Thread by @then_there_was

At any given moment, your brain will consciously “loop” through four distinct chunks.

Your unconscious brain can “loop” through far more.

Your unconscious is what consistently makes connections between disparate phenomena.

Ideally, you wouldn’t want to waste brain power looping over the same thought.

But your brain won’t stop looping a thought until it feels you’ve made a plan to adequately address the open loop.

This is why people find morning journals so useful.

Writing captures open loops.

When you successfully address an open loop, something interesting happens.

A new thought emerges.

Four conscious loops isn’t enough for the modern world.

There’s too much information.

You brain quickly can get overwhelmed.

It’s why it’s helpful to transfer some of the cognitive load to an external source.

Like a to-do list.

But it isn’t enough to just collect ideas.

You have to act on those ideas. You have to clarify what needs to be done next.

Otherwise, every time you look at the idea, you’ll have to rethink what needs to be done next.

And the brain doesn’t like thinking anymore than it has to.

If you do that, you’ll alleviate the strain on your brain.

We’re not farmers anymore.

And the things we have to do aren’t as obvious.

There’s no cows to milk, no chickens to kill.

Just ideas to capture and clarify.