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Ask HN: Would you like a debugger for your mind?

7 points by zoozla ↗ HN
I'm trying to narrow down the market for a mental health app I'm working on and I stumbled on this idea of a "mental debugger".

Looking for feedback on the idea (and can also show the prototype if anyone is interested).

Here's what I think it will help you do:

1. Step through your thinking process to find and correct faults

2. Observe changes in your mental and emotional state in real time

3. Install exception handlers in your mind to know when you're off track

4. Break infinite thought loops so you can make decisions and take action

5. Kill resource draining mental background processes

I'm targeting engineers with mental and emotional struggles and who have experience with either therapy or meditation (or are just naturally very introspective).

Assuming this actually worked, would you want it?

21 comments

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arthurcolle
Isn't this just like, how consciousness is supposed to work
zoozla
It's the way it's supposed to work. But it doesn't always. I get trapped in random negative thoughts all the time, lie to myself, confuse reality with my perception of it and get hung up on feelings of worthlessness and failure.
arthurcolle
Have you tried meditation?
zoozla
For a few years. I found that it helps my general state of mind, but doesn't work very well in times of specific stress.
arthurcolle
Understood. Wasn't trying to sound dismissive at all, and the conceptual idea seems cool, but I mean only a combination or rTMS and realtime brain scans could get you to this, without it just being some random CRUD app that makes me interact with the app more than actually reflect on my feelings.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcranial_magnetic_stimulat... (to modify brain settings)

and something like https://openbci.com/ (to read brain data)

zoozla
That's a valid point. I do think it's possible to build an app that gets you to reflect a lot more than interact. Ping me on Twitter @finereli, I'll show you what I've got so far.
meiraleal
The debugger you have, as you are here wondering about it. What you are lacking is the ability to fix the problem and hit F5.
zoozla
That's a valid point. I think my approach to this does include fixing the problem and refreshing, at least for a certain category of inifinite mental loops.
muzani
It's like how operating systems use RAM. Excess capacity is wasteful, so our consciousness fills up with stuff, to the point it's freezing up because it's too occupied. Unlike RAM, it has difficulty realizing that it shouldn't be that way.
AnimalMuppet
I think the greater need is to purge erroneous "facts" from our mental databases. Even more pressing is to recognize half-truths for what they are, and not take them for full truths.
zoozla
It seems that most people would like to remove erroneous facts from other people's minds, but aren't as keen to explore their own.

That said, I agree it's a very big problem, especially these days.

_throwawayaway
I would try it as a part of the whole 'mental IDE' if such thing existed.
zoozla
Mental IDE, that's brilliant!

Something to find the bugs, something to fix them, something to organize your thoughts, a tool for reflection. Oh boy, do I have a lot of ideas around this.

But we have to start with some basic awereness and emotional processing otherwise we'll get stuck in the same old mental loops.

Andy-AO
Of course, only with reflection can we make progress. It's good to have some kind of automation mechanism to assist this process.

I believe that every software engineer who has introspective practice will have such an idea, which is not surprising.

jujodi
I use Roam Research for this purpose (and many others)
nonplussed
Yes definitely. What's the prototype?
zoozla
Ping me on Twitter @finereli, I'd love to give you a walkthrough.
codingdave
I love this idea, but no. I don't want it.

It does sounds great - but as we cannot actually install exception handlers, you are really talking about increasing awareness and knowing what reactions to take. Which typically comes from... talking to a therapist.

But therapists know when the client really needs a different therapist, or a full psychologist, and can flag behaviors that are truly dangerous, psychosis, etc. They also know when someone is pushing too hard and aren't yet ready for their next therapeutic steps. There is a lot more to what they do than just flagging behaviors and handing out tools, questions, and answers.

While I think that it could be amazing if you pull it off, I don't want it for the same reason I don't want any experimental medical treatment - I would be putting my health at risk just to see if your idea works, and that is not something I want to sign up for.

zoozla
This is very direct and honest, thank you!

You make a very good point. Whatever I manage to build is going to be experimental.

You're also right that therapy is a common way to create that self awareness, but it's not the only way. Some techniques work well without a guide like meditation and journalling, and others require a little guidance but nothing as in-depth as therapy (Byron Katie's Work and Sedona Method are two that I've personally found very effective).