I’ve previously talked about the brains ability to make snap decisions, how with out conscious thought we can spot pattens and solutions in only a faction of a second when if we spend a great deal of time considering all the possibilities we might come up with nothing. (The previous posts on this subject can be read here and here) I’m not going to cover old ground here, but I thought it was important that I show you an example of what I mean. Continue reading »
In Part 1 I talked about how sometimes snap decisions can work out just as good or even better than choices that we spend a lot of time thinking about. How our subconscious mind can process a great deal of information with out input from the conscious part of our mind. This part that of our brain that is almost like a locked door, behind which a great many thoughts occur that but we have no idea about what is going on there. The part of the brain that deals with all processes needed to do something like walking. This part of our mind has basically become trained to perform certain actions, it learns and develops as we do different tasks. For instance walking, when a child learns to walk the conscious side of the brain is highly involved, it’s not a skill that we are used to needing, but given a short amount of time our brain adjusts and it becomes natural for us to walk. We can move around and do other tasks, we don’t have to concentrate on our balance and movement because the thought processes are taking place behind the closed door. Continue reading »
Common knowledge has us believe that the best desicions are those made when time is allowed to consider all the facts and conditions surrounding the available choices. That a good choice can only be made after a good deal of effort has been put into thinking about the possible outcomes of the choice we are about to make. As if the chances of making the right choice are proportional to the amount of time spend considering the problem. What if this is a misconception, what if the idea that the only way to make an accurate or ‘correct’ choice can only be made after a period of reflection is wrong? There is plenty of evidence that this might be the case, how many times do we see people in a situation make choices on the fly that turn out to be correct. The whole of human instinct is basiced around this ability to take a single glance at a given situation and come to some kind of conclusion about it. The fact that we do not completely trust our instincts make the conclusions they derive no less valid. Continue reading »
