Do You Know Your Thinking?

The challenge we all have is we attempt to understand the world by looking for similar knowledge or events that we can build on. Words build on words you know. This works well for hunter-gathers who need to find food and avoid predators. However we have several weaknesses and biases in our thinking.

We interpret information in a way that confirms our pre-conceived notions. This is known as confirmation bias (us thinking how smart we are). If it doesn't fit or we don't understand we will ignore it. Needless to say we aren’t always that smart. Look at the low success rate of predictions.

“Thinking Fast and Slow” talks about how much energy it takes to think deeply. Our mind saves effort by learning rules of thumb and routines to make decisions automatically. Have you ever gotten to work and not remembered how you got there? Unless you had a close call or an emotional event most of the trip is ignored.

Emotions control our decisions. Ray Gery teaches ,“What we think about determines how we feel. How we feel determines what we say or don’t say and what we do or don’t do.” Often we make the decision and then think of way to justify our decision.

As humans we do not easily understand the very complex subjects like the Europe’s economy and how to fix it. We simplify, ignore what we don’t know, and come up with a few fixes that we hope will help. Heard we are probably wrong more than half the time, yet we really like to be right.

What is the first step to better thinking? Humility. Realize you need input from other people.

Second realize it is a thinking moment, and take your time to really understand as much as you can. Detail as much data as possible. Data driving decisions are more likely successful.

Keep learning every day. That way you are prepared when you really need to learn something important.

We can do better, we owe it to ourselves and the world.