Thinking! Book Summary

WHY DIDN’T YOU THINK?   Some years ago, during a very cold spell, a motorist arrived at a filling station and found that he could not remove the cap from his petrol tank. The lock had frozen solid. He decided to unfreeze it with the aid of his cigarette lighter. The result was disastrous. First his car, and then the entire petrol station, went up in flames. When asked to account for his actions, the man said, “I didn’t think”.   The mistake was elementary, and yet understandable. We have all made similar mental errors, though hopefully not with he same catastrophic results. It is no excuse, however, to say “I didn’t think”, for it is impossible not to think. Try for a moment to think of nothing – it’s hard isn’t it? A more accurate explanation would be to say, “I didn’t think properly”.   The motorist did think. He linked the heating properties of his lighter with the ice in the frozen lock. What he neglected to do was to consider the lighter in relation to the petrol fumes. He must have known what could happen. He had all the necessary information, and yet he failed to use it effectively.   Human error is a matter of everyday life, and occurs mainly because insufficient attention is given to the matter in hand. Perhaps then, all thinking errors can be eliminated by paying maximum attention to everything we do. Unfortunately, this is not possible. We are involved in so many activities which compete for thinking space that we have to ration the time available to any one subject. Even then, it is difficult to sustain concentration, and interruptions are almost inevitable.   Thinking is a natural process which occurs spontaneously whether we choose it or not. The question is whether it is therefore outside our control, or whether we can consciously achieve improvements to individual performance. To answer this, let us consider the functions of the brain:-   It is the focal point of the nervous system and interprets sensory impulses; It co-ordinates and controls bodily activities; It exercises the emotion, thought and memory processes.   So far as its sensory role is concerned, the brain acts on impulse and requires no conscious effort. Similarly, in its control of bodily activities, little conscious is required. There is scope for improvement, however. Take breathing, for example. It occurs naturally and is vital to our survival and development. We do not have to think about it. And yet there is no standard level of performance. Most people breathe reasonably well, some badly, but few bother to develop and improve the way they breathe. Those who do, such as athletes and singers, experience great benefit, as do people who use controlled breathing as a means of relaxation in overcoming stress.   There are similar wide variations in thinking performance. We may experience changes in our own performance, and can observe in others widely differing levels of ability. This would suggest that there is scope of improvement and yet little attention is normally given to this subject.   One of the purposes of thinking is to avoid thinking, or more precisely, the conscious effort of thinking. When, for example, a learner driver sits in a car for the first time, he or she is usually overwhelmed by the amount of information which has to be absorbed and acted upon quickly, accurately, and often simultaneously. An experienced driver, on the other hand, requires little or no conscious effort to perform the same task to a much higher standard, and often has space to listen to the car radio and talk to his passengers as well. The difference is that the experienced driver has had time to think about the requirements of driving and, having thought about them, and programmed his mind accordingly, he can forget about having to make any further conscious effort. He can drive without having to think about it.