Cultivate Slow Thinking brain to build great career

Human civilization has seen many divisions since Homo Sapiens began to organize themselves into communities.

At the very start, society split into “haves and have nots.” Then came upper and lower casts. With economic progress came higher and lower classes. Cultural shifts created “class v/s mass.” Politics organised itself into left and right wings. Marx gave us the bourgeoisie and proletariat. In colleges we learnt there were jocks and geeks. Social media split people into “BJP bhakt and Congress chamchas” (or its equivalents elsewhere). On Indian roads we are seeing a new phenomenon: Thar / Creta owners and the rest 😉

However among all these divisions, the one that truly matters for humans is between those dominated by the slow thinking brain and those led by the fast thinking brain.

When you start noticing and you’ll see the difference everywhere – at work, in families, in friend groups.

The fast-thinking brain is your basic instinct. In survival mode, it triggers the fight-or-flight response.

But the slow-thinking brain is cultivated through practice. It helps you move from merely surviving to truly thriving. We owe much of human progress to people who made their slow thinking brain dominant.

Fast-thinking types are shaped by their environment. Slow-thinking types shape their environment.

So when we talk to our children about careers and the future, emphasize this crucial difference. The fast brain chases wins, the slow brain pursues sustained progress. Wins are only a by-product of that sustained effort. We must convey that the focus should be on thoughtful orchestration of their careers – not on headline salary packages or trying to copy paste some else’s success.