Brain Food for Pioneering Spirits: After weeks spent examining reflection from every angle, it’s time to bring it all together. Dr. Yasemin Yazan, Marc, Jürgen and Sabine look back — from why “assumption is the enemy of truth” keeps resurfacing in daily life, to a spirited debate over whether the voice in your head is a monologue or secretly a dialogue…
Note: This session was recorded live in German as part of the Deep Talk Club, so the video above is German-language audio only. What follows is an English translation of the conversation, lightly edited for readability — the back-and-forth between the moderator and participants is preserved, but the original timestamps and speaker names have been left out.
A very good morning to you. Today we’re continuing with reflection and bringing it together. By reflection here I don’t mean the overarching topic of reflection, but rather that under the overarching topic we’re now doing a reflection and the bringing-together. We’ve looked at and examined the topic of reflection from various perspectives over several days and weeks. And now it’s time to actually look again at what’s actually stuck. What insights have we gained? What can you remember? What were your highlights from the whole thing so far? So we can draw a kind of interim summary for ourselves, to then continue tomorrow with the next overarching topic, namely thinking, the first approach to thinking. And afterward, once we’ve worked on thinking overall for a few days, weeks too, then we want to look at acting too, before we look at the connections between them. So, today is the opportunity to use for that. Yes, what are the first things that come to your mind, that occur to you? Especially, of course, aligned with what’s been there again and again, or consistently, over the last days, weeks, and can contribute something to that too. And yes, before I mute myself and see who’d like to join this morning, I’d like to give the reminder again that we record the room the entire time. So, anyone who joins automatically agrees that the whole thing gets published too. We have three small room rules, a profile picture where you’re clearly recognizable, first and last name, and at least one sentence in your bio, and anyone who doesn’t want that for whatever reason, or can’t speak right now, can of course also use the chat. With that I’ll mute myself for now and see who’d like to hold onto the interim results with me today. A very good morning, dear Marc.
Good morning, dear Yasemin. I’m happy to be with and among you. I have to say first, this summary is incredibly hard for me, and I didn’t know if I could be here today, because in my thinking I really only ever look at what’s coming, so today and tomorrow, I don’t look back at all, and I probably couldn’t have said a single sentence for the summary, because I couldn’t have sorted the information I already had together with the new information right here on stage, since I don’t have a script. And the only way I actually managed to get this together at all was to look at my ChatGPT history. The search terms showed up there. That of course brings back to memory what we talked about. But without these documents I’d have been helplessly stranded. So much information runs through my head, and my head actually works in such a way that with the day-to-day business coming up today, I know what I have to do today, I know what’s not done, but I check off completed things, and it’s really hard to go into a summary without a script like that. But I’m glad Jürgen has joined too, and I’m really curious how the room develops.
Yes, wonderful, thank you so much. And that might fit reflection quite well too, because that shows, at this point, quite generally on the overarching topic of reflection at this point, it really shows quite generally how important it is to actually have notes, or some kind of history, or something to hold onto. And that’s not specific to Deep Talk, but quite generally, because otherwise, in quotation marks, it’s not gone, but overlaid with a lot of other information, so to speak, that we also have throughout the day at other points, with a lot, lot of stimuli. And in that sense this drawing of a summary, repeating, and so on, is also really useful, to reactivate the neural networks again too. Jürgen, a very good morning.
A very good morning, dear Yasemin, dear Marc, everyone else in the room. Yes, with notes, I don’t have that right now, because I’m in an environment where I don’t have access to that. But I think I still have quite good access to the brain box up there. And what’s stuck, your phrasing, the spontaneous trigger — let me use that now for a summary for myself, for this important topic. And specifically, what’s stuck, among a lot of things, is a really essential sentence that was said once, I don’t remember anymore, I can’t place it anymore, was it from Marc or was it from you? I think it was from you, dear Yasemin. You cannot not communicate. And that raises the question for me, if I look back at our room, reflection — can you also not not reflect? Well, the purpose of reflection, answering the question of what for, so the benefit, we’ve also repeatedly picked up and held onto that in various rooms. And the three essential points, those have also stuck for me, and I’d like to repeat them from my point of view — reflection, on one hand, for understanding, so the preliminary stage to understanding, reflection to expand perspectives, another term we’ve often used, to expand our own horizons, and last but not least, really important, reflection for learning. Because without learning we stay standing at the station and the big train leaves without us. Understanding, new horizons, and learning, changing, growing beyond yourself — basically that’s, for me, a creative, a really creative process, and my association jumps over. It’s basically the artist in ourselves, the possibility of the artist in ourselves, our own understanding of life and being a survival artist. That’s why reflection, for me, is now even more one of the crown disciplines we have. And that’s why, related to the opening question, I think we should do everything to never not reflect. You, dear Yasemin, have made a really essential contribution with all these rooms, and I thank you again heartily for that. And now I think it’ll continue just as excitingly. Thank you again, and have a nice day.
Yes, wonderful, thank you so much. And we’d also talked about this conscious and unconscious aspect, and said that this reflecting possibly always takes place, but then isn’t this conscious thing, to differentiate again here too. And the unconscious, so to speak, the triggered, the emotional, the biochemical processes that run automated in the background, as soon as we perceive various senses from outside. And to differentiate again here between conscious and unconscious reflection. And that would primarily be, if we talk about aspects like establishing self-efficacy, especially when we talk about conscious reflection. Marc, would you like to build on this too?
Yes, very gladly, and I’ll join in on that. I find this one of the most exciting topics we’ve had here in the Deep Talk Club. And I can only say, from my own past, that reflection is what led me to be where I am today, not because I’m more intelligent, or not either, because I had more luck, because reflection completely changed my life in all areas of life. Both in the relationship, which didn’t work for a really, really long time. That wasn’t bad luck, that was simply different reflecting, different thinking about it, as well as professionally. And dear Jürgen, I’d like to thank you too. Until just now, until two minutes ago, I would have vehemently claimed there are people who don’t reflect. So who don’t reflect. And for me reflection is… I don’t know now the sentence we all agreed on. For me reflection is checking thinking. But checking thinking still takes place regardless. You can’t say someone doesn’t reflect if they check, why is Andreas maybe upset with me? What did I do there? But reflection, for me, also has to do with learning to ask the right questions, ask yourself different questions, to then answer them in the inner monologue. And this insight, then, connected with the unconscious. And what I really learned from Clubhouse, I’m so grateful to Clubhouse, because Clubhouse has moved me forward there — so these sentences don’t come from me, but this checking thinking is, for me, simply that I always consider, who says what I think? Where do I even get my information from? And then, what happens to me when I think that? Because thinking also leads to us being sad, being happy, being scared, because we misjudge a situation in the company. And that only happens through our thinking. And through this reflection I become, in terms of my own feelings, self-empowered and self-determined again. And if I then consider what happens to me if I think something different, if I have new thoughts, so either in the inner monologue. That has such an incredible power over our feelings. That’s why I agree with you, dear Jürgen, that this topic Yasemin gave us, this reflection, is a really important part. I went to school for a long time. I learned a lot of useful things, a lot of useless things. But if I’d at least had, from a certain school year, this topic of how our brain works, what reflection is, and what we can achieve with it — that what we think doesn’t correspond to reality at all — that would have helped me a lot. And to conclude my talk, I heard a report last week on WDR 5, where Gerald Hüther was also mentioned. And there again comes what I’ve also often said, we see what we want to see. And I found his remarks really interesting, saying, the world we live in, when we’re born, doesn’t just stand there facing us. The world we move in, professionally, privately, everywhere, arises in our consciousness, and, now comes the most important part, through our consciousness and through the perspective we choose. And that’s all — I know, I’m repeating it again, because it’s so much information, you first have to process that, I also had to think about that sentence for a long time. So, the world as we experience it, it’s there anyway, first of all. But how we order it, whether we perceive it as terrible or exciting or funny or cruel, arises in our consciousness, and through our consciousness and through the perspective we choose. And to arrive at that insight, we go into reflection, into the inner monologue. And there it’s important to ask yourself new questions. Because new questions bring new answers. And, dear Yasemin, this topic really is a gift. And for me, just like the subject of happiness that our biologist friend mentioned, those would be two central topics in school that have personally given me endless richness for my life, and that would have moved me forward so much more, if I’d had this insight at 20 already.
Yes, wonderful. Thank you so much. And leaning on what you just picked up, namely the inner monologue, I’d also like to pick up this communication aspect again, that we’d also talked about. So we came, via this “you cannot not communicate” from Watzlawick, to this aspect of communication, with regard to the inner monologue on one hand, to differentiate, then to say, there’s also communication, or the dialogue with others, for reflection. And then I’d also built on that here and said, one of the future skills in this context, which we now get to newly learn, is also communication with the machine. So that’s where we got to talk about AI again too. And that’s why it occurred to me, I also wanted to share the link again today, for September 14th, 7pm. It’s basically about a talk called AI Revolution, Navigating Between Innovation and Uncertainty. And exactly this, so the derivation of what exactly is meant by this communication with the machine, and to what extent that also — that also falls under this aspect of reflection at this point. I’ll present this derivation accordingly there too. So, whoever has the time and inclination to join Thursday evening, just register via the link, it’s free of charge. And you’ll then get access via Zoom, so to speak, to be able to listen in. And with that we’d also built a bridge with regard to what new skills and abilities are needed in the future now too. And that’s also a really, really exciting topic, because a shift is happening right now, so to speak. And here too we’re allowed to come to a rethink through reflecting. Marc, Jürgen, would anyone like to build on this again?
Yes, gladly, dear Yasemin. And specifically with a question. I tried to register there. This goes a bit off-topic now. But I tried to register. Just my question to you — with the registration, shouldn’t I have received a link for this event, for a Zoom link, based on my understanding, or do I get it later? That would be my question about that, before I maybe want to build on this or that thought too.
Yes, really good question. The event isn’t mine. So I don’t know now whether it, in my view, should have come immediately, but maybe it also gets checked. You registered as a guest, Jürgen?
Yes.
Yes, then it would probably make sense — there should certainly be an email address stored on the page where you registered, that you maybe send an email just to be safe, and check that. Normally that should run automatically. There are sometimes organizers who only do that shortly beforehand, or also first check whether the registration is okay, in quotation marks, so it gets sent out manually. But I’d just send an email to be safe, to make sure you definitely have the link in time too. If there should be challenges, let me know again, then I can also contact the organizer again at that point.
I’ll try again then. I remember, I left an email address, because I also wanted to register. But as I said, I’ll try again now, and if I can give you that as feedback, that would encourage me. Thank you.
Wonderful, and gladly also always check your spam folders again too. That’s also a reminder, you don’t always necessarily think of that, because sometimes this or that ends up in the spam folder and you don’t even notice. That’s maybe another reminder at this point. Marc, do you have any further additions?
Yes, very gladly. Now there’ll be a lot of repetitions, but I find them important. Not just for the summary, but it’s just really burned into me. If you’re aware that, through thinking or reflecting, we’re responsible for our feelings, because we more or less decide too — every one of us finds different things funny or sad.
And what I found totally exciting, at some point I came across the thought that when it’s New Year’s, we imagine, we all resolve, now we’ll do more sports, and we want to work less, and we want to take more care of our children, our partner, and so on. But what we don’t say, or we talk about food, we say, I’ll completely change my diet. But I’ve never, I’ve also told this before, I’ve never met anyone, a friend who told me, hey Marc, for 2024 I just want to think differently. So, we engage with food and know that a bad diet makes you sick. We don’t need to argue about that. If you know you eat unhealthily, you’ll get sick over time. But if you think unhealthily, so think the wrong things, you can also get sick. And you can’t repeat that often enough, that our body has a lot of things that influence it. And that includes not just diet, but also thinking. That topic’s coming up next, as far as I understand it, how Yasemin thinks about it. And reflection too.
Yes, wonderful, thank you so much. Thinking is coming up next as our overarching topic. We’ll start with that tomorrow, so to speak, with our first approach. I’m already really, really curious about that too, especially later too, when we also make all these distinctions and also establish the interweaving and connections between the overarching topics again. In the then, so to speak, final week, after we’ve looked more closely at all three sub-overarching-topics, reflection, thinking, and acting. And on the aspect of reflection and bringing it together today, the aspect of methods also occurs to me. We gathered quite a lot there too, and especially the digital campfire I had, that we had, and that dealt with these risks and side effects that can exist, that we talked about, so also showing the dangers, so to speak, I found that a really, really exciting room too, by the way. Maybe there are aspects we want to pick up again with regard to the methods and also the dangers we’d opened up in this context too. Marc, Jürgen, would maybe someone like to build on this again? I unfortunately wasn’t in the room a few times, I think, including when it was about these methods. Jürgen, maybe you’d like to add something to that too?
Yes, well, I don’t want to say you won’t believe it, that’s not my style, but yesterday, which I could only follow relatively briefly, was actually full of reflection, because I was in my desired physical flow state, to really reflect there, also about our topic. And that’s when this repeatedly postponed topic of “methods” came to mind too, and this connection with what I was doing at the time. Back then, with these methods, I’d tried to build this bridge, how you, as the person reflecting, put yourself into a state that’s also suited and appropriate for a reflection. And for me that’s the sporting activity I do. And we were in that room you mentioned, at the campfire, and addressed this topic of meditation and trance, and I found that incredibly enriching for me too, because I have a certain experience in that subarea too, and rediscovered quite a few positions, discovered completely new ones, discovered completely new views. And that’s why I engaged with that yesterday. And my goal is, once I’m back in a home electronic environment, dear Yasemin, then I’ll bring in what I could contribute myself on the topic, and what got defined and seen from the room as risks and opportunities, also from the coaching perspective, and then, always with the other topic of artificial intelligence, assign that as a task. As I said, I’ve firmly resolved that. That was the quintessence from that room, from your campfire, because I said I don’t have a really specific opinion on that. I’m an absolute fan. I praise my preconditions for getting into this method of reflection, and what expanded my view especially were the many risks that were brought up. And I have my thoughts on that now too, but as I said, I’d like to connect that with the other position you addressed with regard to methods, namely the dialogue with the machine. I’m curious about that and already looking forward to when, as I said, I’m in a position to use this method. Thank you.
Yes, wonderful, thank you so much. I find that great. And with that we might also make a shift now and use the opportunity to talk about that again too. You gladly do mind mapping in this context, we’d also already talked about that, and also said we could gladly think about how we might pick up this mind map here too, and maybe also present it. I saw you sent a message, through the travels and so on that’s still a bit in the background, but not, so it’s not forgotten or anything, but I just haven’t gotten around to looking at it more closely. I saw you managed, among other things, or that there’s a possibility to present that as HTML, so to speak. And I just took a brief look at it, gladly come back to that. A question with regard to this HTML version — wouldn’t that, so does the link of the HTML change, does it change every time you pull it, so to speak? Or is it one you can keep working on in the HTML too? So how could we proceed there? Maybe you’d like to briefly say something about that too. Then we could maybe also include that in the dailies or something, where there are recordings and transcriptions every day anyway, also include a link or something here too, Jürgen?
Yes, thank you for picking that up. The HTML version I pull from Mindmanager, and Marc was really helpful there too, I also misused him as a tester and asked him the question, check whether you can even open it and what you can do with it. You can’t change it, you can’t edit it. That was also, I think, a question I’d formulated to you in the email. Check whether you can open it and above all whether you can edit it. That’s not possible, and I also have to, if we then had progress, I have to switch new versions into a new HTML version and then make it available again. Though, you know, I’ve been a user of Mindmanager and Mindjet for years now, and it works absolutely smoothly by now, just like the export, for example, of all the outlines and content for the outline points into a Word document. So that’s really fantastic what’s available there by now. And I don’t have the paid version anymore, but the trial version. But that’s, in my view, absolutely sufficient now for me, for my purposes. So it’s not a huge effort. That can certainly be managed, and if the need is there, I’ve always signaled that I’m gladly available for that. Thank you.
Yes, thank you so much. I asked about the editing, and so on, because I thought about how we could do that, because on one hand I’d like to avoid us constantly including that and you then having a lot of effort having to send it to me again and again, so to speak, if you then have continuations and things like that. But what I could well imagine is, we always have a kind of reflection and bringing-together, that at the end of an overarching topic, so to speak, where the probability isn’t as high anymore that big changes will still come, that you, so to speak, once we’ve concluded the overarching topic, at the end of a complete phase, that we then maybe make this last result, or the latest status you have at that point, available, and that we just include that once, so to speak. That could be an idea. What do you say to that?
I stand by my word. I’m available to everyone. You just have to give me the corresponding signal, and get going — well, apart from right now, I don’t have access to this option, but normally I do. And however you or however you see the need, I’d gladly like the idea, at the end for the bringing-together, to make that available, I find that really good, and we can then, once I’m back, maybe try that out on the topic of reflections, how that’s received, because, dear friends, that’s become quite a monster by now, if you open all the branches. But as I said, always gladly, come to me. I’m happy to do that.
Yes, wonderful, then let’s hold onto that right away, that we’ll gladly try this out for this overarching topic of reflection. That means, as soon as you have time and access, and so on, that you just send me this HTML link from the latest status, and then we’ll just try that out and see how it looks. Let’s just do it, and then we can reflect again, so to speak, once we’re in the doing. Wonderful, thank you so much. Yes, Sabine has joined too. A very good morning, dear Sabine. What do you say about our topic today, or at what point would you like to build on this again?
Yes, a very good morning. I would have actually joined much earlier, but it just wasn’t possible. But that also has to do with reflection. This week was set really high for me in terms of reflection. I listened to you every day. I could rarely join in, because this week — I already told you this — I came back from vacation, I had a lot to reflect on, but we also got a guest child from Mexico this week, and I’m reflecting all day. I’m also reflecting within the family, because I just say, hello, the poor guy doesn’t know yet, we have to help him with things like that. And we have so many discussions in the family, like today for example, he set an alarm and didn’t get up. So I told my son, go over and, go over. He says, well he’s already grown up. And so many discussions result from that, that at first I thought, is it me, is it him, or should we communicate better? And just the same within the family, very different viewpoints get perceived there too. But I think we just need one, two, three weeks to find our footing here. Let me give another example. Yesterday I cooked, which I don’t always do at lunch, and he didn’t come. But my son came afterward and said, did you tell him you were cooking? So I stepped back two steps and said, no, actually not. So I think we assume a lot about others, without maybe just using the “why don’t you ask him” approach. And in that sense the week was really interesting for me, and mornings are a bit of hell right now for us, because everyone packs something, everyone does something. I don’t know if I should make breakfast. I don’t know. He has completely different habits. That’s also why I could only join here first now. But especially the topics of reflection and empathy were really important for me. And reflection and problem-solving. So those two — I keep running around with the frame now, and shift the frame a bit, figuratively speaking. So that’s really helped me a lot. Thank you.
Yes, wonderful. Thank you so much. And especially when different cultures collide, so to speak, you notice that possibly much more intensely, that there’s already a lot of automated expectation on our side too, and where we maybe don’t formulate many questions at all, a lot doesn’t take place in communication at all, because there’s a certain given-ness there too. Of course we have that in everyday life otherwise too, but especially with different cultures it comes to the surface more strongly, so to speak, because really huge discrepancies can just be there. And in that sense I find that really, really exciting. Marc, Jürgen, do you want to build on this again too?
Gladly, Marc. Dear Sabine, I thank you for the template, and now comes another repetition from me, of a Nietzsche quote I’ve bent to my own purposes. “Assumption is the enemy of truth,” and that was exactly a textbook example of reflection, and assumption is the enemy of truth, which I also just described earlier with Gerald Hüther. We see the world based on our prior experience, and in your world, dear Sabine, it’s clear that you cook lunch, maybe not every lunch, but the children know that, and then we automatically assume, we don’t think about it, we automatically assume, that’s how it is for us, it must be like that for him too. And assumption is the enemy of truth is, just as your son answered, he must know that, he’s already grown up. Maybe nobody ever told him that, maybe he’s never reflected on it, maybe he’s also tired, we don’t know why he didn’t get up. One person says, he maybe doesn’t have enough energy, but maybe he’s also learned that’s not so bad. Maybe the parents said, if you have school five days a week, if you’re there two days, we’re also happy. But we’re just assuming all of that. In every professional situation and in every private situation. And the only way to switch off this assumption, if we don’t want to stay in the inner monologue with ourselves, is what Jürgen just said. Reflection is also exchange, and exchange, the word origin doesn’t quite fit now, but you have to smile about it. Exchange has to do with outside. Only if we go outward, by asking questions and saying, is that really so, that you, so why did you do that, did you forget it, weren’t you hungry, did you have something else planned, and then go into exchange. But not with finger-pointing, an accusation, but simply for the sake of understanding. Then, if we take all of that with us, then I find we’re all so mega far along in the room, because then it stops with the finger-pointing, that we accuse other people of things they didn’t do out of malice. That’s a textbook example, Sabine, for everything that happens in politics. People don’t do that because they’re evil. He didn’t come to eat because he wanted to annoy you. The boy will probably be happy, or the guest child, that he’s in Germany, that he can be here, that he can take that in. And he certainly won’t go to bed in the evening and say, now let me think about how I can annoy Sabine, because I have nothing better to do tonight. And that’s reflection. And there are so many examples of that. And what you just said, I’ll repeat myself, is really a textbook example for all everyday situations. And for me, the sentence, assumption is the enemy of truth, keeps coming up, at least a few times a week, where I catch myself having
made a firm decision, and made a decision, and don’t immediately ask and stop, Marc says, those are assumptions, you don’t know the hundred-percent answer. So wait, and often it resolves itself. And really, really different answers come out than the ones I assumed. And if we know that, that helps us in the current situation, that it doesn’t have to be so bad. And that the people around us, even when they act, don’t get up in the morning with the desire to annoy us or trip us up.
Yes, wonderful. Thank you so much. And here another book tip actually just occurred to me, through what Sabine brought in again. And maybe we can talk briefly about that too. Specifically, I got to think of Martin Buber, especially this book “I and Thou.” Ultimately it’s about, to a degree, the sentence “Man becomes an I only through a You.” That gets relatively philosophical at this point now. That means, we’ve also opened up these various reflection levels. We’ve said, on one hand, there’s the inner monologue. That means, I have the possibility here, so to speak, in monologue with myself, so myself as the internal conversation partner, so to speak, to enter into a reflection here. At the same time I also find this aspect, man becomes an I only through a You, really, really exciting, against the backdrop that man is also a social being, and what role our counterpart plays here too, to perceive ourselves, to form our identity, and so on. So there are a lot of interesting, exciting aspects with — for anyone who doesn’t know it, maybe just use it to approach this topic again on a different level, and at the same time maybe as an impulse too. What do you say to that, Marc, Jürgen, Sabine? Would you like to build on this here too?
Gladly, Jürgen. I’m absolutely triggered now by your contributions, running toward this term, the inner monologue. Please don’t consider me a nitpicker now, but I think, or let me formulate it differently. For me it was really decisive to define this process of reflection, of conscious reflection, this inward view, not as a monologue, but as a dialogue. I’d already mentioned that once, from which my essential life motto also results, “I am the spirit that always denies.” They may think whatever, and whoever wants to. From the moment I gave this counterpart a name, he’s become, in quotation marks, existent and present for me. He’s there. He’s actually always there, whether I now consciously perceive him or not. Because I know this Mephisto in the background, I created him, or rather I only created him in the sense that I gave him a name. He’s always there. And when I know, dear friends, every morning when I get up and look in the mirror, someone looks back at me. Then that’s exactly the point we’ve also already addressed, the question of what’s actually the trigger for reflecting. You addressed it, there’s a part of unconscious reflecting, absolutely. But this conscious reflecting, this topic-related one, that comes from a need — when I turn to the daily morning dialogue in the mirror and say, well, how do we look today? And he tells me, pretty crappy. Then I have the occasion to reflect on it. And that’s why I prefer to speak, bear with me, not of a monologue, but of a dialogue. Thank you.
Yes, wonderful, thank you so much. I think everyone’s allowed to choose that for themselves. I like both terms. I like both the monologue and the inner dialogue. I’m fine with both. I especially find both terms “nicer” than something like, I think we had the aspect of self-talk in between too. And there I just find, both the inner monologue and the inner dialogue sound nicer, and for me both are fine. And maybe you can actually even look at whether there’s maybe a monologue too, whether you can maybe even make distinctions. When is it an inner monologue, and when does it become an inner dialogue? So I’d find that an exciting question too, at this point. Maybe someone would like to venture an approach too, Jürgen, Sabine, or build on this at another point too. Jürgen, go ahead.
My spontaneous answer to that, dear Yasemin, is the distinction that with a monologue there’s the danger that the counter-speech doesn’t exist or doesn’t get brought in. And with a dialogue I always have to be aware that the other person takes a different view, a different perspective, and represents a different opinion, knows a different truth. With a monologue, as I said, I see the danger, I’m really careful, I see the danger that that gets disregarded, if you don’t have the necessary methodology to unlock that for yourself, and then we’re back at the counter-speech, or basically, for me, a dialogue. But that’s the essential reason, for me, the really essential factor, the existence of the counter-speech. That would be a distinction I’d offer.
Yes, gladly, Sabine. So for me, I’d see that pretty similarly — with a dialogue I need a second voice, don’t I? So for me, with a dialogue there also actually has to be a kind of dispute, so at least a pro-and-con version, so that I have two different voices in me. With a monologue I’d now say, I’m just holding a speech for myself internally. So that would make the difference for me. I have a quick note for Jürgen though. I registered via the link and got a Zoom confirmation. And I, as a non-technical person — so it works.
You’re putting me to shame.
Yes, I can imagine that, as an absolute non-technical person, and so skilled. But it worked. So I’ll just try again.
Wonderful. Thank you so much for that feedback too. Yes, and especially with these inner voices, just before you said that, I’d already thought about the inner team, and so on, so whether we talk about the inner team now, or derived from transactional analysis, the parent ego, the adult ego, and the child ego — there too we’re already directly at these different voices, so to speak, that also pop up internally with us, for example in the form of thoughts, and so on, and can pursue different goals, have interests, and so on, needs above all. And in that sense, considering these inner voices for this dialogue too, so to speak, and that also often really does happen, especially with reflections, and so on. And at the same time, exactly, what you said, Sabine, if I were preparing for a speech or something, then it’s possibly rather a monologue, because then I’m — but the moment I start reflecting, the question is, is that then a different inner voice of mine, or is that, or what exactly is happening there actually? Marc?
Dear Jürgen, hopefully you’ll allow me to take exactly the opposite position right now. For me, let me try it with the terminology, since I learned that from you and just checked it again, the monologue is a conversation with yourself. Period. Let me leave that standing for now. If I speak with myself, I have the possibility to decide how I speak with myself. And if I now enter into a conversation with myself, I have the possibility to imagine my AI, or my imaginary conversation partner, and either say, Marc, you’re totally great, that of course wouldn’t be reflection then, but I can speak internally with myself and say, Marc, you’re a great guy, you’re totally great. At the same time I can, in my imagination, visualize a conversation partner who says, how do you come up with that? Who says that? I don’t think so at all. And that’s a matter of training, and I’m still in the inner monologue with the conversation with myself, but have, so to speak, imaginary, what you call — I understand your approach, and this is now a bit purely philosophical — I understand your approach, Jürgen, I’m basically, what you mean, then in dialogue, because the other person I imagine, who then asks me a different question and a different answer, that’s me too. I just have to let the inner monologue allow my imagined self to ask me different questions I wouldn’t otherwise ask, and then, so to speak, like at carnival, I can take on two roles. I just have to want it and engage with this kind of thought game, that if I play chess against myself, I switch positions in a flash. But that’s the great thing about our mind and our brain. We can do that. We can also go into dialogue, even though nobody’s there.
Oh, wonderful. Jürgen, would you like to build on this too?
Oh, wonderful. I’ll join in on that. Heartfelt thanks. Sorry. Heartfelt thanks, dear Marc. We’d also once defined that, said, the terminology doesn’t matter, whatever we call the child, the main thing is we understand each other and we all know together what we’re talking about. And I found that a wonderful compromise now, and I find it, in that sense, also always amazing and great how, on one term — if you go out onto the street now and say, hey, what’s a dialogue, a monologue for you, they’ll probably look at you with big eyes and say, come back tomorrow. But these loops and these connecting points, and basically that’s the reproduction of our brain that develops from that, I find that always absolutely striking in this room, and I could hug you all right now. Thank you.
Yes, great. Thank you so much. I’m cracking up. I find that really great, and yes, with a view to the time, I’d suggest that we gladly move into wrapping up at this point, and we’re allowed to look forward to the next overarching topic, thinking, at this point too. Yes, what were the highlights for you again now, both from the whole time on the overarching topic of reflection and from the room today, and gladly in this order, Jürgen, Sabine.
For me the highlight today was actually Sabine, not the rooms, because Sabine again showed us today, the really normal, really mundane everyday situation. Through “assumption is the enemy of truth,” how we arrive at evaluations. The word hasn’t come up yet today. We constantly evaluate situations. And through unconscious bias with the evaluation, that we don’t think about it, that’s where I’d be with the room topic now, don’t reflect on why we evaluate a situation the way it is now, namely based on our prior experience. And so we’re back at the topic of reflection. And what you already said this week, dear Yasemin, the rooms and the topics we’ve had together are so complex and so interlocked that you can’t help but keep jumping back, to connect the topics with each other. My highlight was, as every morning, exchanging with you, mutually enriching each other, laughing and being with you. And I start into the new day with an inner smile and with a great sense of contentment, happy.
Yes, wonderful. Thank you so much, Jürgen.
Well, I won’t say anything more now. Uh, not because I don’t feel like it, but because so much came together again, even in this hour. And I’ll say it again, an hour stolen from paradise, dear friends. Heartfelt thanks for that, and I’m looking forward to the next topic, and I think, as I already said, it’ll continue really excitingly. Heartfelt thanks and a nice day to you all.
Yes, wonderful, thank you so much. That’s a really, really great saying. An hour stolen from paradise. Thank you for that. Sabine.
What else is there to add to what Jürgen just said? No, I would still add something. So I found the whole reflection series really, really interesting. And I learned, repeated for myself, from it. Heard for the first time that reflection actually has a lot to do with communication. And that, regardless of whether I do that with myself, so whether we’re holding the monologue and dialogue, or also talk about it with others, then you know something, and can maybe set it more easily for yourself in that context. Great room overall. I’m also looking forward to thinking. Thinking, alongside communication, can’t hurt either. Thank you and a great day.
Yes, absolutely. Thank you so much. Yes, and then we’ll connect back, so to speak, on Thursday evening, for those who join, also to the topic of communication with the machine. So that’ll be exciting too, what’s coming our way now, so to speak, or what we’re already right in the middle of. One person more, one less. But maybe that also develops the desire, here really, in the sense of the skills and abilities we’ll increasingly need in the future, and a rethink that’s allowed to take place, to actually get into trying things out here too. Jürgen already announced he wants to ask ChatGPT about this one aspect we talked about today too. I find that totally exciting, to pick up this expansion toward future skills, this or that, or also mega learning, so to speak, here too. I was also totally happy today about the impulse you brought in again, Sabine. So, sometimes it’s just individual terms, word fragments, or similar, that lead to this or that popping up again, and that led me to Martin Buber again too. And I found that really, really exciting, so to speak. In that sense that was also a nice memory for me, especially from my study years, so to speak, and I’m also really, really grateful for that. That also helps, again in the sense of repetition, so to speak, to activate the neural networks again too, and make sure the strands that might have been getting shorter stay long, and remain there going forward too. Yes, I’m really, really looking forward to it. I think a lot came together again today. Thank you so much for this joint bringing-together at this point. Let’s leave it as an interim summary. As an interim summary, because we want to look at the next two overarching topics, so to speak. We’ll start tomorrow with the first approach to thinking, engage with that for several days and weeks, to then open up the third overarching topic, namely acting. And afterward, once we’ve dealt with both overarching topics, we’ll then dedicate ourselves again to the connections between reflection, thinking, and acting. And in that sense it’ll stay exciting. I’m really looking forward to it, and I’m especially curious now about the start tomorrow, with the first approach, which on one hand serves to slowly settle into the topic, so really first make an exchange and gather, and at the same time also check the room planning again, whether all aspects are considered, or whether adjustments might be needed here too, against the backdrop of various keywords you bring in and pick up tomorrow. So in that sense I’m looking forward to this first exchange tomorrow, to start the new overarching topic together with you, and you’re warmly welcome to just join tomorrow at 8am. In this sense, I wish you well, until then, ciao!
