I was reading Daniel Kahnema's Thinking Fast and Slow. Kahneman begins by showing a picture similar to this one:

Problem 1:



What can you tell from that picture?

Problem 2:

***

Next, find a number which makes the following statement true:

"Four more than seven times some number is equal to thirty-nine"

What's the answer?

***

When you are confronted with the first problem, you engage with Kahneman describes as "System 1" of your brain - located mostly in your amygdala. It's an emotional reaction and you process it quickly and effortlessly. He calls it "Fast Thinking". You let the totality of the situation sink in and make a decision.

Contrast that with the second problem. This one you solve using "System 2" - engaging among other things your preflontal cortex. This is what Kahneman describes as "Slow Thinking" - it's deliberate, effortful, and orderly. It's also taxing on the brain as it requires effort.

So what's the point of this blog post?

Have you ever been involved in a hand and made decisions which upon review don't really make much sense? It's almost as if another person played that hand. Does it seem often that when you look at different forum posts you seem to come up with lots of good lines and answers which other respectable posters seem to agree with, but when you actually play, there is tons of FPS in your game?

What's going on there?

One answer is that when you are involved in a hand online, there is money at stake, time is limited, and you have lots of information to consider at once. If you are also playing lots of tables, you need to make quick decisions. You will often tap into your System 1 of thinking and make Fast Thinking decisions - mostly emotionally and with limited (notice I said limited and not absent) mental effort.

On the other hand, if you are reviewing your hand on the forums, there is no money at stake, you are able to logically and deliberately break the hand apart with no time constraints and arrive at an answer you are happy with. You are working almost entirely using your slow thinking.

So there you go - the You at the tables is siginficantly different than the You on the forums and the You that reviews your sessions afterwards.

Where the expert players have a huge edge is many of the small decisions are automatized and they are able to devote their mental focus in actively engaging their slow thinking during important situations at the table.