Re:Thinking too much can be bad for you (2012)
by imagica on Wednesday February 10, 2021 @12:10AM
(#26085921)
Learning something new requires a lot of concentration and deliberate thinking and practice. When I learned chess I remember the friend I was playing with becoming a bit bored waiting for my moves but with time it became more automatic and only certain moves would make me think more and when not being able to evaluate or choose between alternative I'd go to gut feeling, possibly distilled from thousands and thousands of chess games played. At some point the tipping point leaned too much towards gut feeling and after some bluffing I decided to take a break from chess and moved on to something else. I think I got bored and my brain would jump to shortcuts. Then I discovered musical instruments
That said, most people are probably "experts"--in the sense that their intuitions can often outdo their conscious trains of thought--in more than a few things. I'll bet that drivers in their 40's make better decisions with instinct than conscious thought. The same probably goes for middle aged home cooks. But teenagers should go over their driving lessons in their heads, and stick to the recipes.