I think I should address something that bothers Dov a lot, namely that I make observations about how people think, which he would describe as "attacking their personalities."

This is an area where, as I already stated, we have cultural differences. Where I'm coming from is that improvement comes from accurately understanding how my brain thinks. Therefore for me progress is all about personality. Therefore in order to talk to someone about my or their problems, most of the words said have to be about how I and they think. But I also know that how the brain thinks can change if the right tool is available.

This is horrible for someone who thinks that how someone thinks can never be controlled, and that it can probably never even be known. And even in medicine and other sciences there are lots of things that we know happen but we don't know why they happen. Thinking about internal mechanisms can even seen to be dangerous in so far as it prevents you from going down a more productive path. I think this is why Dov refers to analysis as "convolution."

I think it's pretty clear that once you give up on understanding though, especially where you find a set of behaviors that are effective, that is all you will ever know about that topic. That means that helping others will be a matter of selection rather than analysis: you keep looking for the people that mesh with your way of looking at the world, and skip over the rest.

Whereas my approach is to ask a lot of questions because I think each person needs to be understood first, and fixed later - maybe. But in my experience when analysis is done correctly and good tools are available it can do very well.

I would characterize this as a major cultural difference.

And if he gets bored, then what?

Years ago I went to some SA meetings, but eventually stopped because I realized that my main motivation for going was my bipolar disorder, I was looking to do something special so I could get a high. Mzl was a long-standing problem, but my life was not unmanageable. And I analyzed the program to understand the true reasons why it works. And I didn't trust people to be my sponsor. And I had difficulty calling people. Honestly I think for me it was wasted.

Later on I learned a lot on how the brain works and added some original touches of my own, so I never went back.

I enjoyed the meetings though. Also driving to the meetings was great.

Years ago I went to some SA meetings, but eventually stopped because I realized that my main motivation for going was my bipolar disorder, I was looking to do something special so I could get a high. Mzl was a long-standing problem, but my life was not unmanageable. And I analyzed the program to understand the true reasons why it works. And I didn't trust people to be my sponsor. And I had difficulty calling people. Honestly I think for me it was wasted.

Later on I learned a lot on how the brain works and added some original touches of my own, so I never went back.

I enjoyed the meetings though. Also driving to the meetings was great.