In Thinking Fast & Slow, Daniel Kahneman describes two systems psychologists use to describe how our brains work.

System 1 operates automatically and quickly, with little or no effort and no sense of voluntary control. System 2 allocates attention to the effortful mental activities that demand it, including complex computations. The operations of System 2 are often associated with the subjective experience of agency, choice, and concentration.

Kahneman, Daniel. Thinking, Fast and Slow (pp. 20-21). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.

System 1 allows us to react and make decisions quickly, and without using a lot of energy. System 2 allows us to make long term beneficial decisions we might not make if all we had was System 1.

When you’re learning a new skill you’re trying to take something that requires a lot of System 2 effort and turn it into something you can do with System 1. This could be a new programming language, practising the guitar, learning a dance or martial art. To start with you need to stop, think, and be deliberate about everything. As you put the time in and practise your brain learns how to do things in System 1 and you become fluid in the skill.

When you’re in a flow state and using the skill System 1 keeps you moving fast. You’ve probably noticed this when working on something and suddenly hitting a problem that requires System 2 to kick in. It’s like time slows down and everything takes more effort. This might sound like a bad thing but it’s better than making bad decisions because System 1 brain is going on “gut instinct” with something that needs a bit of reasoning about. System 1 can be easily fooled!

Do you recognise which system you’re working in regularly? Are there decisions you made in System 1 that you wish System 2 had kicked in for?