Thinking How to Think

As human beings, it is innate for us to compare things and to infer which is better… but should that really be the case?

On a Saturday morning, my orgmates and I organized the Ateneo Biology Cup 2020 wherein several groups of biology students from universities all over the country participated and expressed their passion and interest in the life sciences through an encouraging and healthy quiz bee. As usual in any events, many unexpected events turned against our original plan but we had to do our best to solve them and find alternatives as the main organizers of the event.

After the taxing event, my friends and I decided to buy ice cream and eat it together on the field of Arete in the windy afternoon. After the stresses and challenge of the event, we decided to just let go and be ourselves as we share and laugh on the stories of one another.

At one moment, I realized how my thinking systems manifested themselves in that day. In the morning, I was dominantly using system 2 in order to address the novel event problems in the most logical, deliberate, and analytical way as possible. On the other hand, in the afternoon, I was dominantly using system 1 as I reacted to my friends’ familiar storied based on my intuition and emotions.

To optimize our thinking self, we should never polarize our thinking systems as we are complex thinking individuals: we need both and shall not be compared with one another. And to truly understand ourselves, we also have to consider who we are and how we think as we switch from system 1 to 2, and vice versa.