Overstimulation
-----------------

According to Jean Piaget, cognitive development occurs when our experiences throw our schemes into disequilibrium. We then use assimilation (absorption of new information into our current mindset) and accommodation (modification of our current mindset to be compatible with the new information) to bring our schemes back into equilibrium.

However, psychologists have noted that the "problem of the match" interferes with proper development. Events and learning material have to be stimulating enough to cast our minds into disequilibrium to some extent; otherwise they will be considered boring. On the other hand, if they are overstimulating then we are unable to properly make sense of them or even process those experiences altogether and learning can therefore not take place.

The implications of the matching principle are comprehensive and very applicable to many situations in life. Keep in mind two important rules of thumb: Rule 1: if you are a reasonably intelligent grown-up, you are looking forward to moderate simulations and they are therefore considered to be healthy. Rule 2: a major stimulation is not only unhealthy but it is often not even realistic to look forward to one. Take a simple example: You receive an email that you have won the Sweepstakes and all you have to do is print out the email message, come down to their headquarters and walk out with a cool 10 million dollars. The problem is that you don't remember ever entering any sweepstakes contest and the authentication process also seems too simplistic. Lastly, it just seems too good to be true; was I really randomly chosen out of the millions of contestants? It turns out that these kind of email messages are complete nonsense. They are simply trying to get your attention about some product and thereby enter you into the sweepstakes or they are trying to swindle you out of money or "phish" your information. If I receive such a message, I would usually delete it immediately; I wouldn't even bother reading the entire message unless I've got nothing else to do and I'm just curious to see what it's all about. Why would I not bother? Because it's an overstimulation. Overstimulating events occur extremely rarely in an intelligent person's life and in this particular case it seems to me that this event has never taken place altogether; it is pure fantasy.

Now let's contrast this with a notification I receive that I had won the drawing for the first-prize "bayliner" awarded to all poker players at the Borgata in the month of May 2005. I am totally not expecting to win but I nonetheless consider it a possibility in the back of my mind in accordance with my current "scheme" of the Borgata. Therefore, if I receive such notification, I will readily believe that I did win the bayliner, not just because I'd love to believe that I did but because I can reasonably expect this notification to be real. It is therefore ironic but true that the best fantasy for me to cherish is not the grandest but the most realistic. Since all fantasies have some basis in reality, I would rather think about something that I know could happen if I am extremely lucky than something I know could not possibly happen. I can foresee myself in ten years from now being graduated from college, holding a decent-paying job, having a family and having published a book. These are Utopian goals but they are within grasp. However, if I would think about the possibility of being millionaire, a senator, and a womanizer in ten years from now I would be deluding myself outright and that is counterproductive. Such events are overstimulation and they just won't come to pass no matter how hard I try.

Note that these rules of thumb hold true for the flip side of the coin as well. I can imagine myself in ten years from now having blown all my savings in gambling and having made no social, familial or sexual progress. This is a bleak outlook which is unlikely but possible. But the idea that I will be "starving" for food and that I will not be able to afford my rent in addition to the social problems is just too far-fetched for me to seriously consider it. Such events are "overstimulating" so-to-speak (it's really just the opposite); I am therefore not prepared for them and I see no need or utility to prepare for them.