Deciding effectively with limited brain resources

October 28th, 2009 // 11:16 am @ David Phillips

One of the reasons for the limited space in active brain memory is the principle of competition. Holding a complex idea in active memory requires activating visual circuitry. For instance, when you think, you brain creates a picture of how that idea connects with other ideas. The circuits in the brain compete for resources to form the best internal representation of the idea. The brain is capable of holding only one representation of a visual object at a time. It’s like the optical illusion where you see either a vase or an old woman in the same illustration. The brain must settle on only one perception at any time. You can switch between perceptions at will. However, only one can exist at a time.

Based on this, how do we effectively make decisions? We reduce the amount of variables in our decision-making process.

The most efficient number of variables in any decision appear to be two. Do I turn left or right? Do I take English or History? However, when more that two variables are required, there are two practices that you can implement to make your decision-making more effective. The first is to simplify. The second is to chunk.

To simplify means to break down complicated ideas into their core elements. It’s a habit that most successful business executives have developed, and often the only way to make complex decisions. When you reduce complex ideas to just a few concepts, it’s much easier to manipulate those concepts in your mind and in other people’s minds. For instance, there is a story that exists that says the blockbuster movie Aliens was pitched as Jaws in space. The pitch uses existing elements that everyone knows well and requires the least amount of energy to conceptualize as a result.

A study done at Brunel University in the UK by Dr. Fernand Gobet shows that the brain learns complex routines by automatically grouping information in chunks. The size of the chunk roughly relates to the time it takes you to say each item to yourself. For example, it’s easier to “seventy-two, thirty-eight, eleven, fifty-six, forty-nine,” than it is to say “seven thousand, two hundred and thirty-eight, one thousand one hundred and fifty six”.

In a 2006 article in Scientific American Mind magazine entitled, “The Expert Mind”, Philip Ross illustrates this idea in a discussion of chess players. The article argues that chess masters develop names, or chunks for complete layouts of the board. They might have a chunk for a game where the opponent starts and moves the far left pawn one step, and another chunk for when that same player moves the same pawn two steps. They have seen how both games evolve so many times that each game has been almost memorized and can be recalled in an instant. This enables them to compare the two chunks of information easily. According to the article, chess masters don’t think hundreds of moves ahead. They think one move ahead. But they have an ability to process chunks of information efficiently because each of these chunks represent a set of dozens of moves.

Therefore, becoming an expert in anything means creating large numbers of chunks which enable you to make faster and better decisions. Creating chunks allow you to interact with complex patterns in many domains of life.

Efficiently making decisions, then requires, years of “chunking”. The best estimate is ten years. Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Outliers, suggests that it takes 10,000 hours.

So to decide more effectively with our limited brain resources, we must learn to break items down into their core elements and, through experience and practice, understand the patterns or chunks that information can be effectively grouped into.

Category : Books & Business & Personal Development