Thinking Without Knowing

We have less free will than we think. Our thoughts are severely constrained by both brain mechanisms and the metaphors that the brain has been filled with from environmental input. Physics, culture, experience.

We have more free will than we think because this remarkable consciousness we’re all endowed with can act back on the brain and change it. We can also hack the brain in new and interesting ways to create.

John Cleese on Creativity:

John Cleese on how to put your mind to work via John Paul Caponigro

Cleese points out two important non-conscious phenomenon. First there’s the “sleep on it” effect where upon taking something up again the next morning the solution often appears obvious. The answer presents itself without thinking; it’s just there. Of course most thought is “just there”, but the previous effort makes it seem remarkable that you can fail to think of something one day but succeed the next. The brain is an odd muscle indeed. Imagine if you failed to hold something one day but could grasp it the next morning.

And his point that you need to put in the work of thinking the night before shouldn’t be lost. He calls it “priming the pump”, but I think of it as one long thinking process. Its useful to interrupt the conscious work to free the brain to produce a solution. This is brain work without knowing.

His second point about recreation from memory is related. We now know that remembering is a creative act, not a playback of a brain tape of events. Its easy to remember something into a different form than the original. Creatively, the new version may be better.

Cleese tells a story about losing and recreating a script. The second version, the one from memory, was funnier and crisper. I use this trick all the time in creating presentations or writing. I step away from the words or slide and get myself to say in words what it is I’m trying to convey. I’ve realized also that if I can’t say it easily, my problem is that I don’t know what to say, not that I don’t know how to say it.

It’s always fun to turn to someone during a prep meeting who’s struggling to create a slide. They’re lost in a verbal maze trying to find the right words as if it were some magical incantation that will unlock the meaning. I’ll say, “Tell me what you’re trying to convey here.” Once they’ve told me, I say, “Well, write that down” and we get a clear and crisp rendering of the thought in words.

Author: James Vornov

I'm an MD, PhD Neurologist who left a successful academic career on the Faculty of The Johns Hopkins Medical School to develop new treatments in Biotech and Pharma. I became fascinated with how people actually make decisions based on the science of decision theory and emerging understanding of how the brain works to make decisions. My passion now is this deep explanation of what has been the realm of philosophy, psychology and self help but is now understood as brain function. By understanding our brains, I believe we can become happier, more successful people. View all posts by James Vornov