Tap Into Next-Level Thinking

TL; DR: You’re in Un-Mode when you’re operating from intuition, and you can sometimes do the impossible. I’ll show you how to build your intuition and one practical way to apply it.

What if you could accomplish more in the next 12 months than you did in the past 12 years?

This is actually a documented phenomenon. Dan Kennedy, who has written a lot about it, cleverly calls it, “The Phenomenon.”

There are many “phenomenon triggers,” but the crown that holds all these gemstones is simple: A new way of thinking leads to the Phenomenon.

Let’s break it down.

An Eternal Golden Braid

Douglas R. Hofstadter once wrote a very long book called Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid.

He was trying to explain how human consciousness works. Today, his ideas are very relevant to Artificial Intelligence, but that’s not what we’re interested in at the moment.

Near the start of the book, he suggests there are three modes of doing things.

There’s the Machine-Mode, where everything is automatic. You follow strict rules and never try to reinterpret what you do.

Next is Intelligent-Mode, which is where you probably are most of the time. Intelligent-Mode is best for solving problems, following the spirit of the rules, knowing the ultimate goal and figuring out the best way to reach it.

But have you ever had a sudden flash of intuition? A brilliant idea that made whatever you were doing ten times better?

There’s a third mode that gets you there, and I’m going to show you how to reach it.

The Un-Mode

Sometime soon, AI may take over most Intelligent-Mode tasks.

This means you either have to be an expert at AI, a celebrity, or someone with extraordinary people skills if you want to have a job in the future.

Or there’s a better way. Hofstadter calls this the Un-Mode, and you’ll have a big advantage in the future if you can work in the Un-Mode.

Un-Mode is where you're operating from a place of intuition. Not only do you take the 30,000 foot view of things, but you’re seeing it in four dimensions and rearranging it in your mind faster than you realize.

Un-Mode should be a dangerous place, because you're more likely to make errors with huge consequences. But extreme athletes spend more time in Un-Mode than anyone else, and most of them will tell you it’s what keeps them alive and uninjured.

Un-Mode also leads to rapid change, discovery, and innovation.

Making Space for Un-Mode

Google used to have a policy of letting their employees spend one day a week working on a new project of their own creation that was meant to make the world better.

Gmail was a product of this policy, along with many other innovations.

 Google got this right. In order to work in Un-Mode, you have to create space. You have to play. You have to give yourself time in the shower for random ideas to show up.

Un-Mode runs on intuition, and it’s a natural human talent that has been stifled for too long.

Here are a few ways to bring it back.

The Brainstorm

Every day, write or draw ten new ideas. They don’t have to be good ideas, but you need at least ten. They can be about anything. You’re training your mind to come up with random ideas on the fly.

The Unthinkable

Think regularly about goals that seem absurdly unrealistic.

How to make ten times as much money while working fewer hours.

How to complete a B.A. program in a single year.

How to master a language or an instrument in just a few weeks.

Thinking the unthinkable makes you comfortable with challenging your limits. You teach your mind to expect quantum leaps.

Walks and Daydreams

Flashes of intuition often come when the Default Mode Network (DMN) is active. The DMN is a part of the brain associated with your mind wandering, and it seems to make connections between different people, thoughts, ideas, etc.

When you’re on a hike or taking a shower and you suddenly have a new idea, that’s the DMN in action.

If you want to spend more time in Un-Mode, create time for the DMN to do its work. Daydreaming, staring out the window (but not staring at a screen), or taking a walk are all ways to activate the DMN.

Now, how can you make all of this useful?

Tool of the Week: Applying Un-Mode for a Quantum Leap

The activities we’ve talked about in this edition will build your Un-Mode muscle. Now let’s look at a way to put that muscle to use.

1. Choose a high-leverage activity that you do often.

2. Think about what you would do if you had to do this task differently.

3. Do it while trying to prevent the usual outcome.

4. Do it backwards.

5. Leave out an essential element. (For example, baking bread without using flour.)

6. Do the exact opposite.

7. Add something new to the activity

8. After you’ve thought about it in these ways, your mind should be bubbling with new ways of doing the same task. Let it sit for a while. Take a walk or go to bed.

9. Return to the task and imagine you have to make it 10 times better, whatever that means for you (i.e. 10x as fast, 10x more food, 10x more fun/interesting, etc.)

Repeat this process often and breakthrough ideas will come.

That wraps it up for this week.

If you’re enjoying these rants, lessons, and tools, I would love to hear from you.

If you’re not, I would like to hear from you even more.

Reply to this email and tell me what you think, what you’d like to see in the future, or just to drop me a line about your cat.

I don’t always have the time to reply to your message, but I read every one of them.

Jacob