I’ve been thinking only fast: a confession
I make a lot of decisions on instinct and I rely on my memory a lot to inform how I will approach given situations. The fault in this system has become pretty apparent as I look at my classmates’ blog posts with several references to the other books we have read and are intentionally weaving a string through them.
There is a shelf dedicated to the books we have read for this course and it’s slowly getting longer as each week another book that I’ve scribbled notes in gets put to the side but if I want to remember something specifically from each text I would need to open it up, find the page I think my note is on and then hope that I’ve remembered it correctly.
There’s no time to start like the present and I’m making a commitment to be more intentional about relating each book to the ones we have already read. It’s not a secret. Our lead mentor, when reviewing a colleague’s post each week talks about what makes it great and often in includes references to past texts.
However, after having read Thinking Fast and Slow[1] by Daniel Kahneman, I am mostly reminded me of some great books on marketing I’ve read. I bought this book in March 2021 to read on that summer’s vacation. I picked it up because I was really interested in what he might be able to teach me about influencing other’s behaviour. As a marketer, it’s my primary concern: how to get you to take the action I’d like you to. I was particularly struck by Kahneman’s repeated reference to a great chess move as a System 1 brain activity (but only by a chess master), where upon seeing the opportunity to make a great move, the chess master wouldn’t even have to think of what to do but instantly know it and do it.
In Chip and Dan Heath’s, Made to Stick[2], they dedicate a chapter to making ideas concrete. How can you share an idea that it makes it really easy for the viewer to remember it and visualize it in their heads. In the March 2022, the science community reported that an asteroid – the size of half a giraffe[3] – hit Iceland. They were doing their best to let us laymen know how big the asteroid was and they figured instead of saying it was 10 feet, or 3 metres wide, they would give us the half a giraffe description.
The Internet exploded with jokes about the description. Tweets with links to article would change the headline to read “Asteroid 1/5 the size of a Chili’s restaurant hits Iceland,” for example. I am still not sure exactly how big this asteroid is or if it’s particular large or small compared to others that have hit the earth.
This description violates the Heath’s rule of keeping ideas concrete but was what I thought of when reading about heuristics in Thinking Fast and Slow. From now on, anytime I read about an asteroid I’ll wonder how big it is in comparison to half a giraffe. As an aside, the recent balloon that was shot down off the coast of South Carolina was described as being the lengths of three busses, which is far easier to imagine[4]
The point I’m trying to make is because I haven’t been intentional about creating a document to keep all our readings connected, I can only rely on texts I have burned into my brain to the point they live in System 1 as I write blog posts. Last week, when responding to Edwin Friedman’s A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix, I knew immediately how I wanted to challenge his take on empathy because I have spent 15 years reading and advocating for empathy training. I didn’t connect the learning to any of our previous readings in this program because they’re so fresh, I would need to jump into System 2 brain and be super intentional about making notes and connections.
As Kahneman writes, our brains are lazy and doing System 2 work is hard.
I’m not beating myself up about it though. I’m doing this doctorate work for me, not for anyone else. And while there is a rubric which lets us know how to do well based on the learning outcomes and expectations of the course I’m still indeed learning and ideas like threshold concepts[5] and the fallacy of how we read numbers and those are definitely informing my professional life.
[1] https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374533557/thinkingfastandslow
[2] https://heathbrothers.com/books/made-to-stick/
[3] https://www.sciencetimes.com/articles/36593/20220314/asteroid-half-size-giraffe-hits-iceland-2-hours-astronomers-spotted.htm
[4] https://news.yahoo.com/chinese-spy-balloon-two-three-022650411.html
[5] Ray Land, Einstellung Effect (Threshold Concepts in Practice, pg. 25)
About the Author
Mathieu Yuill
While raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens may be a few of Julia Andrews' favourite things, here are a few of mine: Talking to strangers, Learning about what you do for fun, Conversation over coffee. I own a marketing and communications company in Toronto, Canada called Leading With Nice. There are a lot of names I could have given the company but a trusted friend encouraged me to name it that because I really value the humanness in us all. Bah - this is starting to sound like a horrible LinkedIn post. So whatever, let's have coffee. I'd love to hear about what you do for fun!9 responses to “I’ve been thinking only fast: a confession”
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Mathieu, your post indicts me as well. I need to do a better job capturing all of the notes I’ve made across all of the books (and related links, articles, videos, etc.) in a singular document, or at least a singular system. I do remember SOME things… like, the size of the asteroid/giraffe example you reference reminds me of Chivers and Chivers “How to Read Numbers” in that that particular “half a giraffe” comparison really doesn’t tell me anything. Is that big? Is that bigger than most asteroids that hit the earth? Is that big for Iceland? Does the “half” include the giraffe’s neck? Ha. But, without Chivers and Chivers book with me at the moment, I can’t remember the chapter where that potentially mis-leading headline best fits. I’d have to dig through the book and my notes. Yes, doing system 2 work, as you have said, is hard and I often prefer to just go with my intuition and memory (which, of course, is not reading/writing in a critical thinking sort of way, according to Adler, Land, or Elder. And, of course, I can’t remember where in their books they write about that, at the moment.)
I had a professor during my masters classes that, whenever someone would share a fault or failure they had made, would respond “confession is good for the soul.”
I think confession can be a System 1 response at times I think especially when you are trying to head greater embarrassment off at the pass or replace your shame for other’s sympathy.
But System 2 confession looks like a request for input into how to be better. It’s harder and sometimes doesn’t feel so comfortable.
Just some thoughts as you and I bare our deficiencies to the Internet.
Mathieu, As usual, your posts leave me thinking, and chuckling.
The thinking part of me is stuck on the idea of your reverting to system 1 in areas in which you have a lot of experience. For you, that’s Marketing, for me it might be facilitation. The slightly concerning thought you have left me with is: by relying on my system 1 thinking for facilitation, (because I can, and because it makes me able to do more with less time) what am I missing?
Who might I be overlooking?
Where might I need an update in my skill set?
Could my laziness be making me lose my edge? What new challenges should I take on to combat this?
Ug…
I should thank you for these sage promptings, but again I say: “Ug.”
Jenn! We must be mind melding. This is exactly what I was thinking too – that because I keep going back to the same well, am I leaving room for someone else to offer more for less or do better but quicker?
I’m going to draw a flattering parallel. In the 2007 dramatized bio pic of heroine smuggler, Frank Lucas, titled American Gangster, Lucas confronts a club owner who has been cutting his heroine, thereby changing the composition. He is upset because his product, known as Blue Magic, has a brand and a loyal following. The club owner says by cutting it, he is introducing new customers and actually making more money. Lucas insists if is to do this he must change the name, which he does.
You and I could be Lucas’ Blue Magic. People come to us because we are a known quantity and will deliver a product with reliable outcomes. However, what would happen if once in a while we cut in something new? Would we attract a new audience, keep ourselves exciting to our usual customers?
Something to think about.
P.S. I’m actually not a half bad facilitator, tbh.
“attract a new audience, keep ourselves exciting to our usual customers…” and maybe be in greater demand (ie more lucrative)?
Not sure how I feel about comparing our skillset to heroine, but I think the name Blue Magic could stick…
Hi Mathieu, My process isn’t a whole lot different. I still look at the previous books we’ve read and my notations. I find that some posts I can’t get past my reflective thinking which makes the learning more personal and applicable to me, but less connected to the overall reading. And, you are correct the new reading is still so fresh. The books haven’t become my friends yet! I downloaded Obsidian, but that will need to be summer project. I think it will be necessary with the addition of more books. I can already tell that my brain can’t keep doing it this way. What is your strategy for engaging System 2 with regards to future reading assignments?
Hello Jenny Dooley, I’m not surprised a few of us have responded to this confession similar to you and I. Clearly people in this program are smart. We all have a masters degree which is a heck a lot of work and ingesting a book a week is not for the faint of heart.
It makes a lot of sense, given our previous academic pursuits, and our abilities to think quickly on our feet and recognize solutions quickly (I’m making broad statements about our group but I believe them to be true) we don’t naturally gravitate to software solutions like Obsidian.
My strategy is to actually set aside Panera Bread time as the guest speaker described the other week. She gave a few easy to follow steps:
1. Set aside two to four hours
2. Go to a place where you can be alone in your thoughts
3. Open up the software
4. Put some basic information at the top like book title, author and theme
5. Make notes with themes and instantly link those notes as you make them
I don’t currently make a lot of notes in the books I read so I’m also going to be using this dedicated time slot to doing exactly that.
That’s my strategy – I’ll let you know how it turns out.
Hmmm..wondering if my decision to join this program was a S1 or S2 decision.
I think that 50% of my life efforts have gone wrong. Such a failure! But I think my S1 efforts drive me along this path. Perhaps I am addicted to Adrenaline. My wife says I am addicted to anxiety and stress. (I would add purpose to that addiction).
I gather it is all about balance. I flow between S1 and S2.
Jenny Dooley said something that appeals to me. S1 intuition started her NPO process. S2 thinking will help her research, analyze, and develop a concrete product that will benefit her fellow pastors in South East Asia. I like that.
Heavenly Father, Go before all my decisions today. Guide my S1 intuition/feelings them today. Align my S2 thinking in ways that glorify you. Amen.
I’m there with you as well. I’m seeing the wisdom of utilizing an online note taking program, I am using Evernote, because technology was making it very hard for me to figure out Obsidian on my Mac. So, for me technology is my kryptonite, but I too am slow in thinking broader in connecting past readings to current readings. I agree with you, however, that this Doctorate is mine, I’m paying for it, and I also need to make it work for me. AS well as be stretched and learning. I keep reminding myself, that this is a marathon not a sprint and we have 3 years of blogs that my goal is to be progressively get better with them:). I say all that to normalize your feelings and to let you know I feel comforted by your honesty.
I am curious in Marketing, how do you think s1 and s2 thinking knowledge you now possess will influence how your market to your customer base? I imagine in our fast paced, instant information world, customer make decisions on S1 thinking! Does s2 thinking even come into play in marketing? Curious on your thoughts?