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WR: I was immediately drawn to two things about your book, the title "Work Smarter, learn faster, and manage infoglut with BRAIN DANCING," and the image of the dancing brain on the cover. Tell us about the logo and what it means.
PM: The basic theme in BD is to use complimentary modes of thinking in synergistic ways. Initially, thanks to Tony Buzan's books, this was primarily about mobilizing the non-dominant brain hemisphere. Artists tend to be right-brain dominant, while people in technical fields such as engineering and software development tend to be left-brain dominant. In most people, each brain hemisphere specializes in different tasks. There are opportunities to amplify your mental abilities and increase your information metabolism when you exercise the discipline it takes to develop a part of your brain that is not normally utilized in the course of your work. These are relatively simple words for describing something very complex. The dancing brain on the cover symbolizes this mental process.
A great example of how someone is applying this concept is Enrico Alvares, professional violinist for the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields. In addition to excelling in music, he is studying for his MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer). To quote an email he sent me, "BD is demonstrably *highly* effective in studying for this kind of technical exam and others."
It is not uncommon to find that the best of the best software developers also have a right-brain oriented hobby or background in a field such as music. If nothing else, this sort of activity can serve as a significant means of achieving mental rest because it moves them out of their predominant mental ruts, (or modes of thinking). This allows their mental circuits to regenerate after heavy use, which helps make it personally ecological for them to push the technical aspects of their brain/mind.
WR: Master Jhoon Rhee emphasizes the importance of academic achievement, and requires his students to have at least a "B" average before they can test for black belt. How could Brain Dancing help students to achieve better grades?
PM: At the subconscious level, I'll bet there are a lot of students out there who don't fully apply themselves in school because they don't want to get "lost in the work". They want to avoid getting so involved in their studies that they don't get around to doing the other things they want to do while they are still young. The key to doing both is establishing time limits for studying and then adhering to them. Once a healthy boundary is in place around studying and schoolwork, the next question is how do you invest studying time as effectively as possible. That's where metalearning - learning how to learn - comes in. It is one thing to study a topic such as math, history or science, and quite another to study material that will improve the efficiency with which you learn every topic from that point forward. We know things about our brain that every student should be taught fairly early on.
I am speaking from experience here, because my grade point average went from 2.7 in high school, to almost straight A's in college. In addition, I graduated two quarters ahead of my class with honors, passed the CPA exam while still in college, and worked odd jobs every chance I could to help pay my tuition. After getting straight A's my first quarter, I went back to my high school to thank a math teacher who was able to convey a belief that I was capable of more than my grades reflected. While looking for her, I bumped into a science teacher I had worked for as an assistant. I told him I had gotten a four point my first quarter in college. "A four point what?" he exclaimed, apparently in disbelief. My point here is that teachers can play a key role by keeping their eyes out for otherwise hidden potential in students, and then find ways to express that confidence to the students, even if it is just the way you look in their eyes and smile at them. The other reason I mention this history is that my studious ways were not balanced with adequate social activities (maybe for a good reason). Consequently, I entered the business world with inadequate social and basic life skills. I had a lot to learn. In retrospect, it seems like it would have been useful to focus on this aspect of my development earlier than I did.
After realizing that my future was truly in my hands, I averaged six hours of studying per day my first quarter in college. After refining my study habits, rather than branching out into other complimentary activities, I increased my course load. Then about the third year in college, I attended a two-hour seminar on how to study. This was my introduction to metalearning, and it significantly enhanced the effectiveness of my studying for all of my classes. "Why didn't they teach us this stuff at the beginning?" I wondered.
The most important distinction I learned in this seminar was that I should take a ten-minute study break every two hours. So from that point on, I studied for an hour and fifty minutes, and then took a ten-minute break. I noticed that this was helping, so I began wondering what the most efficient use of that ten-minute break could be. I remembered reading about Thomas Edison taking catnaps, and also remembered my uncle talking about how he often takes twenty-minute naps during lunch, and wakes up feeling like he has gotten a full night's rest. This led me to develop the ten-minute power napping technique as described in BD, which I still use today.
When thinking about the amount of time I could have saved studying those first two and a half years before I took that studying seminar, I wanted to do my part to help students maximize their studying efforts. Towards this end, I wrote "Brain Dancing for Students: A Metalearning Handbook", the full text of which is available online at http://BrainDance.com/frambdi1.htm.
It also may help students if they can develop a belief that learning gets easier at an accelerating rate, especially if they invest time up front learning how their brain/mind interacts with information.
Since writing BD, it has become increasingly clear how important it is to develop a strong emotional foundation for students of all ages. Both emotional maturity and emotional security help make it personally ecological for students to increase their information metabolism. The basic idea here is that information is potential power, and we must balance students' awareness with their ability to use that power wisely.
WR: You explain how you went from reading 50 books every couple of years to extracting useful information from 50 books every couple of months. That's almost a book a day! Many people would like to read more but cannot find the time or don't know where to start.
PM: First, I should state that the majority of this information extraction takes place in large bookstores or libraries, where I go occasionally for about two hours at a time. Sometimes I go to research a specific topic. Other times to look for the unexpected. I divide the time up so that about the first third of the time is spent quickly scanning as many books as possible, and making notes or setting aside the ones that appear to be worth further study. After I have surveyed the infoscape, I revisit the promising books for a slightly more thorough look. Think about it as an extension of the 80/20 rule: 80% of the value from each book usually comes from 5-20% of the material. That 5-20% is often different for each person because they are coming from different contexts. A person who designs buildings is going to have different priorities from a person who is studying for an MCSE or trying to learn how to raise a child more effectively. The key is to become skilled at rapidly identifying the right books, and then the right sections in those books for you to invest your reading time.
Setting time limits is a great way to "tip the first domino" in getting your brain to move in new directions in a disciplined way.
Progressively rendered images on the Web serve as a great metaphor for understanding the learning process. When you load a page containing certain types of graphics, the image is loaded in layers. The first one gives you a rough outline of the image. The succeeding layers add more and more clarity until the image is crystal clear. This is why the principle of periodic review or phased learning is so helpful.
Here's a link to a page you can use to load a progressively rendered image:
WR: A Zen saying goes that a clay Buddha cannot pass through water, and a wooden Buddha cannot pass through fire, suggesting that we need to transcend our environment. You say that both our memory and our thinking are state-bound, that is affected by our environment and posture. How do you control your mental state in an unfriendly environment?
PM: First I acknowledge that I have at least three possible responses to the hostile behavior: 1) the instinctive, visceral response, which is often not the best response; 2) a response based on my values; or 3) no response - I can choose to wait to respond until after I have had more time to think about it.
A metaphor for this would be to imagine our inner space as a calm lake. The hostile behavior would be like a storm tossing the surface with wind and rain. The choice would be to remember that beneath our surface response to the behavior is a deep pool of wisdom and character that can be cultivated and acted upon by using a value-driven choice in these situations.
What is needed is a way to remember to make this choice in the heat of the moment. I noticed recently that during interviews, Bill Gates puts his hand on his chin and rubs it occasionally when asked difficult questions. I have no idea why he does this, but it occurred to me that this might serve as a great conditioned response, or "anchor" for triggering a more value-driven response, as opposed to saying the first thing that comes to mind.
WR: Your book begins with quotes on the importance of thought, and provides fascinating information on mental leverage, speed reading, mind mapping, learning software, goal setting, and optimizing mental clarity, a very contemporary and Western approach. Many martial arts disciplines are rooted in an Eastern tradition of calming the mind to enhance awareness. Where do East and West meet?
PM: Our interaction with life and information is context driven. When a student is ready, a teacher appears. Students can help themselves bridge cultures by giving themselves a reason to do so. Additionally, the whole thread regarding personal ecology applies here. The more we ramp up our mental engines, the greater the need for the discipline it takes to quiet our mind. The mind doesn't rest when we sleep; only when we engage in an activity that gets us out of our mental ruts - our traditional modes of thinking. In this way we can complement technical skill development with Eastern disciplines. I have found great wisdom in Jim Rohn's words: "For every disciplined effort, there are multiple rewards." I have also noticed that those activities, which require the greatest discipline, sew the seeds for the greatest rewards.
WR: You say that Yoga has had a profound and positive impact on your life, and point out that it is also strongly endorsed by people who are professional athletes, fitness experts, and supermodels. The hard part is finding the time to get started. What do you recommend?
PM: Begin by making it personally ecological to engage in a potentially major new activity, and secondly, strive to develop what I call an engram in order to minimize the number of decisions you need to make each time you engage in the activity.
Each of us have commitments and responsibilities that make it difficult to just drop everything and throw ourselves entirely into a new activity. Making time for a new activity is about establishing a controlled implementation schedule, yet it is also about engaging in that new activity in a way that is not harmful. There are some yoga postures that if done improperly, can cause significant harm. So finding proper instructors with rock-solid integrity is essential when beginning something on the scale of yoga or a martial art.
The idea of engrams is about minimizing the number of decisions it takes to perform a disciplined activity. When I go to do a workout, I don't want to have to make a thousand decisions, just one, which workout I'm going to do. Otherwise our brain gets bombarded with issues such as which exercise to do next and for how long. So my typical yoga workout involves playing an audiotape that has soft background music, which helps me relax. It walks me through a carefully designed workout that ramps me up gently to minimize chances of injury. Initially it was extremely difficult to do this workout, but it got easier over time as I trained my body to shift into this new complementary opposite gear.
WR: Computers get blamed for techno-stress, cyber crime, virtual couch potatoes, and even repetitive stress injuries! Yet increasingly we can't do without them. How can we benefit from computers without being victimized by them?
PM: A disciplined balanced world is one that consists of disciplined balanced individuals. Emotional intelligence, as described by Daniel Goleman, can play a key role here. If we use the Internet as a tool to increase healthy social interaction, by bringing people together with similar interests, this can help technically oriented people. If people are taught the concept of boundaries, time limits, and other key life skills early on, this can also contribute to a balanced world.
Discipline plays such a key role in all of this because it is about shifting the flow of energy in the body/mind, and this is often not easy. For example, when a person is "in the groove" typing away at a computer, it takes discipline to periodically take a break and stretch or employ an opposite behavior in order to give your body a rest. I think this one of the reasons why you see things like basketball hoops around the Microsoft campus.
WR: Despite more computing power and better technology, "being digital" has often come to mean working longer hours, generating more paper, and traveling more on business all the time. What are we doing wrong?
PM: Things like the wireless internet with ever increasing bandwidth, paper thin computer screens with enhanced resolution, smaller and smaller information appliances with greater capacities for less money, and many other advances will combine to minimize our use of paper, and increase our ability to videoconference with others in remote locations. We are in a transition phase that holds great opportunities for those individuals willing to push themselves. At the cutting edge, things are fairly competitive at individual, business and national levels, and this doesn't make room for much complacency. Each individual must decide for himself or herself what pace they can handle long term, and still maintain optimum mental clarity. Technology is giving us better tools. How we use them is up to us.
WR: You raise some intriguing questions in your book, such as why some people die soon after retirement? How can questions help us focus on what is really important?
PM: I don't think people should retire unless they are forced to for health reasons. This is easier if you love your work. I do plan to take longer and more frequent vacations, as I get older. Questions can help people find work they love, or morph what they are currently doing into something that has more enjoyable aspects. Technologies such as the Web are creating new opportunities to do traditional activities in new ways. In addition to the financial rewards, working in a job that we love can enrich our lives emotionally as well. There is a lot to be said to doing work that helps people and loving it. Healthy boundaries can make it ecological to love your work, to apply yourself fully, and still make time for family and other activities vital to our long-term happiness and balance.
WR: Your book creatively draws on so many different disciplines and applications. I would never have guessed that you started out with a degree in accounting. You don't think like a bean counter! What broadened your perspective?
PM: The microcomputer in particular. The IBM PC. However, my goal since 18 has been to learn both the technology, and a field in which it could be applied.
WR: You generously credit the many people whose ideas have influenced you, but reading Brain Dancing is like a discovering a new constellation in the sky that everyone else missed. What was it for you that tied all of these ideas together to create something new?
PM: The symbolic meta map, as described in chapter 5, was the tool I used to connect the dots.
WR: Martial artists are also people with families, bank accounts, jobs, and other outside interests. Deep down many of us believe there is something in the martial arts that helps us make sense of all the rest of it. This is why we call it a Do, or "Way" of life. How can Brain Dancing help in this quest?
PM: Problem-solving skills can be useful in a variety of life roles. Better information can lead to better decisions as you solve problems. The ideas in Brain Dancing can be used to increase your information metabolism, enhance personal energy and mental clarity, and build the discipline it takes to apply that information and energy wisely within the context of a balanced lifestyle.
WR: Are the any other questions you would like to address that help make the connection to fitness or the martial arts disciplines?
PM: Intelligence is distributed throughout the body. Unique physiologies and disciplined patterns of movement help expand our ability to think with increased flexibility. We can enhance our overall effectiveness when we expand our choices at the same time we expand our ability to use those options wisely.
