Why We Think

“Assumptions are what we don’t know we are making.” - Douglas Adams

Why We Think

I enjoy the reaction I usually get when I tell an engineer: “Engineers don’t like to solve problems.”

“What?!” they say. “Engineers love to solve problems! That’s why we’re engineers!”

“Oh no,” I say. “Engineers like to work problems. Once a problem is solved, it’s no fun anymore.”

People enjoy solving a problem, of course. But mostly they like the process of solving problems. It’s what drives so much of our entertainment — from games to books to movies. It is what drives the creative process. As humans, we invent new problems to solve once we’ve solved the old ones.

Overthinking a problem is when we think about the same problem over and over again. It’s like “working” the problem a little too much. Overthinking is generally considered a negative. It’s inefficient. It’s not even really usually that much fun. I speak with first-hand knowledge, as I am a classic over-thinker.

That said…

When I was in middle school, I used to sit down to dinner with my family every night (yes, I was blessed). My father would interrogate me about school. If math was the subject du jour, he would quiz me.

One evening, was quizzing me on my times tables. “5 times 7… 3 times 6…. 11 times four…” I was nailing every question. He was impressed. Then he threw me a curve ball: “7+12…”

“Plus?!” I said. “We’re past that.”

In my mind, I was learning multiplication. Addition? I didn’t have to think about that anymore.

In the end, the goal of most thinking is to be done thinking — about that subject, at least. We think, we conclude, we build on it, and move on.

The goal of thinking is to be done thinking

This uniquely powerful ability to process, conclude, and develop ideas is what sets humans apart from other animals. It is the primary superpower that enabled human beings to survive, first near the bottom of the food chain and eventually at the top (as a species, at least).

To “think,” in this context, includes dreaming and imagining as well as analyzing and problem-solving. Thinking leads to understanding our environment, other people, and ourselves well enough to avoid or conquer forces of nature and predators out to kill or eat us — including other humans.

Simon Sinek, the inspirational speaker on business leadership and author of “Start With Why” (among others), talks about how our primitive selves evolved to fear the “tiger in the grass.” We evolved to understand that the tiger in the grass was dangerous and should be avoided.

Relatives of ours who took too long to ponder such things once they were “learned” (the slow thinkers or the overthinkers) were less likely to pass on their genes. Those of us who are on the planet today evolved mostly from those ancestors who pondered their world only just enough to decide how to act. We are, therefore, biologically wired for action, not contemplation. Anything that even remotely looks, smells, or sounds like a tiger in the grass instinctively triggers us to hide or flee — not to investigate.

The downside of our superpower — our Kryptonite — is that we have not adapted to a world in which there aren’t tigers in every patch of grass. Our world changes so fast now that we need to evolve to re-investigate — frequently, deeply, efficiently, and collaboratively.

Next, we’ll talk about the “How” of thinking.