I haven’t had my sub-agents talk much in the past few months, so I’m not completely sure this is accurate. I’m going to bring them out to play again soon, so I may come back and edit if I discover things have changed since they last talked. (I started doing this because I had an important decision to make that I couldn’t consult others about. The sub-agents talked for hours. So I brought them out only when I had something really big for them to hash over, and they’ve never been able to resolve things quickly. Is this usual? Any advice for having more frequent conversations that are shorter and/or multitaskable?)
I’d had HP:MOR on my mind when I started doing this, so I started out with the theme of Harry’s four house sub-agents, but they deviated a lot from that.
Green ended up the “designated rationalist”. It wants to fulfill the others’ desires as much as possible, and doesn’t really have any of its’ own. It’s better than the others at reasoning about what will actually happen if we do something, and what’s actually true. It doesn’t mind saying things that are unpleasant (or else is slow to realize that they’re unpleasant—I’m not really sure). It’s pretty terrible at being tactful because of that, and because it tends to get mad at the others when they’re being self-defeating. Multiple versions of Green will debate with each other to sort out factual/non-normative questions.
Red is my larger-than-life self, I guess. It’s trying to focus on what’s important, but does so in a naive way. It has big goals (protect everyone, protect friends, and possibly some wannabe-hero-ness), which it’s very sure are more important than what the rest of me wants. It tends to forget about practical constraints and fall for logical fallacies, but can correct for that once it’s pointed out (usually by Green). It tends to be really shouty and indignant (but that might be because most of my sub-agent conversations happened because Red was frustrated). It does listen to the others, since it’s stuck with us.
Yellow is a mix of things, and I’m not completely sure they belong together. Desire for good relationships with the people I know, approval, and having a comfortable life, probably also some other “normal” things. It’s pretty good at “empathizing” with the other sub-agents. (Yellow usually translates when Green wants to tell Red something especially uncomfortable.)
Blue was supposed to be a sub-agent, but it rarely participates in conversation. I’m not sure whether the topics we’ve talked about haven’t interested it, or I don’t have a Ravenclaw part, or I have one that’s not very verbal.
“Phoenix” appeared unexpectedly—basically just a thing in my brain that gets very loud in a nonverbal way when I’m feeling moral horror. This is probably more of a shorthand for describing that feeling, than a sub-agent. Red translates for it, usually just to inform the others of what it’s screaming about. It doesn’t have a very large role in these conversations.
“Myself” mostly acts as a moderator—introducing the topic of conversation, and then occasionally nudging it. Most of what I have to say after the beginning is just yelling at the other sub agents to “be nice”. They don’t seem to mind, and they do the same thing to each other pretty often. I think “be nice” is mainly serving as a reminder that cooperation is necessary, not a disendorsement.
An unexpected benefit was realizing that Green gets control of my mouth sometimes, and usually makes a mess of it. A friend is telling me their problems, and I start analyzing the situation and suggesting solutions very bluntly, when that’s not what they wanted. I’m better at realizing when this is happening now, and when I notice myself starting to do it, I call in Yellow to translate (if I have the mental energy for that, it’s difficult to do in real conversations), or I tell the person I’m talking to that they’re talking to Green (but worded in a way that they’d understand) and ask if they want to proceed. I think doing this has helped me avoid making my friends feel uncomfortable or hurt.
I haven’t had my sub-agents talk much in the past few months, so I’m not completely sure this is accurate. I’m going to bring them out to play again soon, so I may come back and edit if I discover things have changed since they last talked. (I started doing this because I had an important decision to make that I couldn’t consult others about. The sub-agents talked for hours. So I brought them out only when I had something really big for them to hash over, and they’ve never been able to resolve things quickly. Is this usual? Any advice for having more frequent conversations that are shorter and/or multitaskable?)
I’d had HP:MOR on my mind when I started doing this, so I started out with the theme of Harry’s four house sub-agents, but they deviated a lot from that.
Green ended up the “designated rationalist”. It wants to fulfill the others’ desires as much as possible, and doesn’t really have any of its’ own. It’s better than the others at reasoning about what will actually happen if we do something, and what’s actually true. It doesn’t mind saying things that are unpleasant (or else is slow to realize that they’re unpleasant—I’m not really sure). It’s pretty terrible at being tactful because of that, and because it tends to get mad at the others when they’re being self-defeating. Multiple versions of Green will debate with each other to sort out factual/non-normative questions.
Red is my larger-than-life self, I guess. It’s trying to focus on what’s important, but does so in a naive way. It has big goals (protect everyone, protect friends, and possibly some wannabe-hero-ness), which it’s very sure are more important than what the rest of me wants. It tends to forget about practical constraints and fall for logical fallacies, but can correct for that once it’s pointed out (usually by Green). It tends to be really shouty and indignant (but that might be because most of my sub-agent conversations happened because Red was frustrated). It does listen to the others, since it’s stuck with us.
Yellow is a mix of things, and I’m not completely sure they belong together. Desire for good relationships with the people I know, approval, and having a comfortable life, probably also some other “normal” things. It’s pretty good at “empathizing” with the other sub-agents. (Yellow usually translates when Green wants to tell Red something especially uncomfortable.)
Blue was supposed to be a sub-agent, but it rarely participates in conversation. I’m not sure whether the topics we’ve talked about haven’t interested it, or I don’t have a Ravenclaw part, or I have one that’s not very verbal.
“Phoenix” appeared unexpectedly—basically just a thing in my brain that gets very loud in a nonverbal way when I’m feeling moral horror. This is probably more of a shorthand for describing that feeling, than a sub-agent. Red translates for it, usually just to inform the others of what it’s screaming about. It doesn’t have a very large role in these conversations.
“Myself” mostly acts as a moderator—introducing the topic of conversation, and then occasionally nudging it. Most of what I have to say after the beginning is just yelling at the other sub agents to “be nice”. They don’t seem to mind, and they do the same thing to each other pretty often. I think “be nice” is mainly serving as a reminder that cooperation is necessary, not a disendorsement.
An unexpected benefit was realizing that Green gets control of my mouth sometimes, and usually makes a mess of it. A friend is telling me their problems, and I start analyzing the situation and suggesting solutions very bluntly, when that’s not what they wanted. I’m better at realizing when this is happening now, and when I notice myself starting to do it, I call in Yellow to translate (if I have the mental energy for that, it’s difficult to do in real conversations), or I tell the person I’m talking to that they’re talking to Green (but worded in a way that they’d understand) and ask if they want to proceed. I think doing this has helped me avoid making my friends feel uncomfortable or hurt.