Debugging Your Brain

by Casey S. Watts

Overview

The human brain is buggy. Sometimes your mind distorts reality, gets frustrated with shortcomings, and spirals out of control. With practice, you can debug your brain. Catch those distortions of reality, transform those frustrations into insight, and short-circuit those downward spirals.

Debugging Your Brain (DYB) is a clear applied psychology book and a concise self-help book. Whether or not you have a technical background, you will find the software development analogies approachable and insightful. You will likely reference and re-read DYB many times, each time discovering new insights.

DYB is full of practical techniques. Each technique is condensed to its core idea, accompanied by just enough story to make it memorable. Each chapter has activities to help you put its techniques into practice. The chapters include: Modeling The Brain, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Introspection, Identifying Inputs, Experience Processing, Experience Validation, and Cognitive Restructuring.

Your brain is a complex system. Patch the software that runs in your mind.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780578755045
Publisher:	Casey Watts
Publication date:	11/01/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	90
File size:	1 MB

Table of Contents

Debugging Your Brain is written to be read in order, with each chapter building on the last. Each chapter is written such that you can return to any chapter later as a reference for yourself. Each of the eight chapters covers one major concept:

1. Introduction describes an overview of the book and describes several example scenarios to keep in mind while reading the book.
2. Modeling the Brain introduces a discrete mental model of how your mind works, especially around thoughts and emotions.
3. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) introduces the principles of this most commonly used talk therapy.
4. Introspection covers how to get into a mental state to effectively work with your thoughts and feelings.
5. Identifying Inputs describes several specific types of inputs to your brain.
6. Experience Processing covers principles and techniques you can use to more deeply understand your experiences.
7. Experience Validation covers techniques you can use to help someone feel like their experiences are valid and understandable, which is critical to dealing with them effectively.
8. Cognitive Restructuring covers the most common unhelpful thought patterns, and how to counter them. This is the core idea of CBT.

You will learn the most if you can integrate these concepts into your life. Once you are aware of them, you can begin to practice and internalize them. Each chapter has activities at the end to help make this easier.

Editorial Reviews

"A straightforward and easily digestible read that decodes several basic, but complex concepts in psychology. With a little practice, the topics and techniques covered in this book will help train your brain how to deal with any situation effectively and productively. The author's lighthearted and relatable way of writing makes it an enjoyable read."

― Dr. Melissa Monsey

Neuroscience Ph.D.

Yale University

"Casey has a gift to make very complex information in a manner that everyone can understand and apply."

― Joyce Lednum

Certified Registered Nurse

University of Texas

"I see this book as something to have in my back-pocket."

― Adrian Gillem

Lead Engineer

Booz Allen Hamilton

From the Publisher

2021-02-03
A “toolkit” focuses on understanding and improving the brain’s performance.

In his slim debut guide, Watts begins with the simple assertion that the human brain is “buggy.” He proceeds from that declaration to offer readers insights into how the brain works and how to fix its stubborn shortcomings. The author’s 10-year history in software development informs his use of terms like debugging. He combines this expertise with a psychological approach centered on introspection and cognitive behavioral therapy to create a method of reworking old thought patterns and rewiring dated habits. Key to this technique is the differentiation between what Watts calls the “inner” and the “outer” brain, the inner being the more instinctual, unthinking center of visceral reaction and the outer being the more rational and evaluative part. This reality—that humans feel first and think second—prompts the author to imagine a software-style “Input-Process-Output” model that can be modified in one of two ways: either Input-Habit-Output or Input-Mindful-Output. Watts furnishes many hypothetical situations (quite a few from his personal life) that his readers will find immediately recognizable and follows all of those scenarios with quick and incisive analyses. In all cases, some variation of CBT is his suggestion for resolving the problems he poses. In friendly, engaging prose, he urges his readers to talk things out with a friend (or a rubber ducky if no cohort is available at the moment), write things down, and even read some fiction to help with the brain’s processing techniques. Most of his procedural suggestions boil down to common sense (think about your own actions; express yourself; be a good confessor and a superb listener), but they’re no less valuable for that, particularly when delivered with the energy and optimism Watts employs throughout his book. Regardless of their stance on CBT, readers will find a great deal of useful advice here.

A worthy, tightly organized, and intriguing program for rethinking thinking.

Kirkus Reviews