Nothing in life is as important as you think it is when you are thinking about it.      – Daniel Kahneman, Thinking Fast and Slow

You have to love a researcher on thinking who makes a big point of noting that the answer to every question is not just, “think harder.” Sometimes, the answer is “chill out,” or “think of something else.” While focus is terrific, we are also all prone to the condition called focusing illusion, as Kahneman described above. 

Reading about the quirks and foibles of human thinking often leaves me feeling all muddled and mushy, hopeless and helpless. The brilliance of Kahneman’s work leaves me feeling clearer. Stronger. Luckier.

Thanks to Dr. Kahneman, when I think of my system1lizard brain, the one that is sometimes described as autopilot,  it’s not with disdain or dismissal, but with deep affection, even delight. Look at the lengths my mind will go to in order to keep me safe! Look at all I can accomplish without effortful consideration!

Friends, we might not all be Nobel-worthy researchers. But we all have the choice of how to present our ideas. When we learn something, will we insist on the view that is only cynical, critical? Will we find a way to present even the most amazing attributes as somehow lesser, meaner?

Or might we ask a more generous question?

Might we offer a more wholehearted answer, thoughtful and true?

Might we wonder, and study, and reflect,

and revel in what is revealed?