Upgrading System 1

During our family holidays up to the Sunshine Coast to stay with family and friends I took 4 books to read. Mrs W always laughs at me, as I’m overly optimistic with how much book time I think I’ll get. I read very very little.

Between the beach, the pool, outings and spending a frankly inappropriate amount of time with AI tuning our website (I think our website is becoming very good) I only got to read a bit of one of the books - Thinking Fast & Slow by Daniel Kahneman.

It’s a fascinating book and I’m looking forward to finishing it. Though, as with most books, I think the concept and lessons are pretty apparent and simple.

Essentially, he describes 2 ways of thinking.
1 - Fast, automatic, intuitive and effortless thought. “Reflex” thoughts

2 - Slow, deliberate, effortful thought. “Hard” thoughts

You can’t switch system 1 off. You see an easy math question “1 + 1 + ?” and your brain spits out the answer immediately.
A system 2 example would be “27 x 24 + ?” and you’ll think harder, maybe even reach for a pencil or your phone.

I was thinking about the way that I was raised in my family, and I was constantly reminded to get out of system 1 and engage system 2. It’s not that clear cut and the examples are not linear, but I’ll give a few. 

I remember being probably 12 and working with my father in his record store during school holidays. We locked the shop up one evening and were walking to the car to go home.
Dad was nibbling at me as he always did. “Walk faster. Don’t look at the ground, look up”.

My dad programmed me to override casual slow walking (baseline system 1) with fast deliberate walking (retraining system 1), and also engaged a life long habit of spatial awareness and knowing your surroundings.

People often comment on how fast I walk. No one beats me to anything. It’s not a competition - but I’m winning.

When someone hands you change, count it. 

When you get to the front of the line, have your order/query ready. Don’t waste everyone's (and your own) time.

When someone calls you and you answer, listen for and remember their name.

Am I raising my children with the same lessons? You bet. And more.

System 1 and system 2 is the way Daniel wrote about it. I understand that I’m talking about something slightly different.

I’m talking about living deliberately. Even menial, repetitive, token actions being considered and controlled. (Use your nose for breathing)

To the kids, I teach about 2 different systems, being “Authors” vs “Characters” (or NPCs)

Living with deliberate intention in your actions is authoring, living on autopilot - which is very easy to do - is not writing your story.

Live with intention.

• Share on:
• Send in WhatsApp
• Share on Facebook
• Share to X
• Pin it
• Send to Messenger
• Send to Email
• Share