How We Think
Conscious and Subconscious Thought
Most complex real-world problems involve human behavior. The most effective vaccine in the world is not effective if it is not available, or people choose not to take it. And that is what makes complex problems so complex: they involve many variables, some outside our control.
So, I believe that when one steps back, one of the most important aspects of critical thinking is a better understanding of innate human thinking processes. While we recognize that no two humans think exactly alike, and we have free will, it is also important to recognize that all humans share biological traits that have been tuned through evolution. This applies not only to physical characteristics (e.g how our knees bend in one direction) but also to our mental characteristics, the way we think. While this may seem obvious, it is amazing to me how often we overlook this simple fact. And ironically, one of the reasons we overlook it, is that we are biologically predisposed to do just that! Simply put: There is an evolutionary advantage to us ALL being overconfident in our own knowledge and capabilities... and also to deny that we do so. Humans are capable of overriding that tendency on occasion, but we can't all do it all the time, and we can't do it for everything. And that leads to another irony: a key aspect of critical thinking is accepting that we are not humanly capable of always thinking critically and objectively. This applies to even the most adept and experienced critical thinkers. And it helps explain why what we think of as "common sense" is not always shared by others. In short, what seems to us like common sense is sometimes neither common nor sensical.
For me, an epiphany occurred when I stepped back and began to think of our brains as two distinct entities: the conscious and subconscious. Although these entities work together and collaborate, they operate under very different processes and priorities. When we commonly talk about how humans think, we typically are focusing on the conscious brain, even though the subconscious brain accounts for the majority of our thinking processes. The conscious brain is capable of the most complex thinking, and really distinguishes humans from other species, but conscious thought is limited to one thing at a time and is very slow and inefficient compared to the subconscious. Because conscious thought is limited, it must be conserved and used judiciously.
Our subconscious brains are amazing workhorses, with an almost unlimited capacity to be able to make very quick decisions based on limited information. It is absolutely incredible that we share the same brain capabilities of our hunter-gatherer ancestors, and yet are able to cope in this very different modern world. This is predominately due to the adaptability and capacity of our subconscious brains. Our conscious brains are still only capable of handling one problem at a time and aren't even capable of memorizing anything. Isn't it amazing, that our incredibly powerful conscious brains cannot force our subconscious to memorize a name, but rather can only try to influence and coerce? This is why I think it is helpful to think of them as separate entities, working together as a team, but each with "a mind of their own".
Our subconscious is tuned to speed and efficiency. Quickly making "good enough" decisions based on incomplete information and moving on. Doing so means simplifying complex problems full of uncertainty into simpler problems with clear binary answers. (I.e. easy yes/no, true/false choices).
Although these decisions are sometimes wrong and lead us into trouble, I believe it is important to not see these as flaws or cognitive biases, but rather the inevitable consequence of our evolutionary biology and our complex world. I believe that a key foundation for pragmatic critical thinking is simply understanding and accepting this basic fact in ourselves, and in others. Complex problems take on a whole new dimension when we step back and view them from this perspective. As such, much of the writing here will focus on better understanding human thinking processes.
