Thinking Fast and Slow
Chapter 3 - Experiential Growth Method®
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Welcome to the Thinking Fast and Slow page
"Festina Lenten" is a classic adage that means "make haste slowly." It is the motto of a customer after the organisation encountered too many disadvantages of 'thinking fast'.
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A psychological view on thinking
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Imagine
You drive to work in your car in the morning. It has been a year since you completed this trajectory after a year abroad, and you are amazed at the new construction that is already completely finished at the major intersection. The sports hall a little further away has new advertising on the facade. You are amazed, curious, and interested, 'slow'.
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The working week is five days. On thursday, you have already completed the route three times. You drive to work and think about the meeting that is coming up and the shopping that still needs to be done tonight. You arrive at your workplace perfectly normal. If I asked you how many traffic lights were red and how many were green, you might not be able to tell me. You drove without problems, had low consciousness, and were thinking 'fast'.
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But still, no one is perfect. You switch gears silently from 1 to 2 to 3. Strange but true, at 3 you regularly do not press the clutch deep enough, resulting in a grinding sound. Between 4 and 5, it's no problem at all.
Or maybe you keep thinking, after passing a street, "I should have checked whether I should give way, but hey, now it's too late". Maybe..., fill it in for yourself.
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The traditional solution
'Thinking fast' is strongly promoted in business environments. Individuals, teams, and departments must act quickly and efficiently. But sometimes, this strategy is ineffective. There are 'link errors' in the chain.
Since the problem is felt to be situated on the 'thinking fast spectrum, 'thinking fast is used as a remedy. A panoply of feel-good activities, team-building exercises, introspections, leadership days, etc., are used.
We will race for a day at the race circuit - to stick with the metaphor - because shifting is vital in racing. Of course, such a day provides a wow feeling, the desire to get behind the wheel again and drive a car like a real professional. We even make a 'New Year's resolution' to drive better. But does it add anything? No
- First, the wow feeling passes. Just a few weeks later, so many other things passed that gave me a good feeling and shifted my focus
- Second. 'Thinking fast' does not teach directly. It builds up experience throughout life (long term) and/or through conscious learning (slow)
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The better solution
To eliminate your gear shifting problem, you will have to take a few hours of driving lessons (again). The instructor next to you is your 'external thinking slow', who helps and directs your 'own thinking slow'. "First gear, good, second, third, pay attention now, press the clutch, okay, good." Through him, you learned ('slow') to press the clutch correctly, and to anchor this experience in yourself (for later 'fast' use).
No one would think of giving your children a driver's license after a day of wow experiences at the race circuit. Training is necessary. In our society, learning has become linked to being a child, adolescent and young adult. However, lifelong learning is the natural state of humans.
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The underlying principles
Intuitive 'fast thinking' is not wrong and helps us navigate life smoothly. But it is unable to see and correct its own mistakes.
Humans are incredibly fortunate that evolution has given us 'thinking slow'.
You know the fractal principle. Here, it is fully expressed:
Daniel Kahneman defined:
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Less is known about the next fractal step:
(*: You should read this fractal 'bottom-up') |
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In the low-conscious 'thinking fast', the action comes first. Actions that must safeguard your interests/needs. This means you can drive the car almost 'problem-free'.
They are connected to an 'automatic evaluation system' anchored in your values and active through your emotions.
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You certainly know it through 'the first sight'. You automatically evaluate someone you see for the first time and consciously adjust your action accordingly. Your action system is adjusted as soon as you spot (low-consciousness) danger/fun/.... However, this remains within the automatic action evaluation system.
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If we want to change our values , we must rely on 'thinking slowly'.
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Deep dive
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Problem solving
Human problem solving comes in two varieties, explicit and implicit. These two modes differ remarkably.
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| Content sourse | |
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| (1) | Elsevier - Introduction to Cognitive Neuroscience - 2010 - Chapter 10 - Thinking and problem solving |
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Prospect theory
Kahneman and Tversky studied this psychological pattern carefully and convinced economists to include it in their models. Loss aversion is one of the three pillars of Prospect Theory which posits that subjective satisfaction is relative to a subjective benchmark, a reference point. When we consider a given outcome, if it is above our reference point, we feel gains; if it is below, we feel losses. What is this reference point? In their 1979 article, Kahneman and Tversky focused on actual losses and gains relative to one’s current situation. But they also stressed that a reference point can differ from the status quo. It can be an aspiration level.
"There are situations in which gains and losses are coded relative to an expectation or aspiration level that differs from the status quo. - Kahneman and Tversky (1979)"
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| Greg Kubitz on Optimally Irrational |
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