Mental sloth.

AuthorPuterbaugh, Dolores T.
PositionPARTING THOUGHTS

GROWNUPS ARE SUPPOSED to be dedicated, hardworking, and persistent but, sometimes, despite all of that, they (we!) can be incredibly, well, lazy. Generally, sloth is bad; it is a deadly sin, except ... sometimes a certain category of laziness is good. Investing lots of attention and thought into minor decisions is a waste of mental energy. Fortunately for us, our brains are designed to be highly efficient at putting a lot of decisions and actions on autopilot. This hardwired preference towards a particular type of laziness, if you will, has tremendous benefits. Research indicates that mental energy is finite (albeit that some have more than others). Expending mental energy on minor decisions makes less energy and willpower available for the bigger issues of daily life. The typical American woman, caught up in an argument with her mirror and five outfits before leaving for work in the morning, has spent a lot of time and mental energy on a decision that, odds are, few but her really even will notice. Still, the mental energy (and the time) now are unavailable for anything remotely more interesting than whether these two blues go together (I can tell you without looking: no, they don't; go with a nice brown or taupe to play up a blue instead of getting all matchy-matchy).

The limited mental energy for decisionmaking theory has led numerous people--such as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Pres. Barack Obama--to, for example, narrow wardrobe choices. The human capacity to streamline and automate mental functions allows us to achieve higher levels of knowledge. Autopilot means more mental bandwidth is available for bigger and better things.

The dark side of this gift is the tendency to keep going on autopilot long after a decision should have been revisited. It is all too easy to get stuck in a rut and never even question the choice that is now made, literally, without conscious thought. From regrettable clothing choices to redundant weekend routines, the human brain is geared to create habits. Those often-boring routlines free up mental energy to scan for threats--that is a central job of the brain.

The reliance on patterns and the search for threats can combine oddly. Let us suppose you develop a very bad first impression of someone with whom you work. This is based on a gut feeling--and that gut feeling comes from multiple life experiences with people with some similarity to the coworker. Your brain has learned to identify certain...

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