What You See Is All There Is
On creating a more accurate picture of your day
For five years my husband has been telling me I’m going to love Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow. For five years, I ignored him. I finally caved when I resolved to start this newsletter, but it wasn’t without complaint. I would brush my teeth at night and tell Zac how much I did not enjoy Dr. Kahneman’s writing. Then, I would read just one page of the book before promptly passing out.
The book is long and dense, and it taunted me from my nightstand for weeks. I began adding other books to my Goodreads list, and I almost traded Thinking Fast and Slow for some of them. But then I got to Dr. Kahneman’s chapter on a concept he calls “What You See Is All There Is” or WYSIATI. It is a cognitive phenomenon where our minds believe that all the information we have in front of us is all the relevant information that exists.
He gives the example of Becky — an intelligent and strong person. Then he asks if you think she is a good leader. Chances are you said yes, but there is so much we don’t know about Becky to accurately determine her leadership abilities. All you know is that she is intelligent and strong, and this is enough for your brain (and mine) to say with certainty that she would make a good manager, for example.
Quick judgments allow us to take action in our chaotic world, but they can also lead us to the wrong conclusions. On hard days when the dishes aren’t done and my toddler has decided to pour the dirt from the Fiddle Leaf Fig onto the dog’s bed, I will almost certainly call the day a disaster. When this is all you can see, the conclusion feels obvious.
I wonder how many of us have done this. How many of us have taken the limited information in front of us and extrapolated it to make a sweeping conclusion about our day or even ourselves?
My dad sometimes calls this drowning in a glass of water.
The thing is, it takes work not to judge quickly. Your mind has to slow down in order to compare the immediate inputs (like dirt on the dog’s bed) and juxtapose them to other inputs (like the 15 minutes Ben and I spent saying I love you over and over again). This is what creates a better judgment.
For those of us that have a tendency to see the harder things more prominently, I wonder if something like gratitude journaling can be an answer. If you make the effort to bring evidence of what makes you happy and content to the foreground, won’t your mind be able to create truer, happier picture? Won’t you be able to see yourself in a gentler, more accurate light?
📖 Here is a link to the book in case you’re interested in reading with me! I’m not done yet (and will likely take a while, but would love to hear what you think!)
🎥 This video is a little cooky, but it does a good job explaining the concept of What You See Is All There Is.
🔈 Here is a link to Dr. Kahneman talking on the Hidden Brain podcast. I’m still not a huge fan of his speaking style, but there is lots to learn on this interview!