Fans of JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings will surely remember the Ents, those tree-like creatures who apply the word “hasty” to anything that isn’t happily rooted in one spot. The Ents embody a conservative disposition – not one that resists change so much as it resists action. Doing anything but standing still is frowned upon.
Most of us have learned, much of the time, to avoid hasty, impulsive action; when we do, we emulate the Ents, standing rooted in one spot, mulling over our options, before we march off in a particular direction. But often, in more stressful situations when we are prone to panic, we need the advice of an expert in the practice of slow and deliberate judgement.
A number of years ago when my IRA was rapidly losing value, my financial adviser told me to resist the temptation to sell. He had learned, after years spent watching the markets, that my investment would (almost certainly) regain its lost value and eventually climb much higher. He was telling me to curb my hasty impulse to sell; instead I should rely on his judgement, seasoned by many years spent observing the markets.
Ignoring such advice in our personal lives can be costly. But haste and recklessness in decision-making can have consequences that reach far beyond the life of one person or even one family.
I first heard the phrase that serves as the title of this essay, “Be quick to observe and slow to judge”, from an historian. He offered his students these words as an important lesson learned during his years spent studying the achievements and failures of humanity. A crowd acting in haste becomes a mob, capable of mayhem, disorder, and great damage. When an entire people act in haste, when a nation or its leaders fail to move with caution, the harm done can be far greater.
Counsels of caution before acting have a long history, ranging from modern truisms like “Look before you leap” all the way back to the Bible where James advises us to “be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.” James goes on to say that ignoring this warning will prevent us from finding God’s righteousness. But even an atheist will recognize the wisdom in James’ advice.
Modern psychology is now weighing in with insight into the origins of our impulse to judge and act hastily, insight that fleshes out the sound advice of Biblical wisdom and folk aphorisms. Psychologists tell us that our haste in judgement is sometimes justified, even necessary. We are often in difficult, even perilous situations where rapid judgement is needed.
But even in the mundane activities of ordinary life where there is no danger, we make hundreds of judgements every day without being aware that we are doing so. Psychologist Daniel Kahneman calls this unconscious, intuitive kind of judgement Thinking Fast. It is our instinctive way to live and allows us to function without conscious thought in most situations.
In his book, Thinking Fast and Slow, Kahneman tells us that Thinking Fast allows us to perform many everyday tasks. At its most comprehensive, Thinking Fast constantly gives us a narrative, a picture, that explains what is going on around us. Most of the time this picture is close enough to reality, but not always.
And so we sometimes go astray and make bad judgements– we may be overconfident in our decisions or we may reject a political argument without careful consideration because it doesn’t fit in with our pre-existing beliefs.
It is when Thinking Fast misleads us that it is time to switch to the practice of Thinking Slow, to fire up the conscious mind, to stand and deliberate like the Ents. In short, to be quick to observe and slow to judge. Thinking Slow provides self-control and we know it is in charge when we are aware of an “I” that is doing the thinking.
Unfortunately, Kahneman tells us that we can’t control the switch from fast to slow. The mind switches to Thinking Slow in situations where the impulses that arise from Thinking Fast are inadequate. Unlike shifting gears in a car, the transition is automatic and hidden.
So how do we avoid the errors that arise when we are stuck Thinking Fast. Kahneman gives two pieces of advice. Learn to recognize error-prone situations and secondly, learn from the mistakes of others.
Perhaps there is a third piece of counsel. Augment the verbal advice Kahneman offers with an image. Plant the words – “be quick to observe and slow to judge” – deeply into ourselves and into our lives, like an Ent rooting itself deeply into the soil of Middle Earth.
Suggested Reading
Thing Fast and Thinking Slow – Daniel Kahneman
