I can’t say I was an avid reader while growing up. I’ve always been into numbers and figuring out the world through numbers. Recently, I’ve been intrigued with how the mind makes decisions, especially in stressful situations. Is it emotion or reason that helps us to decide? How do we decide in situations where we don’t have time to ‘think’ logically or rationally, such as when we are surprised or at a crucial swing in a match? How does our upbringing and experiences influence those situations? Socrates uses a two horse and chariot metaphor. One horse is a wild stallion (our emotions) that needs to be controlled by the chariot driver, the other horse is that of logic and reason that must be prodded as it processes information. Freud uses the Id and the Ego. Many great philosophers try and suppress emotion in order to let logic reign, but logic cannot act alone. If we acted on logic and reason alone, we would over-analyze everything and nothing would be completed. A balance between the two is how our mind must process information and come to decisions. But at what point is equilibrium in different situations? In stressful versus relaxed situations? In that, I continue to learn.

Here are a couple books I picked up which I enjoyed about thought process in extreme situations:

Deep Survival by Laurence Gonzales

How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer (recommended by John Kessel)