The World of Null-A I found a yellow-paged first edition on my parents' shelves as a young kid, and was heavily shaped by the idea of a character (and society)

The World of Null-A I found a yellow-paged first edition on my parents' shelves as a young kid, and was heavily shaped by the idea of a character (and society) that trained themselves to think clearly. This included years of training on how to channel (and ground) one's emotions, and a constant and deep understanding of "the map is not the territory". Or, in other words, our mental models are just that, and should be discarded or updated as soon as reality differs from them. This allowed the character to respond with almost superhuman speed when confronted with otherwise traumatic emotional revelations, and the society as a whole to reorganize in response to an incipient alien invasion. I've been trying to train myself to think like that ever since, and it has probably contributed to the large gap I felt between the thinking of my peers and me as I grew up. I'm not sure how well the book holds up now, without my nostalgia colored glasses, but I still reread it every few years to remind me of the direction of my thoughts.