The candle problem answer:
You dump the tacks out of the box, tack the box to the wall, and use it as a platform for the candle.
This problem illustrates the properties of thinking.
First, thinking is slow. Your visual system instantly takes in a complex scene…Your thinking system does not instantly calculate the answer to a problem the way your visual system immediately takes in a visual scene.
Second thinking is effortful; you don’t have to try to see, but thinking takes concentration. You can perform other tasks while you are seeing, but you can't think about something else while you are working on a problem.
Finally thinking is uncertain. Your visual system seldom makes mistakes and when it does you usually think you see something similar to what is actually out there -- you're close, if not exactly right. Your thinking system might not even be close; your solution to a problem may be far from correct. In fact, your thinking system may not produce an answer at all, which is what happens to most people when they try to solve the candle problem.
If we’re all so bad at thinking, how does anyone get through the day?... The answer is that when we can get away with it, we don't think. Instead we rely on memory. Most of the problems we face are ones we've solved before, so we just do what we've done in the past.
Our memory... stores strategies to guide what we should do: where to turn when driving home, handle minor dispute monitoring recess, what to do when the pot on the stove starts to boil over....
As two psychologists put it, "Most of the time what we do is what we do most of the time."
The implications for education sound rather grim. If people are bad at thinking and try to avoid it, what does that say about students’ attitudes toward school? Well, despite the fact that we're not good at it, we actually like to think. We are naturally curious, and we look for opportunities to engage in certain types of thought...
The next section explains when we like to think and when we don't.
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