
Paul Buchheit: Left brain, Right brain, and the other half of the story - paul
http://paulbuchheit.blogspot.com/2009/09/left-brain-right-brain-and-other-half.html
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metamemetics
He's basing his knowledge on Jill Bolte's TED talk. NOOOOOooooo. That TED Talk
was full of misinformation when it came out, and obviously still is.

The left brain is NOT a "serial processor", and the right brain is not a
"parallel processor". Those are bullshit analogies.

What the main difference is, is the left-brain is usually specialized for
fast, categorical processing using a smaller field of information, wheras the
right-brain is usually specialized for broader, global processing.

The whole brain uses parallel processing. Also, kids who have huge sections of
their left brain removed (due to epilepsy) are still able to develop language
abilities in their right brain. Language processing can be done on both sides
of the brain.

You can test for hemispherical differences in people by either the left or
right part of their visual field. The left hemisphere processes the right
visual field, the right hemisphere processes the left visual field. The right
side of the brain actually processes language faster\better in some instances,
like getting jokes. This is because you need to activate a wider field of
connections to pick up that such a grouping of letters (the word) can have
multiple semantic meanings.

The difference isn't serial vs. parallel. That's bullshit. The whole brain is
parallel everywhere. The difference is in the field of focus. How much data do
you look at to draw a conclusion. Left-brain: smaller field of information,
"local" processing, can categorize faster. Right-brain: broader dataset,
"global" processing, categorize slower.

As a cognitive science student I wanted to clear that up. Also, intelligence
is extremely varied people are not either "left brain" or "right brain", there
are lots of different processing heuristics that might be occurring that
different emphasize over others.

~~~
ntoshev
You are right all brain processing is parallel, but the author doesn't base
anything on serial vs parallel processing and in fact never even mentions
these. He obviously uses the left/right brain thing as a metaphor for the
emotional vs logical mental processes, not as neuroscientific down-to-the-
hardware fact.

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past
This made me realize why I prefer watching a movie before going to bed,
instead of having a late night coding session. After keeping my mind occupied
for a while with lots of left-brain thinking, I can't just flip a switch and
see life in a holistic, right-brain way. I'm usually laying on the bed,
sleepless, thinking about every little problem in my life in excruciating
detail. It's only after I make some conscious effort to switch to right-brain
thinking that I finally relax and fall asleep.

I face the same issue when I drive home from work, too. It's usually when I
see my daughter's face that I can power-down the left brain and start seeing
the big picture.

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edw519
This has been used for some time in sales training. The idea is that people
want something because of emotion, but make their buying decision based on
logic. They call it ERBN (Emotional Reasons to Buy Now) and LRBN (Logical
Reasons to Buy Now).

Without ERBN, there is not enough reason to proceed. But you must also provide
the buyer with enough data to flip his LRBN.

This site has a better explanation and a graphic:

[http://www.deankennedy.com/blog/copy-tip-26-persuasive-
sales...](http://www.deankennedy.com/blog/copy-tip-26-persuasive-sales-
factors/)

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dejb
There are some great points here but I'm not entirely sold on the 'Right Brain
Optimistic' , 'Left Brain Pessimistic' part. I'd say the Right Brain is often
great early warning mechanism for a lot of people (i.e. that gut feeling that
something isn't right). If taken too far it would most likely be the source of
phobias. It's like a 'black box probability engine'. Very powerful but
difficult to debug.

From what I've read the Left Brain is the 'communicator' as well as the
'logician'. I suspect this is the reason why discussion of probabilities, risk
and 'expected returns' are often fraught with confusion - because the Left
Brain doesn't really know how to process these things. The Left Brain prefers
to round probabilities to 0%, 100% or 'unknown/50%'. It seems like many of the
science/policy debates in the world (and on HN) are caused by people having
different rounding criteria and starting probabilities.

~~~
zby
Yeah - people tend to overestimate some risks - like car theft, flying
airplains etc. - this is why insurance companies can make some money. This is
in conflict with that hypothesis - the left-brain dominant would not do that
because left brain is calculating, right-brain dominant would not do that
because it is optimistic.

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Alex3917
"When we imagine the kind of person who believes things that are obviously
false, falls for scams, ends up joining a cult, etc, we probably picture a
stereotypically right-brain person."

I don't think this is because right brained people aren't thinking logically.
I think it's right brained people are more apt to realize that large chunks of
the human experience can't be conveyed through language, and that the
scientific method is unfortunately broken for these areas of the human
experience. (Because without language you can't define phenomena, have
multiple people test stuff, etc.) Thus they realize that they can't discover
the truth on many issues without taking the experiences of others at face
value, even if it means getting snowed once in a while.

If you don't believe me then there are many substances that can make one
temporarily more right brained, so you can see for yourself. :-)

~~~
paul
Ideally one could "realize that large chunks of the human experience can't be
conveyed through language", etc without getting scammed and joining a cult,
which is why it's good to you both parts of the brain :)

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tripe
> _My theory is that both halves of our brain are useful_

I have the opposite theory.

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electronslave
Wasn't this the entire plot to Pi?

~~~
human_v2
The external plot was people accosting Max for the number in his head. The
internal plot, I interpreted, was that when Max stared into the sun as a
little boy, it merged his left and right brain functionality. When he took a
drill to that growth on the side of his head, he was breaking that connection.

I think that's the ultimate goal when dealing with yourself: creating peace
between both halves of your brain. Max found enlightenment by staring into the
sun, and wasn't ready for the power it wields, and went crazy.

