The goal isn’t to think faster. It’s to need less thinking.

by Justin Skycak (@justinskycak) on

(Note: This is an AI-assisted teaser for my prior manual writing. If you like it and want to read more details about this topic/perspective, then check out my 100% manually-written blog and books!)

Want to get notified about new posts? Join the mailing list and follow on X/Twitter.

Imagine I ask you: what’s 2 + 2?

You don’t think.
You just know.

Now imagine I ask: what’s 478 × 63?

Now your brain has to work.

Automaticity is when a skill becomes like 2 + 2 instead of 478 × 63.

Your brain doesn’t have to spend effort figuring it out anymore. It just does it.

That’s important because your brain has limited mental bandwidth.

If all of it is being spent trying to remember or re-derive the basics, there’s none left for solving the tough problem.

It’s like trying to write a novel while you’re still sounding out every word.

The better your fundamentals become, the less effort they require.

And the less effort they require, the more difficult problems you become capable of solving.

∗     ∗     ∗

Here are the 100% manually-written long-forms that this teaser is distilled from, if you want to dive deeper:


Want to get notified about new posts? Join the mailing list and follow on X/Twitter.