There are at least 2 systems of thinking.

System 1

The first system is our unconscious system. This is where expertise lives. When we know how to do something at an expert level, but we don’t know how we know, it’s in this system. Riding a bike, driving a car, Michael Phelps swimming, Lionel Messi dribbling a football, etc. This is the “flow” state athletes talk about where they turn off their consciousness and just let this system take over. This is muscle memory. This is involuntary actions, like taking your hand away from a hot object.

System 2

This is where counsciousness is. If we have to cousciously think about how to do something and that something requires expertise to do it well, then we won’t do it well. Someone just learning how to drive a car has to consciously think about driving. Someone learning how to play a guitar will not sound as good as someone who has been playing a guitar since they were a small child. When a horse is born, it needs system 2 for a while until it learns how to walk and run and transfers those skills to system 1. For a short time that young horse will be bad at walking and running, because it has to think about it.

System 3

This is meta-thinking. Thinking about thinking, thinking about philosophy and the nature of knowledge and reality.

What can we take from this?

• If you want to be an expert at something, start young.
• Experts are using system 1 to do things that beginners need system 2 for
• We all have different system 1 abilities, we expect others to have the same systems 1s as ourselves. If they don’t, then they’re “idiots”. “It’s so simple, why can’t they do it?”

Consciousness

We evolved from single purpose animals to more multi-purpose animals over time by having a second system of thought. This gave us self awareness, the ability to make conscious decisions, etc.

1. Kahneman, Daniel (2011). Thinking, Fast and Slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux