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Writer's pictureAbhimanyu Kumar Sharma

A few things about the functioning our brain!!

Updated: Nov 5, 2022

The human brain is by far the most complex physical object known to us in the entire cosmos! So, let's see a few interesting things about the way our brain functions.


We try to ruin our Plan A subconsiously if we have a Plan B!!

If we have a plan B we don't really focus on our plan A, this is because of the weird way the human brain functions. Many researchers have found out that if we have a plan B or backup plan our brain automatically shifts its focus to making sure that the backup plan works, no matter the cost! This is because having a backup plan reduces our motivation to accomplish our first goal. And this is exactly why our performance goes down while we try to accomplish our first goal. But does this mean we shouldn't have a backup plan at all? What if we tried really hard and were not able to succeed? We should understand that there is a difference between having a backup plan and never making a backup plan. The backup plan should not be made side by side with your main plan. It should ideally be made at the last moment! This helps because then your brain actually focuses on the major goal and only shifts its focus at the last minute when it is almost certain that your plan isn't going to work. This technically means, if your brain thinks you can do it, it will not shift your focus to the backup plan!


We love breaking laws if they are too complex/strict!!

Firstly, breaking rules makes us feel powerful! So the harder it is to break it the more powerful we feel. So the question now is what exactly does a complex rule mean? Researchers decoded rules based on 2 types of complexities: the number of components in the rule and the number of connections it has to the other laws. Our brain doesn't like accepting big, long rules and therefore tries to break them, it also doesn't like too many rules for a single thing. For instance, rules of hygiene in restaurants, have multiple rules about how to do a single thing, this results in many of those rules being ignored.


The kind of music you listen to influences the way you see the world!!

A recent study conducted at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands shows us that music can change our perception of the world. The researchers found that people who listen to happy music didn't just feel happy, they saw more happier faces around them than they used. The results were similar with the people listening to sad music, it's just that they were sadder and saw sadder faces around them. If this is true why do we crave sad songs when we want to feel better? It turns out that these songs, that pull at our heart strings contain a musical device named appoggiatura, which is an ornamental note that clashes with the melody to create discord, this discord creates tension in the listener and when it resolves, the listener feels better!



Our brain treats long-term deadlines badly!!

Long-term deadlines are given almost no significance, this happens because of many reasons, but the top reason has to be your brain choosing something easy and fun to do rather than something that's difficult. For instance, your exams are a month away, your brain would tell you to watch Netflix rather than study because watching Netflix is certainly more fun than studying. But then why and how are close deadlines treated as more important? Well, firstly the consequences of not getting something done calls the panic monster in your brain! And once the panic monster takes control your brain automatically does the tasks that it wouldn't do under normal circumstances. Taking the same example again but this time your exam is just a day away! At this point, your brain will try to ensure that you study and not chill. So, can we possibly do anything to make those deadlines more significant? There is a simple thing you can do to make sure that long term deadline is treated properly. Make deadlines for small parts of the long-term goal. This creates artificial deadlines, and we know that if one doesn't meet their deadline they feel guilty, so to avoid this the panic monster will be there because you now have a short-term deadline!





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Kalpana Sharma
Kalpana Sharma
Jul 18, 2021

Very Interesting 👍🏻

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