5 Quotes by Designing the Mind

The way your mind is structured will determine the person you will become, the life you will live, and the fulfillment you will realize. When you modify your mind, you make changes to the operating system at your core and change your personal trajectory. And when you make a persistent occupation of this endeavor, you become the architect of your own character.

The modern fascination with neuroplasticity has led many to try to optimize their intelligence, memory, and concentration. People obsessively track and optimize their sleep, nutrition, and exercise regimens. But people who obsessively and directly optimize the structure of their minds for flourishing are less common."- Designing the Mind: The Principles of Psychitecture

Psychitecture is a high-level design and implementation process - creative problem-solving for the subjective experience - and when utilized persistently, it can take a mind that is like a prison and gradually transform it into a palace.

Societal pressures work to pull you up to the line of psychological adequacy, and psychotherapy can be used when society falls short. But these aims are far too low. Falling within the current normal range of psychological health is nothing to aspire to. We are interested in far exceeding this line - in psychological greatness.

The Buddha may have been the Beethoven of his psychological state, but Beethoven got to where he was gradually, and still fell somewhere on the endless continuum of musical mastery by the end of his life.