Thinking Fast And Slow

I was on a call with Mark Kosoglow last week and we went down a psychology rabbit hole, talking about Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman’s book “Thinking, Fast And Slow”. It reminded me how important it is that we understand that mind’s natural processes, both within ourselves and in working with others, to be as effective as possible.

“Thinking Fast” refers to the most primitive elements of our brain. Kahneman calls it System 1 Thinking that is reflexive and hyperattentive. This is the part of the brain designed to keep us alive and alert to any potential threats around us. While it’s effective at making split-second decisions, it’s also very vulnerable to bias and mistakes because it acts so fast and only uses the inputs of the present moment

“Thinking Slow” refers to the more advanced, developed, higher-level thinking we engage in on a daily basis. This is the thinking of the voice that’s in our head which is deliberate and thoughtful. But, it’s energy intensive and cannot be relied on for everything because there’s too much to process, so typical we reserve System 2 Thinking for complex problem solving, planning, and creativity.

Funny enough... I was given a perfect example to demonstrate the difference between the two immediately after getting off the call with Mark. I had a wrapper to throw in the trash and unconsciously, thinking fast, I opened the cabinet where we keep our trash can. But it wasn’t there.?

Since something unexpected disrupted the unconscious pattern, I engaged in System 2 thinking, which went “Well if the trash can isn’t there, where would it be?” I remembered that I had pulled it out during our decluttering the night before and it as in the other room.

This happened a second, and a third time - Unconsciously opening the cabinet, remembering the trash had moved, and going into the other room to throw the trash out.

Our System 1, “Fast Thinking” is constantly on and running our lives without us realizing it. From the choices we make to the emotions we feel, we’re constantly reflexing to the stimuli around us.

But when we slow down to be more conscious of what’s happening and be more thoughtful of what we want, we initiate System 2 “Slow Thinking” and live more intentionally.