The two types of processing modes that our brains have
This post is primarily a reading note from “Think fast and slow”, plus some relevant results of personal meditation. It’s merely a record of conclusions and some explanation/clarification, and is not meant to convince. You’ll also likely see some grammatical mistakes — if you do, know that I don’t give a shit. This is meant as a note for myself.
Type I and Type II Processing Modes
Our brain has 2 distinct modes of information processing: Type I and Type II. Type I is instinctive, fast and governed by our subconscious; Type II is logical, slow and governed by our consciousness.
Some examples of Type I processing include: swimming, breathing, thinking “butter” when you see “bread and”, trying to stop when running etc. Some examples of Type II processing includes: solving the equation 252 x 4197, running at 10 miles per hour speed for 30 min, not staring at unusually dressed people in restaurants etc.
Type I is the default processing mode
The default mode of thinking is Type I. This makes sense, because in everyday decisions, “fast” usually outweighs “accurate” in the speed v.s accuracy trade-off.
Activating and sustaining Type II induces pain
For the overwhelming majority of the population, using Type II processing induces pain (I borrowed this word from Paul Graham’s “Hacker and Painter” where pain is synonymous with discomfort). When you see the aforementioned equation 252 x 4197, for example, there’s a slight unwillingness to start solving it. This is what we call pain — it’s generally associated with any tasks that require Type II thinking, such as doing your homework, going to work etc;
Motivation is the fuel to activate and sustain Type II
To overcome the pain associated with activating and sustaining Type II processing, we consume motivation.
Motivation can be replenished at a slow speed
As we activate and sustain Type II thinking, our motivation level drops. It can be replenished, but usually at a much, much slower rate than it is consumed.
If you’re asked to solve 1,000 equations like 252 x 4197 in one sit, it’ll probably be very difficult for you to do them in one sit. After, say, 20 minutes, you will drift off, start checking your Emails, fetching juices from the fridge etc. This is when your motivation temporarily runs out. By letting your Type I processing take over, you give yourself some time to replenish your motivation.
Experiments suggest that when people are asked to do another Type II processing task before starting a new Type II processing task, they perform worse than when given only 1 type II processing task, with no other Type II task preceding it.
Interestingly, experiments suggest that glucose intake speeds up the motivation replenishment process.
Availability Bias: Easier-to-remember events are considered more likely to occur
Group A is asked to list 6 examples of when they were assertive; Group B is asked to list 12. After the lists were completed, both groups were asked to rate their assertiveness. Which group thinks it’s more assertive?
Group A.
The explanation is that the 12th example is more difficult to come up with than the 6th example. Since group B had a tougher time coming up with examples of themselves being assertive, the people in the group thought they rarely became assertive.
Regression to the Mean: the illusion that punishment works better than compliments.
That rewards are more effective that punishments in improving subject behaviors is one of the more established consensus in behavioral psychology. However, why do we have the illusion that punishment is more effective than rewards? Specifically, why is it that when the best performing athlete is praised, he tends to do worse next time; and when the worst performing athlete is punished, he does better next time?
The law “Regression to the Mean” in Statistics basically says that if you toss a fair coin a million times, the probability of landing Head converges 50%. That is, the average result will converge to its true value.
When do you praise an athlete? When he performs exceptionally — better than what he usually achieves; When do you punish an athlete? When he performs terribly — worse than what he usually achieves. Since in both cases, the athlete’s performance is far from the mean (his usual performance), the *next* performance (event) will be very likely to be closer to the means. That is — better than the terrible performance and worse than the exceptional performance. Therefore, the illusion that punishment produces improved results and that rewards produce worse results is created.
Actionable items
- It pays to live comfortably. When you non-work life is effortless, you can reserve the motivation for tasking Type II processing for more important things. For example, if you do all your cooking, do laundry once a day, drive a 10 year old car that rides uncomfortably, a lot of your Type II processing goes to those things. It would be super hard for you to do all those AND work harder than everyone else in your company for a long time. At some point you’ll get burnt out.
- Praise others often. This is not just to make others feel better — now you know it actually produce good results.
