Expand Your Mind
When you chat with someone who says, "My brain right this minute is 105 megabytes and there are 52,365 thoughts in there," you can (a) run a mile, or (b) figure you're talking to someone who might have something useful to say and stick around. Luckily I chose the latter.
Jerry Michalski is clearly a brainy guy. But in this case he's talking about his Personal Brain, a file built with organizing software called TheBrain (
www.thebrain.com). In fact, Jerry's Personal Brain is so big that the company that makes the software had to build a special version when he reached, with 32,767 thoughts, the limits of the program. The founder of the company and inventor of the software, Harlan Hugh, hadn't expected someone to build such a big brain. "I've been using it so much, and for so long, that I got more thoughts than he counted on," says Jerry.
I'm a huge fan of graphical ways of displaying and organizing information, but I'd initially baulked at TheBrain because it takes a slightly different tack. Whereas most visual displays of data soar above the information, putting everything into perspective, TheBrain works by placing whatever bit you're interested in at the center of the display (the "thought"), showing only the links and thoughts close to it. TheBrain, in short, tries to imitate your brain, in the way that it focuses on the matter in hand, and couldn't care less about all the big-picture stuff.
Of course, visual mind maps are not for everyone. Some people swear by them as a way to organize data, brainstorm, or just save their Internet bookmarks. Others prefer to organize themselves by lists, their calendar, even their e-mail inbox. As Jerry himself acknowledges of TheBrain, "It's not for everyone. People have different cognitive abilities." The key, he says, is to "give people tools that match their style" so that, first, they have a way to arrange stuff, and secondly, to express them to other people.
And this, perhaps, is where TheBrain has an edge. It starts with a thought -- a little box in the centre of the screen -- which you can turn into more or less anything you like -- a file, a Web page, a link to a Web page, a term ("mind maps"), an idea ("mind maps are cool"), an umbrella term ("cool ideas that don't always work"). You can then link to it -- you can add a thought that follows it ("a child thought," in the lingo) or a thought that comes before it ("a parent"). This is a kind of hierarchy which lends itself to organizing your computer files, your Web links or your CD collection.
But then TheBrain takes a leap. If you click on a thought, it will come to the center of the window. Suddenly everything else moves into position around it. This is similar to the way your brain focuses on a problem, say the issue of mind maps, bringing it to the fore and forgetting, for the moment, anything but the thoughts directly connected to it (world hunger takes a back seat, mind maps' connection to subway maps comes to the fore).
And here, Jerry says, is where the value of TheBrain really kicks in: Making links to other bits and pieces -- what are called jumps -- that you didn't see a connection with before. Jerry, for example, found himself creating a jump between two separate business-oriented thoughts: vicious circles and virtuous circles. "In business, I realized, one person's vicious circle is another person's virtuous circle. This hadn't dawned on me before, because we tend to think of these things in isolation."
Jerry, of course, is an extreme case. With a brain as big as his, both in his head and in his computer, TheBrain becomes a memory bank, a repository of information and ideas that he can browse as a way to remind himself of things and to stimulate fresh ideas and connections. But it needn't be that flashy: You could just as easily use it as a better way to store Internet bookmarks; TheBrain lets you drag the link directly from your browser, creating a new thought in the process.
Starting that way might help you find out whether TheBrain is for you (there's a free month-long trial, then it costs $80). The trick is to give in to it entirely for as long as you're testing it, throwing everything you can in there. Like me, you might start to see better inside your own brain.
充实你的"大脑"
当你和某人聊天的时候，如果他告诉你说："现在我的大脑达到105兆字节，里面总共装了52,365个想法。"这时，你有两种选择，一个是转身而去，再一个就是认为这个和你聊天的家伙可能会说点有用的东西，所以呆在那里。很幸运，我选择了后者。
显然，杰瑞?麦考斯基(Jerry Michalski)是个聪明人。他刚才所谈论的是他的"个人大脑"(Personal Brain)，这是一种通过名为TheBrain(
www.thebrain.com)的组织软件建立起来的文件。实际上，杰瑞的"个人大脑"相当大，以至于等他创建的"想法文件"(thoughts)达到程序要求的极限32,767个时，生产这种软件的公司不得不为杰瑞制作了一个特别版本。公司创始人和软件的发明者哈伦?休(Harlan Hugh)也没有想到有人能建立这么庞大的"大脑"。杰瑞说，他已经用这个软件很久了，用得也比较多，因此他建立的"想法文件"数量出乎哈伦的意料。
我对用图形的方式显示及组织信息特别热衷，但我最初用TheBrain软件的时候却遇到了困难，因为它需要用些技巧。大多数把数据信息用图像方式显示出来的软件是把一切东西都纳进去，而TheBrain运行的时候仅把你感兴趣的东西(thought)放到显示屏的中心，仅仅显示与它们相关的链接和接近的其他事物。简言之，TheBrain是在试图模仿人类的大脑，仅专注于眼前要处理的事情，而对那些大图片的东西则不予理睬。 当然，这种视觉大脑图并不适用于所有人。有些人把这种软件当作组织数据、启发灵感的一种方式，或者仅仅用于存储他们的互联网书签。另外一些人喜欢用这种软件做列表、日历或者电子邮件的收件箱，从而进行自我管理。正如杰瑞对TheBrain的看法：他说这款软件不是适用于所有人。每个人的认知能力不同。杰瑞认为，关键的是这种软件为人们提供了适合其风格的工具。因此，这款软件首先是为用户提供了组织信息的方法，然后才是让你能在别人面前进行自我表达。
也许这正是TheBrain有优势的地方。它首先从一个"想法"开始──这是一个在屏幕正中的小盒子样的东西，你可以把它变成任何你喜欢的形式，比如一个文件、一个网页、一个短语、一个观点、一个复合短语等等。然后你就可以建立链接──你可以在这之后增加一个"想法"（术语叫"子想法"），或者在这之前建立一个"想法"（术语叫"母想法"）。通过这种金字塔式的结构就把你电脑上的文件、网页链接或CD收藏都组织起来了。
但随后，TheBrain就变得神奇了。如果你点击一个"想法"，它就会出现在屏幕的中央。然后，突然之间，其他的所有东西都跑到这个"想法"周围。这就好像人类的大脑在关注某一个问题的样子，比如说"大脑图"的问题，暂时把这个问题推到了前面，在短时之内其他内容都忘了，只剩下与这个"想法"直接相关的东西。（比如说全球饥饿问题就退到一边，而大脑地图与地铁地图的链接就跑到前面来了。）
杰瑞说，这是TheBrain的真正价值之所在--与其他信息和文件建立链接。这种链接被称作"跳跃"(jump)，因为你在这之前看不到这种联系。举例来说，杰瑞发现他自己在两个互不相干的商业"想法"──良性循环与恶性循环──之间建立了链接。他后来意识到，在商界，一个人的恶性循环正是另一个人的良性循环。在此之前，他没有意识到这一点，因为人们倾向于认为这些事情是互不关联的。 当然，杰瑞是个极端的例子。如果有他那么大的"脑子"（在电脑上和在现实中，他的脑子都不小），TheBrain就可以用作存储银行了，一个信息与观点的仓库──他可以浏览这些观点，让他回忆起某些东西，或者激发出新的观点和联系。但实际上"脑子"用不著搞那么大，你可以只是把它当作更佳的存储互联网书签的办法；TheBrain可以让你把链接直接拖到你的浏览器里，并在这个过程中创建一个新的"想法"。
以这种方式开始使用TheBrain可以帮助你了解它是否适合你（这种软件可以有一个月的免费试用期，然后要花费80美元）。它的狡猾性在于：一旦你开始试用它了，把你能装进去的东西都扔进去了，你就会完全喜欢上它。
