Brains as corporations:
Why we’re not stuck when we’re stuck

I have a theory about how the brain works that isn’t really a theory as much as it is a metaphor that describes how I think the brain works and explains, for me, blocks.

In a post title The BASIC frustration post, using BASIC programming language as a kind of metaphor to explain blocks, distractions and frustration, Mark Dykeman says, “Frustration supercharges the tendency toward distraction. Unless we can build the self-discipline to push through the things that thwart our ambition, we can enter a vicious cycle …”

Here is part of the comment I left:

I have a theory about blocks and such. I think, as a writer, some part of my brain is always working on something. The problem is I want it right now but it’s actually being worked on in the brain’s R&D area, a place I’m not consciously aware of. I think I’m stuck but the R&D guys are looking at it this way and that, upside down and right side up, trying out this and that. Eventually, they send it up to the front office, to my conscious awareness and I think, “Bingo!” and I think I’m inspired. The frustration comes from a kind of middle management part of us that is firing off emails and leaving voice mails like, “Where is it? Deadline! Deadline! Process!” That part clogs up the works, making it harder for the R&D guys to send it up to the office. So I usually try to step away or do something else as a way of removing the middle management layer. The R&D guys usually make their deadline. It’s the middle management level, the sense of frustration, that causes delays.

I don’t mean to slight middle managers (I use to be one!). But if you have ever worked in a large corporation you know there is, of necessity, layers of management in order to allow the corporation to function. However, the downside to that is the imposition of layers of management between customers and decision makers.

Metaphorically, I think that is what happens when the brain feels stuck. I don’t believe it ever is stuck, in the sense of bankrupt of ideas. The ideas are stuck because they are lost in those management layers – anxiety, stress, frustration. In order to free them up, you have to clear away those layers.

Myself, I do that by doing something else for a while. I’m sure others have their own ways.