L. Eric Culverson - www.TheCompetenceMyth.net
This discussion series is abstracted from my book: The Competence Myth - Why your technical skills are no longer enough and what you can do about.
So how does the “Analytic Brain” become so powerful, and so influential in our every day lives? Consider my case. When I was a kid, I probably watched way too much television. But I wasn’t really involved in sports as a child, and this was before the internet, gaming or social media. So, what’s a latch-key kid supposed to do when you’re the first person home?
Two of my favorite TV shows were Star-Trek, and Gilligan’s Island. Obviously those two shows were completely different genres, futuristic sci-fi versus a pretty far-fetched sit-com. Far-fetched as in how does Thurston Howell the 3rd, a billionaire wind up on the USS Minnow, rather than his own fleet of yachts? Just saying… but, I digress. As different as the shows were, they both had something in common --something that was hugely influential to me as a child.
In both cases, within the overall ensemble cast, with its different characters and various personalities, both shows featured a single character that was the archetype intellectual and logical hero. Yeah, you probably know which characters I’m talking about, on Star-Trek, it was Spock, on Gilligan’s Island, it was “The Professor”
For me, these became more than TV characters, they became unintentional role-models. Both Spock and the Professor were indispensable to those around them, to the mission, to the basic survival of the group. In Spock’s case, he also had super-human physical strength along, along with superior intellectual capacity. But the character of Spock was all logic, and no emotion. Apparently emotions did not play well in Vulcan society, which probably explains why the Vulcan cable service never featured Jerry Springer. Meanwhile, the professor knew everything about everything, and could just rattle facts and figures off from the top-of-his head, how cool was that.
Every child wants and needs to feel special, to be good at something, to be recognized for some achievement, however dubious. In my neighborhood, my older brother’s friends would call me “The Professor”, they would summon me over to where-ever they happened to be standing and ask me again, “So, how far is the Sun from the Earth”, without skipping a beat, I would say “93 million miles”. I enjoyed that title of “the Professor”, because as a kid, I had nothing else going for me.
Like most of you, our Analytic brains became so powerful and so influential in our lives because that’s what we did well, or that’s the space were we learned to feel special and valued. Then, as we pursue a STEM based education and career, we reinforce and further strengthen our Analytic brain.
However, if were are going to be able to communicate effectively with the world around us, then it won’t be bits and bytes, megahertz or synchronous clocking techniques. No, there will be occasions where we need to tame the analytical mind, so that we can be more balanced. It’s time to recognize and start nurturing something that we always had, we just did not use it lot, the “The Personally Engaged brain”.
In my next post, I discuss the how the “The Personally Engaged Brain” actually compliments the “The Analytical brain, making us more well-rounded, better friends, better lovers, a greater value to the world around us, and just plain happier.
See you then!