http://bactra.org/reviews/heath-on-enlightenment.html ( )

http://bactra.org/reviews/heath-on-enlightenment.html ( )

I really liked this book because it tended to describe me in a lot of ways. The difference between type 1, or heuristic thinking and type 2 thinking was pretty eye-opening for me. It made me want to be more aware of when I was engaging type 2 thinking and what triggered it, and if I can trigger it on my own. It also kind of reminded me of how lazy I am...and I guess how lazy we all are, in that we tend to follow the easiest path, the one that requires the least amount of work, which is usually the type 1 path. Heath has suggestions at the end of the book about recognizing and using this thinking instead of pretending that we can always overcome it...for example, changing our environment in the first place to avoid temptation instead of thinking that we'll just be able to have the will-power we need in the moment. If we make it easier for us to do the things we want to do without having to engage type 2 thinking, then it'll just be easier to do them! But we have to set ourselves up for success.
Basically - it's hard to be enlightened. Rationality isn't humankind's default, it's kind of just a spandrel that showed up when we learned to communicate with each other and count things...so assuming that we will do rational things in the future, or that other people will act rationally in any given situation, is giving ourselves way too much credit! Let's embrace our irrationality - not by just ceding to it but by planning for it. ( )