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C O L L E C T I O N S |
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DUNE CHRONICLES
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| Mentat sayings |
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Above all else, the mentat must be a generalist, not a specialist. It is wise
to have decisions of great moment monitored by generalists. Experts and
specialists lead you quickly into chaos. They are a source of useless
nit-picking, the ferocious quibble over a comma. The mentat-generalist, on
the other hand, should bring to decision-making a healthy common sense. He
must not cut himself off from the broad sweep of what is happening in this
universe. He must remain capable of saying: "There's no real mystery about
this at the moment. This is what we want now. It may prove wrong later, but
we'll correct that when we come to it." The mentat-generalist must understand
that anything which we can identify as our universe is merely part of larger
phenomena. But the expert looks backward; he looks into the narrow standards
of his own specialty. The generalist looks outward; he looks for living
principles, knowing full well that such principles change, that they develop.
It is to the characteristics of change itself that the mentat-generalist must
look. There can be no permanent catalogue of such change, no handbook or
manual. You must look at it with as few preconceptions as possible, asking
yourself: "Now what is this thing doing?" The Mentat Handbook Children of Dune
You will learn the integrated communication methods as you complete the next
step in your mental education. This is a gestalten function which will overlay
data paths in your awareness, resolving complexities and masses of input from
the mentat index-catalogue techniques which you already have mastered. Your
initial problem will be the breaking tensions arising from the divergent
assembly of mentat overlay integration, you can be immersed in the Babel
Problem, which is the label we give to the omnipresent dangers of achieving
wrong combinations from accurate information.
Education is no substitute for intelligence. That elusive
quality is defined only in part by puzzle-solving ability.
It is in the creation of new puzzles reflecting what your
senses report that you round out the definitions.
Many things we do naturally become difficult only when we
try to make them intellectual subjects. It is possible to
know so much about a subject that you become ignorant.
Ready comprehension is often a knee-jerk response and the
most dangerous form of understanding. It blinks an
opaque screen over your ability to learn. The judgmental
precedents of law function that way, littering your path
with dead ends. Be warned. Understanding nothing. All
comprehension is temporary.
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