normal, like everybody else´s, with a touch of oligophrenia, I am sure of it. I have, thus, the same drawbacks others have, and I hold that my issues are the same issues other brains have. I have a problem with attention and when I am working on some issue my brain takes side trips and explores other questions that concern me. In my college days, class periods were 50 minutes long, supposedly giving us time to run to other classes and buildings. But I learnt that the real reason was that it was supposed then that the attention span of the average student was limited to 50 minutes. Now it seems that the attention span of students is much shorter than that. In my opinion, it is about 10 minutes. After ten minutes, the mind goes away and takes astral trips, like Lobsang Rampa. But the brain can train itself and its plasticity can be used to our advantage. In fact, I have trained my brain to stop itself when it wanders. I have trained it to stop any language to interfere with the one I am using. I have trained it not to mope on rainy days. I have trained my brain to be at my command, always. You may say that these are silly claims. Remember that Steven Pinker opens his How the Mind Works saying: "We don´t know how the mind works."