The Science of Thinking 

There is an optimal zone of learning in-between tasks that are too difficult and too easy. This zone is subjective for everyone and is based upon prior knowledge.

The mind craves instant and easy gratification.. It does not like effort

@05candymanmaybe most minds :)

It c a n tolerate boredom People are addicted to stress now imagine the portable smartphone/teen fusion stranded in a cave 10 000 years ago

@@torrace12 Imagine anyone from our current time stranded in a cave 10,000 years ago. I doubt any of us would do that well.

BOOM!

But what if i learn from them... IS IT FAKE KNOWLEDGE?! *DO I NOT ACTUALLY KNOW SOMETHING THAT I CAN RECITE TO OTHERS IN AN UNDERSTANDABLE WAY!?!!?!?1?1?1?1?1?1?*

+

Well played.......

Veritasium but can I not choose to take some of the information in this and actually apply the rationale. it's not learning facts but it is growth right?

just noticed it💀

Kerbal space program

Maaaaaan, good to see u here!!!

wtf is this god doing here

its from kerbal space program, maybe put some of their music on your chanel ;)

We’ll said! Awareness is the key and keep doing the uncomfortable things until it feels comfortable and than keep your growing by get into the uncomfortable situations again . If u can do it u will become a mastermind

Yeah but when I go uncomfortable I feel like I am going on full psycho mode. And when I am really uncomfortable all these people around think that I am stupid or quite narcissistic and I myself too get a lot impulsive while being uncomfortable that I just don't know what to do

​@@rahul-rz5uj unfortunately this entire thing is a skill that needs managing. It's something you should learn by example from your parents, but sometimes, either your parents aren't healthy themselves, or you are just different enough from them it doesn't translate well. In that case, a good therapist can help you build a health structure to manage that. Because it genuinely is a skill. It's just one that people who learned it naturally because they had a good childhood take for granted. You have to understand that discomfort is your mind's way of telling you that if you that you are doing something that, if continued for too long, could hurt you. In this case, you could overwork Gun until he overreacts and makes you anxious to try and stop it from happening. However, consider this. Your sense of what will hurt you is not omniscient. It is only based on experience. So if you've only ever learned badly, your intuition for what is comfortable will be off. So what you have to do is find a way to step back from your feelings and examine whether something is healthy for you. Then step back into your feelings and find your limit. Usually somewhere in there is a gray area. So what you have to do is move just into that gray area for a while. And then step back. Think of it exactly the same as lifting weights. Do enough that you're actually having to work, but not enough you're hurting yourself. And if you're like, but how do I know where that is! That's a fair point that a lot of people can't help you with because most of them already have a general sense they just haven't exercised, and even if they had to figure it out from scratch...they aren't you. This will unfortunately just take a lot of time paying attention to yourself and learning when to stop and retreat, and when to push forward again. Just practice practice. Be careful of books and other things because many are written by very narcissistic people. Because their goal is to stop you from growing completely while feeling like you are growing in order to make money. My best advice is to find a therapist for a while so they can help you set emotional boundaries for yourself and get you started. Because a good therapist doesn't fix you. They just help you find the structures within yourself to grow. Because frankly most of us in life are made to ignore our limits and this can cause us to just not want to grow at all. I hope that helps and good luck. It's a very difficult but rewarding journey, because the more you learn where to push and where to rest and retreat correctly, the more control you have over yourself, and the better you become at growing and pushing yourself in ways that are actually effective. Again, just think of it like working out. In fact I think one of the reasons working out can be so useful for mental health isn't just the feel good chemicals it gives you, but because it helps give you physical practice on something you can also do mentally. It's something you just have to experience and honestly it's not a bad place to start.

@@chettlar212 I know this is kinda old, but I just want to say thanks. Just thank you. For helping them. For offering them an explanation. And most of all, making the internet a better place. I hope your still offering your generosity and time to those who could really use it. Stay selfless mate.

Me too!

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Lol....same

this comment is why i came to the comments for

That’s what I thought. “Oh- I thought I was learning watching this video. Guess I’m wasting my time” 😂

Vrai

I love how the video ends presenting tangible solutions rather than just "you can do it" garbage.

The reality 🔥🔥🔥

Yeah

Facts

How does this have so little likes???

Now they are at bottom again

@@ImranPollob no they aren’t

underrated AF

@@dlhtks it should actually have more likes, his comment shows that he paid attention to what was being said in the video instead of zoning out and then made observations around him and found one very common but cool observation of the scenario explained in the video.

dang that's... weirdly plausible

FACTS 💯. Correct, excellent observation sir

It’s also because adults have a huge library of information already filled up (Gun) in the subconscious, and it loves to make assumptions based off what it already knows or and think it already knows what it’s about to learn or tunes out. A huge process of learning (for adults) is UNlearning or forgetting everything you think you know. This is actually the very first step in famous Jim Kwik, the memory experts, tips for learning. There is so much information already stored, you often have to delete information to make room or rewrite information thats already in there to adjust to the new information and allow the learning to take place. Which requires way more effort, and steps, than starting from scratch with a blank slate would... aka teaching an old dog new tricks. - Psychologist

Disclaimer: Hi just generally responding to your comment, not trying to critise you. I have been researching stuff like this for quite some time now. Long text ahead! This is why adults can have the learning ability of children. For learning, you don't want to suppress anything. You want the conscious (you, the 'awake' one) and subconscious (auto pilot) to work in unison to address problems if they arise. Kids can justify working hard for problem solving because they do not have coping behaviour other than primal cries and aggressiveness. To a child, abiding to the environment (read: listening to parents, interacting with animals, discovering tools/toys) is vital to discovering the rhythms and eventually get educated about the world. If they do not learn this, they will be pushed around by those who do similar to being trapped in a fast current deep river. This education by interaction eventually leads to wisdom which is used to make assumptions with. The assumptions are a away to get out of that river. This is why you must allow some degree of freedom to anyone, including yourself. Without freedom, we feel suppressed and can no longer make helpful assumptions and you're trapped in the current. To stay afloat, you'll have to excert energy similar to that of learning if not more. Making assumptions is an integral part of learning. But the problem is lack of reflection. A child is allowed to make mistakes as the nervous system is undeveloped and we know they do not have the wisdom to justify such behaviours. They simply cannot know. However it is different for adults. The brain is fully developed and we even have a huge library of information in the form of our memories, books and the internet. We can reason about why things happen and what we should do to live and survive. At some point, humans learn how to use social dynamics to mitigate work to people who are better at it, in return of another favor. Due to the sheer number of people, we've created something akin to a network of people who are better at dealing with problems than you, while you have your own strengths to help others. To find people that can give support, in the form of instructions or involvement, a group is formed. This group will represent safety and most importantly, a means to resolve problems without having to think much about it. As long as the group exists, you have a better chance of dealing with problems effectively. However reflection is an universal skill, a skill even children at the young age at 7 can do. Most people simply chose to abandon it because the group provides enough comfort. They don't have to adapt to survive anymore. It is a shame really, reflection as a skill is just as accessible to humans as using hands to grab stuff. But the groups feel safer.

I have an hypothesis that dementia is Drew getting even lazier. I'm watching my dad's rapidly developing dementia (maybe alzeimers?) and it's like he's on super-autopilot. He's simply not attending very much...like Drew getting lazier. If I can have a conversation that genuinely engages him and makes him process what we're talking about, he'll remember, but otherwise he's often just "lights are on but nobody's home"...he asks a question but then doesn't really listen to the answer; turns on the tv and looks at it but doesn't really listen to what the tv presenters/characters are saying

Haha

0.0

hahahaha

My name's Drew as well & I was half listening to this while doing dishes & all of a sudden heard "Drew is lazy. It takes effort to make him do anything. And he is slow"

@@5manrocks1YT hahaha...

You got hearted after almost 4 years since this video came out. Congrats

I taught some older comment would of get it

@@daminkon246 I was about to say this.

hahahah right

Painfully self-aware.

We all thought it was a year.. It's a *Y E E !*

E !!!!

where's that accent from?

Lebanese Australian

yeee

TheSuprChikn hahahaha. I said the same thing.

TheSuprChikn same reason toilets flow the other way 😝

But I thought that gravity was a toilet...

I think Canada is the weird one here. All the years I've traveled across asia and africa power on is always downwards.

But I thought that I was the weird one here...

A blessing and a curse.

Ah it's so nice to see someone else see this as well. Thinking unnecessarily and deeply, the bane of it all. Often, towards our own misfortune.

Highly-trained musicians experience the same conundrum. Listening to music for enjoyment only, has to become a conscious decision, as the “music critic” mind has been so deeply developed.

researchers never really get paid for their work tho..

@@pluvia13 Recognition is better than money.

Why gun?

Guns can be associated with firing things quickly. Just how 'Gun' rushes to solve the answer quickly. You could make a similar analogy with 'Drew' painstakingly drawing some art. Slow and methodical.

But then people also would be less inclined to do so, so there must be a balance. He's right that most people hate thinking and often seem to have an aversion to learning, so it's better to make it easier to understand otherwise people just won't try. This is a RU-vid video, so people elect to watch it. They will just as easily elect not to finish it if they decide it's too difficult for them to understand, both because they don't want to put in the effort of thinking and because on a psychological level, people don't like to be made to feel stupid, which is also why if you correct someone you'll often get accused of acting superior and being mean by trying to make someone feel dumb, even if you were genuinely trying to teach them for the sake of sharing knowledge.

Actually, quite the contrary for me. I could not remember which name went with which system. I would have been better off with system 1 & 2. Or "Auto" and "Thinker."

He used Gun and Drew because they rhyme with System 1 and 2.

Stupid like a fox!

It’s actually kinda smart because the brain is more efficient by not trying to over think everything

Definitely motivating in some way, I thought it was just me but maybe I didn’t think that thru cause my brain is lazy😂

"People who work hard do things the hard way whereas lazy people find the easier path." - a wise man once said.

@Waldel Martell Why should we do that tho? (to solve things in 4 seconds)

this is every motivation video with millions of views)

@@VladGoro25 Okay, I did not said otherwise, I just quoted. 😂

If you watch the video while actively progressing it then that's fine I guess.

instantly felt a wave of guilt lol

That's me while watching vsauce lol

What's the answer????!!

@@JeanaTheGreat the ball costs 5 cents. He said the bat costs 1 dollar more than the ball, together wud add upto 1.10. so 1.5 for the bat and 0.5 for the ball adding upto to 1.10

@@SakethAlva You mean $1.05 and $0.05. I know you know, just being pedantic.

@@Liberum69 ryt, missed that one🥶

@@JeanaTheGreat he does say in the vid :D

Donald Trump be like...

You just made me past a test, I was looking for this quote for an hour lol.

@@officialcrescent120 you were looking for an hour through a 12 minute video? I ask, bc I can imagine doing that, looking for a quote… too lazy to watch the whole vid again, jumping around in it…

@Veritasium Interesting

It is this understanding that led me to rise among my peers as a data engineer. I realized early on in life that I don't have to be a genius. I'm smart enough, but not enough for it to be a differentiating factor. All I had to do was be uncomfortable for longer than other people are willing to. That and my dumb ego just LOVES to solve problems that are hanging others up.

@@CitAllHearItAll That's great. I'm also an engineer. But I didn't realize it early in my life as you did. 🙃

Since when did you have to be smart to become an engineer lol

as a student of computer science i second you

@@huskiehuskerson5300 since like starting of engineering, to be a good engineer you have to be smart

@@oksowhat Aah👆good being a KEY word. Only few engineers are that

@@huskiehuskerson5300 from the beggining

But you should feel uncomfortable xd

Can you explain me this line, I don't get it ,how can I be uncomfortable? How to be uncomfortable?

@@debankanmitra2425 it means for example just look at any quantum mechanics channel.... when they explain everything simply like a summary it's going good.....whoa, go to the actual mathematical part and we're dead lol

Stupidity is when both gun and drew knew the truth but won't admit it because ego said no

I also liked that statement, because i never put this phrase of looking for discomfort in regards to learning :)

Totally agree

yup

agreed. incredible quality

Too bad the episode doesn't contain his own ideas. The entire episode is based on a book called "Thinking Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman. He got everything from the book but he didn't give the author credit.

True :(

no, 11:23 ;)

That's a great motivational video for a trimester, but Drew needs more than that to actually learn.

or you didn't focused enough during classes.

psychology =/= behavioral psychology taught in institutions

Eh... What type of psychology are you referring to exactly?

ten seconds after exiting this video: "I remember remembering Drew and Gun but I don't remember them." "You know?"

Yeah me too😅

I bet 7 years from now you will forget them both all together!!!

So am I.

same. this will change me and already has. im still procrastinating but i wont be in a sec!

This comment is underrated 😭

Nice comment

Yeah I know that feel and this feels so good, yet as we grow older and older, we can't find these scenarios very often.

@@muio Life is all about change. Once we stop learning new things, change stops and it's like we're dead. Try to find something new to learn every day that will make you smile and want to share it with others. Don't be a walking corpse ;)

Sorry but what was I supposed to "break" in your text? I'm too Drew to give it a second thought.

@@6pac. why does your name sound Indian

Охтеров Егор thats what I was thinking too😁

Охтеров Егор it is good. it's been a while...

or maybe you are too lazy to remember other Veritasium videos that were good or better than this? =P

No =)

Honestly, those were the same words i said after i finished his video.

I also read it as The Chat. The skew is interesting.

I read it as the chat too XD

I read it as "tae cat" 😂😂

@@wanderer37 You monster 😂😂😂😂

I read the chat too 😂

Yeah, it's totally not random :D

vsauce makes me dizzy sometimes or or or does he?

LMAO BUT HOWDARE YOU THAT IS WHAT MAKES VSAUCE GREAT YOU CLICK ON A VIDEO TO LEARN ONE THING, YOU LEAVE WITH 199

HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA

@@kingdollop-head743 Well, technically you leave with 199, but drop 199 of them on the way to the next link... Because Drew didn't have enough practice with all of it to hand them over to Gun.

Summon drew so gun can do it for you

Summon Drew while studying so Gun can finish the exam for you

How did they go

@@zdenek3010 I have written this statement on my study table, thanks :)

no, the case for u is to cheat, thats the only way

They didn't spam RU-vid with ads back then

@@rowan-paul true story

When he said "Un"comfortable, I was almost sure those guys sponsored him. But Nope!! A veritasium video without an ad

Silver Mirai This is extremely interesting and I actually want to try it. And if it does work as you say then my explanation for it working would be that your brain tries to solve the problem on it's own while you sleep which is probably going to be more efficient because you won't have any distractions or things in the world to distract you while you think because your brain is doing it while you sleep..Im probably wrong but its my best guess.

I wonder if there's any research on this, probably yes.

Gumption traps.

@Silver Mirai I'm pretty sure there's research on this. I've heard before that during sleep your mind kind of *locks in* what you've learned during the previous day, sorting what is relevant and worth remembering and whatnot. Kind of the same reason that you get a little mixed up and hallucinatory when you go without sleep for a very long period of time, your brain is full of information that it never had the chance to process so your thinking is very muttled. Sleep is basically the time your brain gets to put your mess of information into nice neat filing cabinets for you to access later.

@Johnny Lee Dreams and Nightmares are likely a mix of exploring potential future events and their outcomes mixed in with our fears,desires and also we get some practice on things we have learned, so if you were learning guitar that day, in your sleep the motor neurons that controlled your fingers will fire in your brain during your sleep as if you are practicing, but there are inhibitors that prevent you actually moving your body. A similar effect happens when we watch someone else perform a task, the same neurons fire in the brain, we almost feel other peoples pain, when they hit their hand with a hammer or get hit in the nuts for example, they say this effect comes from mirror neurons.

Complex or just use sparknotes.

I always study when I had to pee!

LMAO we r the same.

"Aaaaaah! Real Monsters!" - Old cartoon

but WHAT IS being? - Vsauce

@@miukiwey But what is "what"?

Lmao this one gets it. Drew is TOO active.

EXACTLY. It's like everyone else seem to so effortlessly socialise because they're using Gun and Drew is just chilling so to them socialising is "chilling", while with social anxiety Gun pass all the tasks to Drew because he doesn't know how to deal with them, and so Drew needs to work like 10x as hard. So ... basically to solve social anxiety we just need to train Gun to automate socialising !!! so just keep trying to socialise over and over and over again until Gun gets it

Try meditating

You misspelled “Drew”

Yeah I think it's part of the joke even though it is irrelevant

it is UNCANNY 💀 and INCREDIBLE 💀

Normalize being uncomfortable! Excellent point

I felt called out when u said "Ever watched veritasium and vsauce videos constantly instead of studying? You deluded yourself into thinking your learning but you just wasted time."

What you have written is pure gold, underrated comment though

*ooooooooooffffffffffffffffffffffffff-*

You pointed out exactly what I was doing i was constantly telling my Brian that I am watching a educational video but in deep down i know that I am just wasting time

These days I'm more inclined to believe that most people have never encountered the concept of critical thinking - and if they did, they would use it only to support what they already feel. Concepts like loyalty, faith, and patriotism and other forms of tribal group identity have come to supersede the need to _be_ right, although the need to _feel_ right is totally undiminished.

@@davidhand9721 Well I kinda agree but if you use "critical thinking" to support what you believe then it is confirmation bias and not critical thinking in the first place.

@@brawnstein ok but to independantly think critical, it required years of data. not just last 400 years of data. I am referring to patriotism here

Yes

most people never think critically. i have to encourage and stress young engineers at work to actually think about what they do, how they do it and what is the purpose. and these are so called 'smart' people.

Its drew that said "I think therefore I am"

haha, try acid.

@@oluchukwuokafor7729 i think therefore i think i am.

Oh, that's good...

This easily deserves to be the most-liked comment

i threw an oscar at my screen after reading this.

English being not my first language ... It's really hard for me to get this haha, but thats GOOD

lol

Felt like he was trying to roast vsauce

Nick Kirkpatrick I was thinking the same thing.

He just called us out on our laziness.

I was watching to avoid doing work...

This is not 'meta', this is on an individual level.

Thought the same

thanks! i already thought my mind is playing tricks on me!

Are you finnish

I have KSP opened to the VAB. Very confusing at first.. :P

I think this is amazing, but so are my videos, so check em on my profile! 😁 📷 HEY 🎬 😝 Check my videos ✅ , subscribe and leave a like, and show me some 💙 love ❤️ ... I have a few stuff that you may find entertaining.

yapp

thanks man!

Veritasium *thanks, man

Fantastic video.

Veritasium no problem, you did one hell of a job! 🙌🏼

Lol

Lmao I had this reaction but even more

XD Crazy!

Reminds of the quarks anti quarks joke where quark sans that anti quark is weak and anti quark sans that he's just like quark

Conciseness? Consciousness?

I play piano and this happens to me a lot

I play guitar and I agree very strongly. The other day I was teaching someone the notes of a song I had been playing for years now and I kept on getting stuck and making mistakes myself whenever I had to slow it down for her to catch up.

@Gabrial Barberini Literally this. Not sure, if you're reading this, but the same experience happens when you try to type in your Bank PIN or your PIN on your smartphone. Somehow I don't really remember the numbers itself directly, but more like the way I press the buttons and at what velocity. And usually it works if I type it in very quickly. But as soon as I slow down, I somehow tend to not know the PIN anymore. I am not sure what this is, but I always wondered about this. It's very different to all kind of memories I usually have.

I speed solve rubik's cubes and this happens to me A LOT. I can do algorithms (sequences of movements) with my eyes closed at full speed no problem, but when I try to slow down, for example to show someone how I do them, I just can't and have to rethink it

@@DROGOC0P I was about to reply with this exact comment. LOL

I'm looking for another one now to UNdo it, I need to change my life back to the way it was before.

naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

7 months passed. Did you?

do you think this video is saying that if you watch science videos you're not learning anything

Anton-Constantin Not accurately, This video is saying that to learn from science videos you need to apply the knowledge in real life, use your so called "Drew" for the process of learning. Ofcourse, if your motive is to change and not for just mindgasm thing we get from new knowledge. (We tend to forget this soon)

i read your comment and i went to like the video and i found myself already liked it

mine too, I click like as soon as the page loads :)

That’s what I thought too

Discription

I saw it now. I need to read those descriptions more often.

It is, he took most facts from there

Yes, even the examples are from there.

and Gun is the other classmate who has a 4.0 GPA but is good at nothing else.

@@annettenavin2063 Gun fails reading complicated questions properly because they looked simpler than they were. "10 cents"

@@yargolocus4853 Good thing (or a shame) that schools are institutions that have become so standardized that Gun can now pass with a 4.0 GPA because tests and reading material will never change. Once thrown into the real world Gun fails since the real world isn't black and white, falls into a depression, and thus Gen Z was born.

...and Gun is that classmate who's really good at cheating but always gets something wrong because he never checks what he's throwing on paper, he gets the tests done in 20 mins and leaves. However, Drew and Gun are brothers and share the same bench so if there's some prize that they value for getting a better grade, they cooperate and can get good grades.

Spika Rooni exactly.Lots of ideas taken from daniel kahneman

Oh, nice. I was searching for more info about this topic. Thanks.

I love this book

I agree. I find it a little disappointing credit wasn't given during the episode.

Tarrax Why? it is in the description

Did you show them?😂😂

Robin Nixon I'm going to practice being deliberate

I'm going to procrastinate later.

programming has been amazing for me, even just a scripting language. Never jump the gun, know when to break a loop.

right?!

sir u replied.....i cannot believe it sir... ur the best.....btw i love all ur videos

hahahha ur so geek

Sciencium WHY HAVE YOU NOT SUBBED YET!

jaswanth md Where's the second vid?

When you only think all day, the only thing you think about is thinking.