On expectations and manipulation
I'm still reading Thorsten Havener's Denken sie nicht an einen blauen Elephanten. I'm about half way through the book and I think it's one of the best books I've read lately. Yes, despite the unfortunate Chopra beginning.
Considering how good a manipulator Havener is, I am more and more inclined to think that the inclusion of this - rather annoying - little story at the beginning of the book has been very intentional. If it was an intentional manipulation of the reader's expectations, it worked miracles on me.
Let me explain what I mean. It is a rather well-known phenomenon that the higher our expectations are, the easier we are disappointed. You see killer reviews of decent movies - just because "one would expect better of the director". If you're known as a very good speaker, you cannot make do with a mediocre performance - despite the fact that you might still be by far the best of your session. And so on and so forth. Sometimes, high expectations are good, because they motivate us to better performances. But sometimes they can be detrimental. People can expect too much of you - they can expect the impossible. If that happens, there is no way on earth you can fulfill that expectation.
Havener knows that. He also knows that his last book entitled I know what you're thinking has been a massive success here in Germany. He also knows that while he hinted at some of his techniques in the book, and thus gave his readers powerful tools to work with, people may just be expecting way too much from this new book. Yet, he cannot (and I suspect he does not want to) give all the secrets of his trade out to the world. What he needed was to lower the expectations, so that his readers would still be satisfied with the book and recommend it further.
I was looking forward for the book ever since it was announced (Havener's Twitter about half a year ago I think). I bought it the day I arrived to Berlin (two weeks after it came out). My expectations were sky-high. Not that I expected to magically acquire the mentalist techniques Havener is using, I was looking forward for his sharp insight into the world of human consciousness and the unconscious.He does this based on his vast experience with people, whom he's been manipulating and whose "thoughts he's been reading" for entertainment for years now. I have also always liked his moderately skeptical approach - while he accepts the results of modern science and sees that the notions of consciousness and free will have been complicated by latest research, he remains open-minded enough to see that there's still a lot that we do not understand, and doing away with all consciousness and free will might just not be the right way to go.
So with all these expectations in my head, I opened the book eagerly when I came back from the bookshop and began to read. Only to put it down about 15 pages later, baffled and a little annoyed. It could not have fared worse. Instead of insights into the human mind, I was being fed esoteric nonsense originating from Deepak Chopra (I've written on this earlier). In a few seconds, my expectations were no more.
I let the book rest for a few days, but knew I'd give it one more chance (after all, I loved Havener's first book, and I could ignore a moderate amount of nonsense). I picked it up again yesterday (that's about 4 days later). Without any expectations. And I love it. I can hardly put it down.
I am asking myself, however - have I, the reader, been manipulated into doing just that? Did Havener include this little annoying passage to get rid of too high expectations? It would not work on everyone, but still, it would be a fascinating thing. I don't mind being manipulated by mentalists - it is, actually, what I expect from them. It's a tacit agreement between the illusionist and the audience: nothing is real, but for the time being, let's act as it it was real, and be amazed. And the more I know about how certain things are done, the more I enjoy the performance when it's done well. Because if, and only if, the performance is good, I can leave aside what I know, and be fooled and amazed. But I'm digressing again.
Considering how good a manipulator Havener is, I am more and more inclined to think that the inclusion of this - rather annoying - little story at the beginning of the book has been very intentional. If it was an intentional manipulation of the reader's expectations, it worked miracles on me.
Let me explain what I mean. It is a rather well-known phenomenon that the higher our expectations are, the easier we are disappointed. You see killer reviews of decent movies - just because "one would expect better of the director". If you're known as a very good speaker, you cannot make do with a mediocre performance - despite the fact that you might still be by far the best of your session. And so on and so forth. Sometimes, high expectations are good, because they motivate us to better performances. But sometimes they can be detrimental. People can expect too much of you - they can expect the impossible. If that happens, there is no way on earth you can fulfill that expectation.
Havener knows that. He also knows that his last book entitled I know what you're thinking has been a massive success here in Germany. He also knows that while he hinted at some of his techniques in the book, and thus gave his readers powerful tools to work with, people may just be expecting way too much from this new book. Yet, he cannot (and I suspect he does not want to) give all the secrets of his trade out to the world. What he needed was to lower the expectations, so that his readers would still be satisfied with the book and recommend it further.
I was looking forward for the book ever since it was announced (Havener's Twitter about half a year ago I think). I bought it the day I arrived to Berlin (two weeks after it came out). My expectations were sky-high. Not that I expected to magically acquire the mentalist techniques Havener is using, I was looking forward for his sharp insight into the world of human consciousness and the unconscious.He does this based on his vast experience with people, whom he's been manipulating and whose "thoughts he's been reading" for entertainment for years now. I have also always liked his moderately skeptical approach - while he accepts the results of modern science and sees that the notions of consciousness and free will have been complicated by latest research, he remains open-minded enough to see that there's still a lot that we do not understand, and doing away with all consciousness and free will might just not be the right way to go.
So with all these expectations in my head, I opened the book eagerly when I came back from the bookshop and began to read. Only to put it down about 15 pages later, baffled and a little annoyed. It could not have fared worse. Instead of insights into the human mind, I was being fed esoteric nonsense originating from Deepak Chopra (I've written on this earlier). In a few seconds, my expectations were no more.
I let the book rest for a few days, but knew I'd give it one more chance (after all, I loved Havener's first book, and I could ignore a moderate amount of nonsense). I picked it up again yesterday (that's about 4 days later). Without any expectations. And I love it. I can hardly put it down.
I am asking myself, however - have I, the reader, been manipulated into doing just that? Did Havener include this little annoying passage to get rid of too high expectations? It would not work on everyone, but still, it would be a fascinating thing. I don't mind being manipulated by mentalists - it is, actually, what I expect from them. It's a tacit agreement between the illusionist and the audience: nothing is real, but for the time being, let's act as it it was real, and be amazed. And the more I know about how certain things are done, the more I enjoy the performance when it's done well. Because if, and only if, the performance is good, I can leave aside what I know, and be fooled and amazed. But I'm digressing again.