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".<p>Looking for feedback on the idea (and can also show the prototype if anyone is interested).<p>Here's what I think it will help you do:<p>1. Step through your thinking process to find and correct faults<p>2. Observe changes in your mental and emotional state in real time<p>3. Install exception handlers in your mind to know when you're off track<p>4. Break infinite thought loops so you can make decisions and take action<p>5. Kill resource draining mental background processes<p>I'm targeting engineers with mental and emotional struggles and who have experience with either therapy or meditation (or are just naturally very introspective).<p>Assuming this actually worked, would you want it?
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.
I love this idea, but no. I don't want it.<p>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.<p>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.<p>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.
Interesting idea. I am a firm believer in understanding ourselves through our actions.<p>I wrote a bit about it in
<a href="https://leveragethoughts.substack.com/p/three-actionable-insights-to-improve" rel="nofollow">https://leveragethoughts.substack.com/p/three-actionable-ins...</a>
Of course, only with reflection can we make progress. It's good to have some kind of automation mechanism to assist this process.<p>I believe that every software engineer who has introspective practice will have such an idea, which is not surprising.