Tomás Navarro: "Thinking well does not depend on intelligence, you learn"

• Newspaper Library Read all the interviews on the back cover

Tomás Navarro.

1974,

.

Psychologist, consultant and writer.

In his new book,

(Zenith), he explains the secret to learning to think correctly and to distinguish rational thoughts from those that are harmful.

What does it mean to think beautiful? Thinking beautiful is a way of applying thought to make your life easier and richer. I know people who are very intelligent and yet lead terrible lives. Nice thinking does not have to do with intelligence or special abilities, it is something that can be learned and that consists above all in knowing how to identify when you are not thinking well. Because we tend to complicate life a lot when we don't think well. And why do you have to learn to think well? Is it that our brain does not do it by itself without the need for us to teach it? Our brain manages a lot of information, so much that the limit goes a bit. The brain knows that there are two thought processes: the heuristic and the algorithmic. The heuristic is faster and uses less power, but has more errors.The algorithmic is much slower, it forces you to be more expert because you shuffle many options, it consumes a lot of energy but does not give so many errors. The brain manages the heart, the heart rate, the digestion, the hormones ... Everything. And the brain does not like that, with everything it already has, we put it to work another half hour to make a decision. Thus, the brain gives us the illusion of control so that we manage what we have learned. What if he explains it to me with an example? Imagine two twin brothers who are separated at birth. One is taught that two plus two equals four, the other is taught that two plus two equals five. There comes a time when there is an exam and they ask each one what is two plus two. One answers that four and the other that five, and both believe that they are correct.The one who answers that two plus two equals five is not aware that his answer is wrong and governs his life by that learning. Our brain does not leave what is vital in our hands, it does not allow us to regulate the heart, we do not have to learn that. But there are other areas in which it does leave us a bit of freedom, but if we do not learn well and make bad decisions, we can complicate our lives a lot. The positive part is that we can learn well that two and two are four and we can think better. In his book he analyzes the eight most common thinking errors and exposes around a hundred biases that also weigh us down when it comes to being able to think correctly. If you had to point out the two biggest mistakes, what would they be? One is related to self-esteem,because several times a day we need to have self-esteem to protect our rights, to ask for what we want, to set limits ... And if your self-esteem makes you believe that you can't do it, then you won't. And another very frequent error is that of the lack of own criteria. We follow the

(the mainstream), and everything that is outside the

and that is not familiar to us dislocates us, we avoid it and deny it. We are very influenceable, very manipulable. And the other way around: What would be the two most important tips for 'thinking beautiful'? There are two fundamental techniques. One is in the

, which is not a sect but rather to bring doubt to thought, it consists in asking

"What if ...?". Many people practice

but they practice it badly. Let's think for example that someone wants to write a book. "What if they don't publish it to me?" "What if it doesn't work out?" You have to use the

backwards: "What if they published it to me?" "What if it works out?" When I myself, for example, diagnose a person with depression, I ask myself: "What if it wasn't depression?" And so, asking myself that question, I discovered that there were people who had diabetes or Parkinson's, diseases associated with depression. The

What it does is expand you to new options that you don't contemplate. And the second technique? The other is the million dollar question. When we are bad, we usually pass sentences. For example, if you get fired, you might say, "I'll never find a job again." And if you tell yourself that, your brain goes into resonance and you don't even apply for a job. Before that I always say the same thing: you have to write it down on a piece of paper, put two questions on it and read it again. "Will I never find a job again?" And there the answer that I give is that it depends, of course. But we have already taken a key step, the million dollar question is fantastic to dismantle those absolutist thoughts. Is it more difficult to think beautiful in these moments than in other times? I don't know if it is more difficult or less. But what I believe is that now more than ever,With the pandemic, we need to think pretty. This is not about unicorns or

What it is about is to take advantage of opportunities, to look for opportunities. And that when you need it most is precisely when everything goes wrong. When you have been fired, you can, for example, start cooking to see if you can find a job there, you open a door that you have never opened before. And if you've had a doggy day and you come home in a bad mood, instead of giving your partner a fight, you can try to think beautifully: that your partner is not to blame for anything, that it is better to go and have two beers to the street or the gym and come home when you are more relaxed. In difficult moments you need more than ever to think beautiful to look for opportunities. Does it take a long time to learn to think beautiful? Not so little. I'd say about eight weeks, one week to learn each of the eight techniques.The main problem with learning to think beautiful is to assume with total humility that it is possible that some moments you do not think well. One of the biases, of the tiny errors, is that we believe that we think better than most people, it is very common. What you call 'brother-in-law bias', right? Exactly. That brother-in-law who, given the opinion that is being formed about the virus, for example, the UN, the experts, the biologists, the doctors and the pharmacists says: "Well, no, I know more than all of them put together." But even if it's the best thinker in the world, I encourage you to bring him to me with a bottle of tequila, and I assure you that he'll stop thinking straight in a matter of hours. Everyone, everyone, everyone - including me, who has a very refined, hard-working thought - we have moments when we don't think well.And being able to accept it allows us to ask ourselves if we could not be making mistakes, if we are not simplifying, if we are not falling into a stereotype ... Shouldn't study programs include teaching to think well? That is my workhorse. At one point we realized that knowing how to read, write and multiply was so important that it had to be taught systematically and could not be left in the hands of parents, because some did not know, some could not, some did not want to pass it on. I think we are at a time when we have to review the educational system and teach our children key things such as knowing how to make good decisions, knowing how to analyze people, knowing how to think beautifully, knowing how to be resilient despite adversity, how to differentiate wants needs ...A profound reform of the educational system is needed. Imagine how our lives would have changed if you and I had been taught to discriminate love from admiration when we were little.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

• Psychology

• Final Interview

The final interview Marian Rojas Estapé: "For the first time in history, young people are less intelligent than the previous generation"

THE FINAL INTERVIEW David de Jorge: "I would take Pedro Sánchez to eat at his mother's house, so that he could give him some slaps"

Psychology "How am I going to remove my son's Instagram if everyone in his class has it?": The million dollar question

See links of interest

• La Palma volcano live

• Last News

• Work calendar

• Home THE WORLD TODAY

• Master data new narratives

• What

• Lugo - Girona

• Mirandés - Eibar

• Almeria - Las Palmas

• Real Oviedo - Sporting de Gijón