In this blog series, Members’ Corner, we feature great content suggested by our Members and viewers.
At the suggestion of a longtime friend of Praxis Circle, we’d like to introduce noted blogger, Tim Urban, presented in the TED talk above. We can all identify with Inside the Mind of a Master Procrastinator (13:56, 2016, over 32 million views).
It’s very funny, but with an important message in the end about when not to procrastinate.
Our summary: It helps to have your life’s goals straight as early as possible, and a clear worldview sure helps. (More on this in later posts.)
Of course, we also want to link you to Mr. Urban’s popular blog, Wait But Why, and one post in particular suggested by our Member (click here >), “The Mute Button” (September 13, 2019).
“The Mute Button” is part of a blog series featuring Wait But Why’s typically masterful illustrations, and it offers a detailed explanation of how humans form, store, and spread beliefs throughout society.
From here, we’ll try not to steal any thunder from a great post, but only raise a few issues to think about that we’ll be coming back to over and over.
Urban suggests that each person consists of two selves, an Inner Self and an Outer Self (see below). The Inner Self is the product of a constant struggle between two minds, the Primitive Mind and the Higher Mind. The Inner Self tries to manage the Outer Self’s behavior to its advantage, so the Outer may or may not reflect the true Inner on a situational basis. (The labels and comments below in different fonts are Mr. Urban’s):
BTW, that funny looking thing under “The Inner Self” is a brain (on a stick figure).
More than one individual Self together with others forms a group that can communicate together, and that’s illustrated below with 11 connected brains:
When humans communicate frequently in volume and carefully, they can, in fact, Mr. Urban believes, operate as one brain:
We are not doing this extremely interesting post, “The Mute Button,” justice with our brief summary here, but the “Emergence Tower” illustrated in the post presents the extent groups are capable of thinking as one. Again, if interested and you missed it the first time, please see Emergence Tower illustration down the page linked here.
Finally, Mr. Urban suggests a useful way to illustrate differing points of view on key topics:
Mr. Urban’s next post (September 18, 2019) is also relevant to analyzing group think, “The American Brain.”
More on that later.
In passing, our questions are these:
- What theological, philosophical, psychological, scientific, and worldview undercurrents/presuppositions do you see in Mr. Urban’s presentation?
- Is there such a thing as a single group brain, soul, spirit, or general will? How do group opinions form? What might be the consequences of various answers?
- Where do you fall on the three spectra illustrated above (tax policy, the United States, and the existence of God)? Why? Is your worldview the determining factor?
We’ll be commenting on some of these questions in the future.
In the meantime, please send us more links to great video, books, articles, quotes, charts, or cartoons with interesting and relevant worldview knowledge!
(And, as a special bonus, here are two more links to fun topics on Tim Urban’s website, Wait But Why:
How to Pick Your Life Partner – Part 2
The Marriage Decision: Everything Forever or Nothing Ever Again)
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I’ve often thought “procrastination” doesn’t exist. That we prioritize activities or tasks based on an often unclear (probably not rational) values. Urban explains clearly that idea through the explanations of the rational self, monkey, and panic monster. With seemingly an infinite number of activities to complete on a different day, a clear worldview will help us prioritize and execute those activities.