Un-thinking

We've all heard of or even experienced analysis paralysis, where we overthink something to the point where we can't make any decision. At such times, some people envy the ignorant, who just go ahead and do something...and sometimes, they even succeed!

Somehow going ignorant never sounded like any solution to me. I am sure that even the “if only we could go back to before Eve bit the apple” crowd would squirm if CEO's and politicians said they made major decisions only by intuition.

Which is why Ian Leslie's article on the topic appealed to me. To overcome analysis paralysis, he suggests developing “the ability to apply years of learning at the crucial moment by removing one’s thinking self from the equation”. Or as he paraphrases German psychologist Gerd Gigerenzer: “one has to be skilled at ignoring information”.

Leslie uses the word “unthink” to describe the above technique. And as he rightly warns:
“Unthinking is not the same as ignorance; you can’t unthink if you haven’t already thought.”
Now if only more of us could execute this technique...

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