Reading Kahneman's book about type 1 and type 2 thinking, or precognitive v. cognitive, subconscious v. conscious, id v. superego, automatic v. reflective etc. etc.
It's definitely a concept that has been around for a long time in various fields, but fun to read about. The brain primarily operates based on habits and perceived patterns. At the same time, what we think of as our consciousness is essentially a focused self-reflection on some portion of that boiling churn. Certain things are pushed up from the subconscious for more careful reflection; things that stand out as abnormal or that require mental processing that can't be done from habit (such as complicated math).
Kahneman's theory is that easy problems are best solved with automatic thinking, hard problems are best solved through deliberate thinking and that we have to be careful about it. He also has a great sentence, something like:
"When faced with hard problems, we often solve an easier problem instead, and are unaware of the substitution"
It's definitely a concept that has been around for a long time in various fields, but fun to read about. The brain primarily operates based on habits and perceived patterns. At the same time, what we think of as our consciousness is essentially a focused self-reflection on some portion of that boiling churn. Certain things are pushed up from the subconscious for more careful reflection; things that stand out as abnormal or that require mental processing that can't be done from habit (such as complicated math).
Kahneman's theory is that easy problems are best solved with automatic thinking, hard problems are best solved through deliberate thinking and that we have to be careful about it. He also has a great sentence, something like:
"When faced with hard problems, we often solve an easier problem instead, and are unaware of the substitution"
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