Is Your Career Stuck 
because of Mind Viruses?

READ AND CHECK

What Mind Viruses?

Mind viruses are not biological viruses like influenza, but pieces of information or ideas, that, once they get into our mind, are capable of causing us to replicate them into other people’s minds. They are very much like computer viruses, but instead of spreading from one computer to another, they spread from one human mind to another. They are also similar to the usual biological viruses (flu, cold, hepatitis, AIDS) in the sense that they use us to replicate themselves. And just like biological and computer viruses, they usually hurt the host in the process. This host is you.

Long story short, here is what mind viruses are capable of doing to you:

Subscribe to Defend Your Mind list:

In extreme cases, they can even force you into crime or even suicide. Don’t believe it? Ever heard of fascism or religious cult members committing mass suicide?

However, I am not talking about such extremes. I am talking about subtle and ancient mind viruses that don’t kill, but use you as a media for their replication and make your life miserable in the process. Interested to know how to defend from them? Read on.

Non-lethal mind viruses…

…on work.

You work hard. You work really hard. You bring the results, and you are proud of that. But then, review time comes, and you hear, “Good, good, not bad at all.” “How about a promotion?” you ask. “Well, you are still not there,” you hear back. So, you start to work harder; you are spending hours overtime; at home your family complains that you only have time to shove some food into yourself and fall asleep. In the next review you hear, “Good, good! Good boy! You are still not exactly there for the promotion, but very good!”

What happened? You fell victim to the mind virus “Work hard and you will be rewarded.” Sometimes, it’s just “Work hard.” Well, in fact, it’s almost always just that. 

Think, does the guy who says that “you are not there yet” work harder? Maybe he is smarter than you? Oh... no? Then why is he the one to tell you that and not the other way around? Because he is a “manager”? Then if you want to become a manager, why are you doing something that managers don’t do? Somebody tricked you into that. Nah, not the manager, he is not smart enough. Then guess who? Yeah, the mind virus.

Fine, you realize the problem, you start to wear a dirty t-shirt with a skull and bones to work, shave your head, sell your Toyota Camry and buy a Harley-Davidson, put a bandana on your head and start to tell your manager to go away when he wants you to stay overtime. Soon, he advises you to consider a career change. Well, it still feels pretty good, except that now you cannot pay for the mortgage and your kid’s college fund. A “Rebel” virus is not much better than the “work hard” virus. 

You still don’t live your life,
you live a life of the virus.

…in a nutshell.

You can say that these are the stereotypes that hurt you, and you would be right. But how did they get into your mind in the first place? And what prevents you from noticing and disabling them? What was the carrier? Well, any ideas? Yeah, their carriers were parasitic self-replicating memetic structures popularly known as mind viruses. Want to know how to disable them? Read on.

So, what can you do?

Right, back to the business. So what can you do to get rid of mind viruses and enable yourself to enjoy life and reaching your goals at full speed? Well, I have good news, bad news, and more good news, and more bad news, and, finally, some more good news for you.

Good news #1: There is a lot of books on the subject

Memetics – the science of mind viruses – is still very young, but there are already a lot of books on the subject that you can read and enable yourself in fighting mind viruses. If you chose this route, I’d recommend to start from the book “Virus of the Mind”. You can go to bibliography for the complete list and links, but first, please, see the rest of this page.

Bad news #1: There is really a lot of books on the subject

Unfortunately, you cannot read just one book. The reason is because the science of memetics is just establishing itself. As usual at this stage, books on memetics don’t always agree on details, and carry an extra load that is not necessarily true or relevant. If you decide to read books on memetics, you will need to be a sort of a researcher who is able to consider different points of view, compare their cons and pros, consider the existing fact base etc. If you are interested in this kind of hobby, again, ~14,000 pages of the books in the bibliography are waiting for you. No, seriously. I am getting paid if you order them on Amazon.com coming from my site. J At least, that’s what Amazon’s mind virus says. J

Good news #2: My book “Disinfect Your Mind”

My book “Disinfect Your Mind” is written to cover this gap and provide a practical and fast way to learn essentials about mind viruses and enable you to fight them. Here is what you will be able learn from it:

Well, you think, now I see what this guy is talking about; here is his sales pitch… Unfortunately, I have to disappoint you. It’s not, because…

Bad news #2: My book “Disinfect Your Mind” is not finished yet

I am working on it right now and expect it to be available relatively soon. I can give you some sneak previews on my blog, and you can subscribe to my mail list, but meanwhile, if you really want to understand mind viruses, you have to do that the hard way. ~14,000 pages of about 40 books in the bibliography are waiting for you.

But, wait, remember? I’ve said that I have some more good news for you. Here it is.

Good news #3: Quick and easy way – “How to become Chief Eating Officer”

But still, is there a simpler way? It’s only human to try to find a backdoor to success. And we talked about success at work, right? Well, if you want to tackle with the job-related problems, you are in luck. I have a specialized ready-to-use disinfectant for the corporate environment. It will not teach you all the stuff described in my upcoming book or in the bibliography. In fact, it doesn’t teach you at all. What it does is simply defuse certain more popular mind viruses existing in our culture, and it’s supposed to be a fun thing, not study.

My book “Management for Cannibals: How to become Chief Eating Officer” is designed to defuse a lot of popular mind viruses swarming the work environment of the corporate America. In fact, not just America, although it is produced on U.S.-based material and targets the topics appropriately. It’s light reading; it’s fun, humorous, and a very good read for a long flight or a couple of relaxing evenings. In fact, I have never seen people who were able to put it down for too long. It’s designed to be fun, because humor is one of the most powerful anti-viral agents of our mind.

You can buy a paper edition on Amazon.com or directly from the publisher.

Or, you can order it as a downloadable eBook directly from this site. That’s a second edition updated for this site and not available anywhere else.

Here is what you get with the downloadable version of the “Management for Cannibals: How to become Chief Eating Officer, 2005 eBook edition”:

Get you copy of the 
Prime Corporate Disinfectant eBook
“Management for Cannibals:
How to become Chief Eating Officer”

Partners Buy eBook Bibliography Visit the blog Subscribe to Maillist

All materials on this site are © Ely Asher, 2005, All Rights Reserved.