This idea of unconscious thought being less transparent/understandable, yet stronger at addressing fluidly defined problems is highly reminiscent of the ongoing shift/debate of relying on human written code (explainable, possibly error prone, clearly handles precisely bounded problem spaces) versus generative AI/LLMs/neural nets (black box, more precise when given more time to optimize weights, can identify difficult-to-articulate patterns).
interesting study! I was actually thinking about writing about decision-making too for my next blog, but decided to punt it to sometime later, it's called "side stepping false decisions", the gist is that sometimes we create a decision in our head like a fork in the road, when in reality we don't actually have a decision to make. It's still to-be-fleshed-out, but I've observed that sometimes we don't have to decide between A and B, we can find option C that's a blend... or we can dig deep and think about what we really want, often realizing that we prefer one over the other. In that situation, the decision breaks down and flows into a natural choice - the only option we want
This idea of unconscious thought being less transparent/understandable, yet stronger at addressing fluidly defined problems is highly reminiscent of the ongoing shift/debate of relying on human written code (explainable, possibly error prone, clearly handles precisely bounded problem spaces) versus generative AI/LLMs/neural nets (black box, more precise when given more time to optimize weights, can identify difficult-to-articulate patterns).
yes!! reminds me of Rohit Krishnan calling LLMs "fuzzy processors" https://www.strangeloopcanon.com/p/beyond-google-to-assistants-with
Even more reason to trust yourself!
interesting study! I was actually thinking about writing about decision-making too for my next blog, but decided to punt it to sometime later, it's called "side stepping false decisions", the gist is that sometimes we create a decision in our head like a fork in the road, when in reality we don't actually have a decision to make. It's still to-be-fleshed-out, but I've observed that sometimes we don't have to decide between A and B, we can find option C that's a blend... or we can dig deep and think about what we really want, often realizing that we prefer one over the other. In that situation, the decision breaks down and flows into a natural choice - the only option we want
I love this idea! just carving the path you actually want rather than assuming you have to conform to some predefined path or other
Love your final few sentences. Such a great reframe, just nails it!
thanks Will!