Don’t Settle!
Who remembers being in the classroom with a problem on the board or a video question on the screen, hoping the teacher would not call on you. It was early in my freshman year of college; the problem was on the board. The room was full of students whom I did not know. All of a sudden, the dreaded question….Who knows the answer to this? In a game of mastery, if we did not raise our hand to answer the question, sometimes the teacher would call on the student who did not raise their hand. Well on this day I did not raise my hand and I heard her call my name, immediately I felt frozen, stunned and stupid. Let me go through the motions right quick. I looked, assessed, and quickly processed, all in seconds. I got the answer. Feeling confident in my answer. I shout it out. BAM! Her reply…. NO!… Wrong answer! The way she said it, I felt like she was calling me a dummy. Even worse, I was loud and wrong! Hold on? How did I arrive at this conclusion? The answer it is right in front of me. Ladies and gentlemen, System 1 has been wrongfully engaged.
Thinking Fast and Slow challenges our automatic and intuitive thinking system and conclusions that seem logical but are not factual. With System 1 we make quick, easy and impulsive decisions. System 2 takes us to problem-solving that requires concentration with a deliberate and conscious effort. This book was a drawback to last week as we discussed being a well-differentiated leader with a non-anxious presence. Kahneman stresses how System 2 can take a backseat to System 1 because of a stressful and anxious environment; “People who are cognitively busy are more likely to make selfish choices, use sexist language and make superficial judgments.”[1]
As this book was thick with psychological and research evidence to support his premise, he demonstrates how easily we can get swayed by looking at the simple. I was particularly drawn to Kahneman’s section on loss aversion, in which he persuasively asserts, “People often adopt short-term goals that they strive to achieve but not necessarily to achieve.”[2] This reduction of efforts he refers to brought me to the idea of complacency.
Going back to my educational journey, I was immediately convicted about how lazy-brained I became during several formative years. I studied and learned enough to retain for homework, completion of assignments, and testing. Still, inwardly, I rebuffed the notion of going the extra mile for something I saw no benefit in. Knowing enough to make it and get by was the limit for me to make it rather than making a deeper investment to learning it and retaining it for its full value.
Loss aversion is commonplace, but I appreciate how Kahneman included a sports analogy (golf/putts) to bolster his claim. He proves what we are willing to try harder for instead of what we won’t put the effort towards. System 1 is a no-brainer. System 2 requires putting our brains to work. There is a rising deficiency in our land, we fail at putting the work in subsequently becoming normal when we could be exceptional. The emergence of assistive technology, I.e., the internet, Google, and now ChatGPT, has stifled a specific segment of our population from the willingness to go deeper. Still, just being satisfied with the answers, they produce System 1. We take it for granted a word is spelled correctly because we have spellcheck. However, we must re-check and fact-check our spell check.
Kahneman also leans into this train of thought by suggesting how biased we can become through our preconceived notions and learned history. When these images support our preconceived notions, we fail to do the necessary work and are less likely to question it rather than unpack it and search for the missing elements.
My key takeaway comes from a different perspective. From my vantage point, this book speaks in various ways to settling and refusing to do so. How comfortable have we become in loss aversion that we have settled for less and wrong? The status quo and normal can no longer be the benchmark. Years ago, a mentor of mine told me a startling fact: “Daren, do you know what average is? Being average is merely being the top of the bottom.” That statement quote has stuck with me until this day.
I view Thinking Fast and Slow as a brother or sister book to our former readings. The first, Threshold Concepts. This, in fact, presents a new method of understanding and problem-solving, moving us away from the traditional and the obvious while causing us to look deeper to find the solution. It also parallels to Tim Haford’s How To Make The World Add Up as we are called to ask critical questions and look for the missing elements. I enjoyed this book and will bring it out again in my leadership journey. Again, I will be asking the right questions and looking for the missing elements, but also not settling for what it quickly looks like.
[1]Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011). 41.
About the Author
Daren Jaime
2 responses to “Don’t Settle!”
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I appreciate your comment about the “rising deficiency in our land, we fail at putting the work in subsequently becoming normal when we could be exceptional.” The challenge is that our educational system teaches for the average person to become the average workers – the system was designed that way if we examine the history of public education. Few are blessed with a mentor to push learners beyond the minimum required. This is why mentors are critical in creating leaders that can slow down and pay attention. Our culture is one of productivity, get things done quickly and efficiently. What is wise? What is sustainable? These questions require system 2 thinking which takes too much time in a quick fix society of system 1 thinkers. Also, when most folks are just struggling to survive, system 2 thinking is a luxury.
Fortunately for the world, you had a mentor point this out, removing the scales so you could see beyond average. “Being average is merely being the top of the bottom.” Powerful statement, thanks for sharing. It reminded me of my why I’m doing this program.
Thank You Erica! Mentors are truly gifts for our journey.