We all have at least one of these voices in our heads. Like the author, some of us give them names, and fancy conversations among them. But for the most part, they simply occur to us as &quot;I&quot;.<p>&quot;I&quot; likes to think that it&#x27;s running the show, but really it&#x27;s at best a commentator. All too often, that &quot;I&quot; fucks up and sabotages. As HenryTheHorse notes, in Buddhism it&#x27;s called the &quot;monkey mind&quot;. It&#x27;s a machine that evolved for survival and reproduction.<p>Anyway, it&#x27;s useful to distinguish &quot;It&quot; -- the &quot;monkey mind&quot; survival machine -- from ones identity. And that&#x27;s a practice to engage in. Understanding is the booby prize ;)