Thinking slow in the fast lane

I'm a slow thinker.

Sure, my brain moves fast in a lot of ways. I can dig up the right word for a concept, or the lyrics to just about any song I've sung in the past 20 years. Puzzles and riddles usually come easily. But when I'm working on an open-ended creative project, the constant decisions slow me down.

In Thinking, Fast and Slow, psychologist Daniel Kahneman describes two general mental approaches that are optimal for different situations. Thinking fast is instinctive and emotional. I relate it to phenomena like intuition and muscle memory. Thinking slow is more deliberative and rational. It's working through a problem logically to find the best solution.

My brain defaults to the latter, even when it's disadvantageous. I've been facing a lot of professional and personal situations lately that call for speed over depth, and it's been difficult to adapt. So I'm trying to train myself to think fast. Ordering the first thing on the menu that sounds interesting. Sending the initial draft of a text message. Writing whatever comes to mind without continually editing every piece.

So I guess this is an exercise in thinking faster. I'm trying to keep from over-editing, but even as I'm typing this, it's irresistible. My hope is that I'll improve as I keep blogging every day.

This still took over a half-hour to write. But I'm finished!