Mental software updates

And where to get them

Brains are like computers in that the hardware can do all kinds of stuff in principle, but each one tends to run through some particular patterns of activity repeatedly. For computers you can change this by changing programs. What are big ways brain 'software' changes?

Some I can think of:

• Intentional practice of different styles of thinking (e.g. meditation)

• Intentional practice of different trains of thought in response to specific stimuli (e.g. CBT, self-talk)

• Changing the high level situation, where your brain automatically has different patterns for each (e.g. if you go from feeling like a child to like an adult maybe a lot of patterns change)

• A change in a major explicit belief (e.g. if you go from expecting your project to work out to believing otherwise, your patterns of attention might naturally change)

• Learning that the world isn't as you intuited (e.g. if you are constantly worrying about people wronging you, but everyone is kind to you, this worry might become unappealing)

• Intense experiences causing inaccurate updating (e.g. trauma)

• Identifying differently (e.g. if I think of myself as a good student, I might have different mental patterns around studying than when I thought of myself as a bad student)

• Adopting a new goal (e.g. deciding to be a musician)

• Getting a new responsibility (e.g. a child)

• Getting a new obsession (e.g. a crush, a hobby)

• Changing social groups (e.g. among jokers it is more tempting to think of jokes, though in my experience among philosophers it might have been less tempting to think of philosophy)

• Interacting with a really compelling person

• Drugs (e.g. alcohol, adderall, LSD both short term and long-term)

• Religion, somehow

I feel like people talk about many of these as important, but not in one view. I rarely hear someone say, "My brain software seems suboptimal, what are my options for changing it?", then go down the list. Instead I suppose one hears from a friend that this book helped them, or one decides to have a therapist, and the book or therapist turns out to be one that focuses on CBT, so one does that. Or one changes social groups or responsibilities for some other reason, then remarks that this was a good or bad side-effect. Maybe that makes sense—‘stuff my brain habitually does’ is pretty broad.

I’d be interested to know which things do in practice change people’s mental patterns the most.