Designing the Mind

This course reads cognitive psychology through one mechanism — the mind as displacement from a ground state. Attention, perception, memory, learning, language, decision, insight: each one is a distance from clarity, and a cost paid to return.

9 modules · grounded in displacement. Every module is free to read. The textbook and its worked sheets are $99 — or take all three courses as Phronesis Pro, $100.

01The Ground State of Attentionfocus is displacement from the wandering default — which is why holding it tires you.read free 02Perception as Predictionthe brain guesses the world, then corrects against the signal — illusions are the guess overriding the signal.read free 03Working Memory: The Held Tensionwhat it costs to hold a thought off the ground — and why we chunk and offload.read free 04Long-Term Memory: The Return Pathmemory as an engineered path back to a state; forgetting as the gradient fading.read free 05Learning as Gradient Descentbuilding the slope home — and why difficulty is what makes it hold.read free 06Language and the Smallest Distinctionmeaning as difference; a word as a pointer to a region of the mind.read free 07Decision and Bias: Cheap Returnsheuristics as fast, approximate returns — and exactly where they mislead you.read free 08Insight and Problem-Solvingsearching for a shorter path; the "aha" as a sudden drop in distance.read free 09Metacognition: Reading Your Own Fieldsensing your own displacement — the skill the whole course builds toward.read free

This reads cognitive psychology through my own displacement framework — a personal working theory, not peer-reviewed science. Useful for thinking with; not a diagnosis, and not a substitute for one.

Next: Mind as Displacement — the clinical side, same mechanism on depression, trauma, and grief — then Design as Displacement. When you want it worked onto your own life, the books are the next step.