- Mindfulness

Contant presence of mind, attentiveness necessary for active observation.

- Motivation
Active engagement and desire. Information memorized while motivated is also easi
er to retrieve, which at the most basic level can be achieved by commanding your
mind to be more attentive and to remember something you would like to be more s
olidly known.
- Consciousness of System Watson's control (and its limitations) is a good start
to allow System Holmes to take over.
- Brain Attic
Memorization technique in which you assume your memory is like an attic, and the
memories are objects that occupy such structure. Theory states that you should
reorganize the contents of your attic in order to help your memory function bett
er, such as visualizing the information you know as contained in properly labele
d boxes. Allowing system Watson to take control necessarily means not storing me
mories properly (cluttering your brain attic), or not storing memories at all. R
ehearsing and manipulating the information (gestures, actings) help consolidatio
n.
- Biases affect us all, by they should be consciously recognized and casted asid
e in order to minimize their effect. E.g.: physical qualities are usually percei
ved as traits of good people, but there are a lot of beautiful criminals.
**Availability heuristic: we perceive things in light of what is more readily av
ailable to our minds, and the more readily available, the more we are confident
in its truthfulness (e.g.: if we read unfamiliar names somewhere, we are more li
kely to consider them famous if prompted later because they're more easily remem
bered).
**Correspondence bias (or fundamental attribution error): tendency of attributin
g or dismissing a person's internal characteristic by considering insufficient e
vidence. Someone that sees reckless driving might think the driver is habitually
reckless instead of thinking of a reason as to why the driver was reckless in t
hat particular situation (driving someone to a hospital, for instance).
- Primes (such as weather) have mitigated effect when consciously noted. Questio
ning your mood or decisions based on the possibility of a particular prime (good
/bad weather, for instance) will make the prime lesse effective and possibly unc
loud judgment. Constant action and vigilance are needed to stop primes.
*External checks are good ways of avoiding primes in decision-making. If you're
listening to someone you're biased towards, objective notes about what was said
will help you go past primes (does saying it aloud help?). Question what can be
the origin of your bias and try to adjust accordingly.
- Attentional Fundamentals
*Selectivity: allocate attention strategically, deciding beforehand what is to b
e focused. This mindset needs to be flexible, adapting to changes in environment
and overall circunstamces.
*Objectivity: interpretation of facts beyond what they really entail spoils anal
ytical possibilities, especially if such interpretation is done to conform the "
facts" to the interpret's theories. Simultaneous absence of two individuals shou
ld not be instantly thought of one kidnapping the other, because there is no evi
dence that supports that.
*Inclusivity: Nothing should be neglected in a decision-making progress. Absence
of something is not inexistence of it, and all of our senses should be contempl
ated as potential influences and sources of information.
*Engagement: keeping yourself motivated throughout the task is essential to avoi

d failure near the final steps. One should remain active and involved ("in the z
one") until the matter is resolved completely and undoubtedly. Multitasking will
often lead to a decrease in engagement, and as such, passive perception (focus
on a single object) is a more suited choice of action.
- Imagination is often crucial to the resolution of a problem, and it is somethi
ng that contrary to popular belief, is developable in someone. Distancing yourse
lf in any manner from the subject of your reason is a good way of creating possi
bilities for your imagination to work. It can be done by engaging in another act
ivity in order to give time to your imagination to work undisturbed by distracti
ng your mind. This other activity must have a certain set of characteristics in
order to properly serve your needs:
1) Its nature needs to be unrelated to the problem's nature. While trying to sol
ve a crime, switching to another case doesn't help.
2) It should be something that doesn't require a lot of effort for you, otherwis
e your brain is going to be too occupied to work on the original problem.
3) It has to be something you find engaging, otherwise the boredom or dislike wi
ll stop it from distracting you.
*Good examples: walking or running, playing videogames that don't require a lot
of thought, pleasing literature, listening or playing music, or throwing a ball
to a wall to catch it again. In sum, something unlike what you need to do, that
doesn't occupy your mind too much, and that you like doing.
*Physically distancing yourself can also achieve the same effect, since our mind
s are usually primed with stimuli associated to our usual tasks. Being stimulate
d in a different manner (by being elsewhere) is a way to make us think different
ly, and thus, reaching different conclusions if needed.
*Mental distance also works in the same manner, and has different advantages. It
can be accomplished, for instance, by meditation:
Method 1 - Relax with your eyes closed and focus on the flow of your breath at t
he tip of your nose. If a random thought arises, acknowledge the thought and the
let it go by gently bringing your attention back to the flow of your breath.
RB: concentrate on bodily sensations? Heartbeat, breath, bloodflow, etc.
Method 2 - Think of a situation in which something went wrong. After reviving it
from your perspective, imagine it again, but this time you are observing it unf
old from afar, like a spectator would.
Method 3 - Visualize yourself doing what needs to be done in a succesful manner.
Play out whole scenarios that could happen as if they were real and part of you
r memory before actually doing them. RB: can such a visualization technique be c
alled "micro-meditation"? They both need you to step back and focus on something
intangible to let your brain reorganize activity in order to function better.
**"When you have eliminated all which is possible, then whatever remains, howeve
r improbable, must be the truth".
- Our minds are prone to creating narratives that make dissonant facts look cohe
sive, even when presented with solid evidence that our interpretation may be lea
ding us to an illogical answer. Therefore, we must be careful not to jump to con
clusions.
- To properly solve a problem, we must first separate what is crucial from what
is merely incidental.

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