So, humans are stupid. I am stupid.

I thought this video would be about how to "make your brain smarter", but it was actually about how stupid our brains are...and how politicians, marketers, etc. use this information on us.

The video showed that our brains have two primary modes of thought, "fast" and "slow". (If you read "Thinking Fast and Slow", you might be familiar. "Fast thinking" is the part of our brains that make split second decisions:

-Do I eat the chocolate cake or the apple?

-Is this person nice or mean?

-Is this person dangerous or friendly?

"Fast thinking" is what we use for things that require quick decisions like whether we should buy something RIGHT NOW, while tying our shoe, figuring out what to eat, etc. I

"Slow thinking" is the logical, rational part that we often associate with thinking....but it requires more energy....so our brains won't use "slow thinking" unless we're in a new situation or unless we consciously choose to.

The video showed how, in just about every situation...when we have limited time and a little bit of information we tend to choose "fast thinking"

.....when seeing a sticker on a used car at a dealership

.....when we're hungry and see a Kit Kat bar near the check-out line

....when we see a picture of a horrific event vs the stats behind the event

...when we choose who is a better politician or someone who think might be a criminal

....when we have to choose between someone that looks like us vs someone else who didn't

And this starts early. The scientists in the show were able to prove with 3-year olds that just putting on an orange or green-colored shirt made the children think people with the same color shirt were better...for no other reason than the color of the shirt.

(And don't worry, the adults did the same...even when they thought they were "smart".)

The video theorized that the reason we make these biases is because our brain is still hardwired for life as our earlier ancestors, where we lived in small tribal groups, had to eat everything we hunted on the same day, and had to rely on split decisions that could be life or death.

But we live in a global world with lots of people, have a lot of access to food and have to make split decisions, like "Do I skip this YouTube ad about doughnuts when I'm on a diet?".

While the decisions aren't life or death, our brain still act use the same fast vs slow thinking process with a bias toward "fast thinking" because we don't have time and energy....and we tend to go with our "fast thinking" brain ("It's just one ad about doughnuts, what could it hurt?") versus the "slow-thinking" brain ("I should probably skip this ad on doughnuts" because it doesn't help me.")

Using what I learned from the book "Effortless" , this explains why it's so easy for us (and I include myself) to do the wrong thing at the wrong time. It explains why I meant spend two hours nerding out versus sleep and get off track.

The key to improving your habits is making the "hard things that we want to get right" as easy as possible. So, instead of focusing on willpower alone, we should also focus on creating systems and situations that make it easier to say "yes". It won't guarantee you will always say "yes", but it will increase the chances dramatically....and with that you can change your life.

...but only if you are aware and use the power of both "fast" and "slow" thinking rather than let marketers, politicians, etc. use that power against you

So, with that I'm going to take my fast-thinking, but dumb a** brain to sleep after I get "Thinking Fast and Slow" on my read list.

PS Updating Artist Date because I'll be expanding into new areas...

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