Sometimes I wonder if our lightning fast brains are a blessing or a curse.
Obviously, when I talk about ‘lightning fast brains’ I’m not talking about me here, but about everyone else!
And, yes, before anyone points it out, I am well aware the title of the post sounds like the name of a 50’s B movie.
Our awesome brains
The human brain is really quite incredible, allowing us to process complex information and create thoughts in a flash. Depending on your beliefs, it’s either the result of millions of years of evolution or of an utterly brilliant (even omnipotent) creator.
Either way, it’s a pretty awesome thing!
Consider some of these amazing feats:
- Out of nothing we create concepts, ideas, stories and images
- We not only remember stuff from long ago, but can also recall it in a split second
- We can peer into the future and, to some extent, predict what will happen
- Faced with danger, we can quickly analyse it and leap into action and away from the problem
- We can take a complex and abstract opportunity or problem, and work out a solution.
Our intelligence has catapulted us to the top of the food chain and given us the capacity to manipulate our world in truly amazing ways.
We don’t always combine intelligence with wisdom, but that’s another story!
Jumping to conclusions
With that super-fast processing speed comes a drawback – we have a tendency to jump to conclusions. At least I know I do!
I take in a small amount of information and process, interpret, analyse, categorise and conclude on it in before I’d had a chance to really think about it. I do it so fast I’m often not aware I’m doing it, let alone of the consequences.
It can be really helpful, of course, to react fast and to categorise things. In some situations it might even save my life!
Stepping into an apparently empty street only to be greeted by a very fast moving bus coming towards me, I want to have quick reactions. I want to process the information and categorise the danger fast enough to still have time to get out of the way.
The nature of these type of situations are usually more or less fixed and predictible, so my lightning fast brain is a real asset.
People are people
People, on the other hand, are neither fixed nor predictible. They are far from rational and defy any attempt to pigeon hole or label them. My super-speed grey matter is rather inadequate when it comes to fellow members of the human race.
There can be unfortunate consequences of jumping brain first into a ‘person situation’.
Maybe you’ve experienced some of these – I know I have!
- Acted on a first impression of someone only to be disappointed (or pleasantly surprised) when they prove different to what you thought
- Argued until you’re blue in the face when you were 100% certain of something, only to embarrassingly discover you were 100% wrong
- Believed an unexamined prejudice and treated someone differently because of skin colour, religion, gender, age, profession, position of authority.
- Made a quick decision in response to an invitation only to change your mind later (or wishing you could)
- Opened your mouth and heard words coming out you just knew were completely inappropriate to the situation but your brain was faster than your lips
- Angrily reacted to what someone said, only to realise they didn’t actually say what you thought you’d heard them say.
Developing heart and gut
With people, I’m much better off developing trust in my gut intuition and my heart than relying on my thinking. I want to relate to people at a richer, deeper level than purely my thoughts about them.
And I want people to do the same with me.
If I’m able to learn how to relate to people without judging, labelling or analysing I think life is more rewarding.
All it requires is taking my foot off the accelerator (gas pedal) linked to my brain!
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” * Acted on a first impression of someone only to be disappointed (or pleasantly surprised) when they prove different to what you thought
* Argued until you’re blue in the face when you were 100% certain of something, only to embarrassingly discover you were 100% wrong
* Believed an unexamined prejudice and treated somone differently because of skin colour, religion, gender, age, profession, position of authority.
* Made a quick decision in response to an invitation only to change your mind later (or wishing you could)
* Opened your mouth and heard words coming out you just knew were completely inappropriate to the situation but your brain was faster than your lips
* Angrily reacted to what someone said, only to realise they didn’t actually say what you thought you’d heard them say. ”
I’m guilty on all counts! Slowing down and being more mindful is the only thing that helps avoid these problems. I’ve found that regular meditation has also allowed me to respond more thoughtfully.
Wow, I really related to this post. I definitely have a lightning-quick brain that jumps to conclusions too often and assesses things and people before I’m fully aware of the situation (it also does some good things too, but these are the ones I really need to work on changing). You’ve given me a lot to think about with this post. Thanks!
http://positivelypresent.typepad.com
I think you’re absolutely right. Our brains developed (or were created) to help us avoid danger. In dangerous situations, our quick-thinking abilities serve us well, and keep us from harm.
In ancient times, strangers were our most deadly enemy. Our greatest threat wasn’t from animals or natural disasters, but from people we didn’t know. Our earliest ancestors were far more likely to get killed by a fellow human than any other source. And so, our brains became very good at judging others as “friend or foe” in just a split-second.
These days, most of us don’t have to worry about being killed by a stranger that we meet in the course of our daily lives. Most assaults and other attacks come from people we already know. However, our brains haven’t evolved enough to recognize that fact yet, and so we still find ourselves making snap judgements and jumping to conclusions.
It takes a lot of work to overcome these natural tendencies, but you, my friend, and your commitment to nonviolence, is proof that it can be done!
In a slightly-related note, I think this is the reason why racism and other forms of hatred are still so prevalent in society. Our ancestors developed those feelings as a defense mechanism, and we haven’t unprogrammed ourselves yet.
“Argued until you’re blue in the face when you were 100% certain of something, only to embarrassingly discover you were 100% wrong”
I cannot tell you how many times I’ve done that. Being a lawyer, I still argue my point even when I know I’m wrong sometimes. Being opinionated, I rarely figure out that I’m wrong.
It takes a sense of humility as well as the ability to slow down.
Great post!
“Angrily reacted to what someone said, only to realise they didn’t actually say what you thought you’d heard them say.”
I have done this a lot in the past and am really working on hearing people out and allowing them time to clarify/justify before I either cut them off or jump to conclusions. I used to hear something I didn’t like and just shut off. A lot of what they said after that I didn’t really hear. It’s certainly not a good way to go about things. But being aware of it is the first step towards changing it so I’m getting there
Hi Ian,
It is always amazing to me how people forget that there are more the one side to a story. There are the two stories based on the two people involved and then there is the truth.
Being detached does not mean being cold or insensitive or unfeeling. It means being able to look at a situation with an open mind. People do things for reasons. It is far wiser to try to understand the reasons instead of focusing on what they did. The “why” means so much more. People are not stupid…they act out of what they think is right. Granted, their version of what is right may not be ideal but to them, it is right. So it is better to figure them out than to waste energy getting angry. It truly will not solve a thing.
Ian, have you heard of the book, “Blink – the power of thinking without thinking” by Malcolm Gladwell? I think you would enjoy it
Thanks for this post. This is one of the reasons why in recent years I’ve gotten rid of my old habits of wanting to talk about politics or philosophy with people, and focused more on learning about them. It’s really so much more interesting and uplifting to me, I’ve found, to have a conversation about the person I’m talking to than about abstract ideas.
Ian,
Great perspective. I used to tell my intelligent friends (who sometimes kindly deigned to admit me as a peer… hmm) that cleverness is a double-edged sword that can be used for good or ill to great impact. Think that’s the gist of your post, and your examples were very well-chosen.
You know, Ian, I think the lightning-fast internet is adding fuel to that fire. I could add to your list up there:
“Rushed to skim through a post to leave a quick comment, only to find out later that your comment had nothing to do with the post.”
We skim the list points and the headings, look for a few highlighted phrases and think we’ve got it all figured out, so we type a quick comment and hit submit. But it’s so much nicer for me (and I would assume for the blogger) when I can really devote some time to carefully read what was actually written, in order to respond appropriately. We’ve got to slow this brain down!!!
“Made a quick decision in response to an invitation only to change your mind later (or wishing you could)”–this is me, definitely
And I would also add the curse of the lightning emotions, or at least in my case…
Thanks for this post, I enjoyed reading it!
@Roger I’m gald I’m not the only one! I’ve not yet got into regular meditation though the times I have done it certainly slows me down. In a positive way.
@Positively Present Don’t lose the good things your brain does. I’m certainly not ‘anti-thinking’ just ‘anti-jumping-in-brain-first-all-the-time’
@Jay I’m not convinced that this ’stranger is a potential enemy’ approach is rooted very deeply in us. There isn’t a whole lot of agreement among ‘experts’ but seems that human to human violence is a relatively recent behaviour – the last 12 – 15,000 years. On one hand that’s not a long time in terms of history. On the other hand, that’s still a lot of socialisation to overcome.
I’m planning to write more on prejudice as a ‘hot topic’ for me.
But what I can say is my 6 year old is prejudice free. She lives with her mother and her step-father, who is African, and her half-caste, half brother. She notices the difference in skin colour (it’s pretty obvious!) but she doesn’t attach any negative judgements. There is nothing in her nature (as far as I can tell) that is prejudiced or fearful.
@Kim Humility! Yes Yes Yes!
@Sherri Fully agree. Awareness is the most important step. Once I’m aware, then it’s relatively plain sailing to get where I want.
@Nadia Reminds me of an earlier post of mine http://www.quantumlearning.pl/conflict-is-not-the-problem Thanks for the chance to plug an old forgotten post.
@Alison You’re the second person who’s recommended that book. I think it’s time to go get it and read it!
@Chris Abstract ideas can be fun to talk about .. and you’re right .. they’re rarely better than learning more deeply about the person in front of us.
@Daphne Indeed .. a double edged sword. Hopefully your super-intelligent friends do listen to you. Maybe even they read your blog?
@Lisis I confess I’m guilty of that. Not often, but it has happened. I’m now reading your comment again to make sure I didn’t do the same with comments. That would be rude!
@Diana Emotions might be even faster. Especially the primal ones such as fear. The more I think about it, the more complex it is to be this creature we call ‘human being’.
Ian,
It makes me nervous to think my friends read my blog. I’d rather they didn’t!
I hope you don’t mind. I think of you as a friend, even though I only know you through our blogs. So some of your friends read
Gosh, I don’t know whether to be flattered or embarrassed!
Thanks for being a friend!
Oh, you are going to LOVE tomorrows post!
Anyway, my worst “lightening brain moments” come in the car. I’m working on that!
This is a great post, Ian, and I think you’ve hit on a concept that explains so many of humanity’s problems.
I think we are slowly outgrowing reliance on conceptual thinking, as a species. More and more people are identifying its drawbacks and its role in cruel and violent behavior. I like to think we’re slowly getting more intuitive and less judgmental.
Thanks Ian!
@Hayden Haven’t checked out your post yet, still catching up after a couple of busy, no-virtual weeks. But I will look at it for sure!
@David I agree. I don’t think our brains can speed up much more – though by most accounts there is a lot more capacity to our brains than we use. Computers process stuff much faster than we do and I hope that will us free to use our intuition and our hearts more.
“With that super-fast processing speed comes a drawback – we have a tendency to jump to conclusions. At least I know I do!”
You’re right, but that’s the whole point of the brain – to jump to conclusions! It’s the brain’s only purpose.
I would have to say that this will vary from person to person. Some people can’t make decisions at all, while some people make decisions so fast, they couldn’t tell you their logic. All decisions should have a hefty dose of logic, even emotional decisions. If they don’t, that is when problems arise. I have personally tried to use objective logic when confronted with criticism or conflict, it works in much the same way as meditation, but without the spiritual aspects. Much like meditation, it doesn’t really come that naturally, t takes time and practise to master.
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