Our mind is an universal miracle! It’s incredible to acknowledge that our mind has the capability to process much more thoughts, than the count of the molecules. Our stream of consciousness is about 15,000 words per minute. But the control is in our hands. It is possible to predict and have a control on the prudent aspects of our life, by being a master of our mind and its thinking process. Thomas Edison’s famous saying is that ” Thinking is the hardest work of all, which is why most people avoid it at all costs.” Thus the term ‘Think‘ plays an inevitable role in each stage of our life.
So, developing the habit of thinking is one of the best thing that we do for ourselves; but how does we think matters a lot because, ‘thinking’ is a kind of ardent skill that one should carry over. This process is done with the basis of the partial informations and available statistics which may lead to cognitive bias and it is important to be careful before we think as the available sources of informations may not be trusted. Let’s get landed into the so-called Slow thinking which contrasts from the fast thinking. These two thinking styles differs as the former would be called as something that is conscious, effortful and logical process and the latter would be termed as unconscious, frequent and automatic.
Fast thinking is the course of making decisions quickly such as while driving a car in a traffic. Such decisions are made with less considerations as it takes most of its role in our daily life situations. It doesn’t matter whether one orders for a hamburger or sandwich, but he/she is definite to grab a delicious dish! Whereas slow thinking should be considered with little difference as it costs for long-term decisions with preferable consequences. Determination of a goal can be quoted as a good example. It may be disastrous to use fast thinking in such circumstances. This concept cannot be bound with such long-term aspects, but also with the decision making in situations such as, to turn the focus towards the clown in a circus and giving someone our telephone number. Certain decisions which are made at the moment, may have long lasting impacts. Even turning the focus from a central black dot towards the surrounded white sheet requires slow thinking. In this way it could be evinced that slow thinking drives our mind in a unique manner, which may also enhance oneself with good attitude and perseverance.
So the very title, why is it necessary for us to get acquainted with Slow thinking? The reply is; according to scientists the speed of information processing of the human mind could be calculated with the inverted ‘U’ shape. The thinking speeds up from childhood to adolescence and then gradually slows down as the age increases and that’s why we hear our grandma’s or grandpa’s say that they tend to forget things easily. The relative stability in our thinking process is maintained in the youth period. The frontal and parietal cortex, which is most of the brain is responsible for analytical decision making and as the age surpasses, the white matter of the brain tears which is connected by the apron cells.
Thus, all our mind is trained to run towards the future in accordance with the conventions. Since our life is oriented with futuristic goals, it is important to practice slow thinking, in accordance with the long-term consequences. The adolescent and the youth period of life is the important stage as the energy is reserved to direct them towards our plans and it is essential to practice the habit of slow thinking especially during this time, as our measures would be directed in futuristic way. ‘Actions should speak louder than words, and our mind should be moderate before we perform something.’
