The reason why I wrote “Beyond Science” last time was not only because of my grievances for the Occult Journal, but also because I was practicing writing recently and the book I read was “Live Again: Using Writing to Adjust Your Mind”.
This is a wonderful book that will give you confidence in writing without losing track of the rules. Now I write something in my diary from time to time. Although the book requires me to write every day, my laziness still defeats everything☹.
Of course, at least I have written a lot. Through these writing exercises, I finally understood why in “Hackers and Painters” it is said that the profession closest to programmers is that of a writer. The two professions are highly similar, especially the mentality when writing/programming is exactly the same.
For example, before writing, a writer needs to know more about the thing he is writing about. This understanding is not only a rational understanding, but also a wholehearted feeling, integrating yourself into the object, and then letting the object express itself through your pen. Programming is a similar process. You need to put the requirements into your brain completely, and then let it build its own data structure, business process and code structure. Then all you have to do is release it through the keyboard, like giving birth to a baby, and help it emerge into the real world.
This also makes it difficult to predict what you will ultimately accomplish before writing/programming. All you have to do is let them emerge on their own. And if you deliberately control it, you will find that it is far-fetched and difficult to enter the flow state.
At this point I want to talk about intuition at the same time.
I have taken some IQ tests before, and they all show that my IQ is relatively high, but I still choose to be an intuitive person because I have benefited a lot from the simplicity and ease of use of intuition. In my opinion, trusting IQ and trusting intuition are two different attitudes towards life.
People who trust their IQ are the promoters of life. They constantly take the initiative to find and achieve their goals. They enjoy the fun of being proactive and having everything under control.
People who trust their intuition are recipients of life. They surrender to the unpredictability of life and follow their intuition, which is elusive because they themselves do not know what is ahead. But as mentioned in “Beyond Science”, because intelligence operates through thinking, we get a highly abstract and distorted reality. But intuition is very good at dealing with total reality because it is based on our subconscious mind.
Nowadays, people generally trust IQ more than intuition. I think it is mainly caused by two aspects:
One is that science-based school education leads us to mistakenly believe that the world is linear (or develops according to linear logic in most cases), and that results can be derived from a few simple abstract factors. This can be seen from the public’s understanding of economics. Economics is based on probability theory, but the public expects economists to give affirmative answers.
Second, due to the development of the Internet, acquiring knowledge has become extremely easy. Coupled with the “poison” of linear logic, people think they know everything. What is even more exaggerated is the overwhelming number of articles based on linear logic on the Internet (such as various “health tips” posted by the older generation in WeChat Moments), which makes people’s behavior even more confusing.
The logic has been shattered by me. Let’s talk about something constructive next. How can we train and use intuition?
The main reason why intuition is criticized is its accuracy. Especially for people who rely on their own IQ, the accuracy of intuition is simply nonsense. Why does it cause the feeling of “nonsense”?
The first is because the information is incomplete. In real life, it is generally impossible for us to obtain comprehensive information, and logical thinking causes our vision to be further limited, so we are completely unable to understand what intuition brings us.
Secondly, our thoughts are cluttered, causing us to misinterpret the meaning of intuition or even be unable to distinguish it. As mentioned earlier, intuitive people are receivers of life. As receivers, they need to achieve inner peace. The calmer the inner mind, the more they can reflect external changes. And only in a calm state can you distinguish your intuition from your own chaotic thoughts.
As for how to cultivate your own intuition, the most direct way is to meditate. I recommend the book “The Power of Now”, the English title is “The Power of Now”.
If you feel that meditation is too straightforward, training in the arts can improve your intuition, such as writing, painting, singing, acting, etc.