The outcome I would like to joke about this evening is that I develop a brain-emotions model, drawing on evolution, probability theory, lessons from psychoanalysis and psychiatry, that is so simple it is hard to imagine life without it.
I'd forgotten how blunt Europeans are in meetings.
French attendee: "Hello, you have given an explanation but it is very bad so I have many questions."
Instead of saying "you have to practice to get better", I've got an aerials instructor who says "whatever you do is what you'll get better at".
I love the reframing.
You know how we replaced a lot of physical labour with machinery so we invented "exercise"?
We're about to replace mental labour with AI, what forms of "mental exercise" do you think we're all going to take up?
When I see comments like "autistic me didn't realise that 'we should grab coffee' is a polite farewell not an invite" I'm like "the autistic bit is thinking that 'we should grab coffee' has one single solitary correct meaning that applies at all times from all people"
Sensitive, intelligent people who learnt to repress their true selves and have constructed a strong defensive false self. Lacking a solid model of unconditional love on which to base their self worth, it is based instead on anxious attachment to their own intelligence.
i think there's something like a grand unified theory of "burned out gifted kid syndrome" that hasn't been fully articulated yet. at least not anywhere that i know of
Some people never fully soften, never fully relax, and I find myself standing next to them wondering "what would it take to make you feel comfortable? what's the part of you inside that needs to be held?"
I have a frustration which is: I've got friends who are big balls of insecurity and triggered responses who live in their own fantasy worlds, but they have stable partners and good jobs and lives they enjoy, and I'm like how come I have to *heal* in order to have nice things?
in retrospect it's pretty fucked up that you can just say to people "hey you know that hole at the center of your being" and they'll just be like "oh yeah the hole, i know exactly what you mean, love that hole, one of my favorite holes"
Therapy is so extremely odd.
I was arguing with my therapist yesterday when something clicked, and it suddenly felt like my brain started untangling, and has continued to untangle today, and I can't even remember what it was that triggered the untangling.