Mind Theory

Sounds like something I read in A Beautiful Mind. Speaking of which, where did that book go? Starting with Stieg Larsson's series now, with titles of all those exotic girls kicking and killing exotic animals. It's nice to have a popular series set in Sweden, where they talk about European places like people would talk about New York or London, like 'Oh, this old famous place which everybody knows.' Awesome.

So my new theory which I came up with while arguing with Lian-ee was on why I always study with the TV or a computer show playing. I used to never do that, back when I was young and my mind was untarnished. But nowadays, I do it for a couple of reasons.

First, my mind's always wandering. So TV plays the role of the wandering mind. With my mind trying to multitask and working on not paying attention to the background noise, it focuses on my notes the same way I would try not to think about other things while I study without noise. So instead of my mind finding its own thoughts to get distracted by, I put it to work trying not to be distracted by the white noise.

The other way it works is by just exhausting myself with watching shows either before or in between studying. Till my mind's so tired that it can't get distracted anymore and everything I read is absorbed just like that. This is also the same theory of why studying very late at night or very early in the morning (i.e. when you're supposed to be asleep) is great, because you're half asleep so you only have the energy to focus on one thing, the words in front of you.

I always feel so pleased when I understand myself a little better every day.