Levels of Thought

I have come to an idea that I think in multiple different levels of consciousness and intensity. I'm choosing to structure it as a stack of levels, with the least "intense" thinking at the bottom, and the most "intense" at the top. A fair word of warning, no science was used in the creation of this article. The article is basically just a personal exercise in thinking about thinking.

Lower-Level Thought (You)

0. Outside of the stack is reflex, without thought and done immediately to protect or otherwise support oneself. This doesn't need deep consideration and can be explained by understood biological processes. The humble reflex doesn't have emotion or strategy, and ideally, it should be much the same for anyone. We have some pretty useful reflexes like the corneal reflex, to prevent foreigners (objects) from entering our eyes. Some reflexes are less useful, like the dog's scratch reflex. I discovered this in my own dog accidentally, causing one of his legs to shake, and I'd recommend finding the right spot to scratch to trigger it in your own dog if you have one.


1. At the bottom of the stack is careless short-term, instant gratification focused, primal thought. This level can "hijack" your body upon receiving stimulus. It can be difficult to break its control and in the past I found that it can promote its own reasoning to support itself, against your better judgement from higher levels. This happens while higher levels are inhibited, like while viewing arousing material, or getting angry at politics. This level is where a "gooner" resides.


2. Just above exists a similar level, except consisting of desires which actually make sense, but don't need to be thought of too deeply. You have to eat because you're hungry, and you've observed that eating takes the hunger away. You feel an urge to wash yourself not because of any societal or personal expectation to, but merely because you don't like being stinky.

Defining "Tasks"

From this point on, it is helpful to define and separate "tasks". I'm not talking about work, just things you do and things you think about.

I'll separate tasks based on length, including short (less than an hour), medium (scale of hours and days), and long (months, years). You might spend six hours doing the same short task, because it's likely repetitive. I'm still categorising this as "short" as long as you're only operating in the frame of one round. If I spend six hours playing Epic Minigames, that doesn't mean I've played a six hour game. If I spend six hours answering STEP questions, then hopefully I've answered at least 10 different questions! (A perfect candidate is supposed to answer STEP questions in no more than 30 minutes each)

I'll also separate tasks based on complexity, including simple, moderate, complex, and hypercomplex. The complexity refers to how difficult a task is, whether different skills or bits of knowledge need to be connected, the balance between consuming and creating, and how much resistance there is against doing it. The ratings of different tasks will be different for different people, but the examples should hopefully illustrate the level of thought being activated. Simple tasks are largely repetitive and are the "path of least resistance". Moderate tasks are not strictly repetitive but can become routine with effort and don't have punitive resistance. Complex tasks require "active brain effort" (the horror!), or otherwise pose strong resistance. Hypercomplex tasks are obviously the hardest, but will be discussed more under level 7.

TL;DR: Here's a table to give you the jist of how different levels associate with different kinds of tasks and different complexities and lengths.

Higher-Level Thought (Me)

3. On the third level, the brain works on short and simple tasks by taking the path of least resistance. If you don't plan your day at all, and aren't a masochist for deep thinking, this is where you'll spend most of the day, trapped in the mindset of shallow thinking. This level can be personified as disorganised and lazy. They may play 10 minute rounds of FPS games, or respond to irrelevant emails all day. This level is evidently unsuitable for anything complex or long-term, because without the motivation and drive to push through, you'll always get distracted and fall back into the path of least resistance.


4. The fourth level introduces an element of focus to the mind. This level will be activated when you need to solve a short but moderately complex problem, or when you need to maintain focus on a simple but long task, like playing a story-focused game. In the context of "work", imagine an astute student or knowledge worker diligently working on problems or their assigned tasks. Alternatively, you might be "locked in" playing a videogame really well. Socially, you might be thinking at this level during a good conversation. As long as you're warming up your neurones, it counts.


5. The following level is basically just a more sophisticated version of the last, incorporating focus with deeper tasks. This is the standard level for deep work. There's a limit to how long you can spend thinking on this level or above, at least effectively, each day, as Comparing this level to the level before it is like comparing a STEP problem to an A-Level problem of the same topic. At this level, you need to think actively and be directly engaged with the topic. The topic doesn't have to be "work", and an example of thinking at this level is analysing a game while playing through it, and writing an article about it. To think on this level and beyond, you should have an understanding about why what you're doing is important to you, having evaluated, consciously or otherwise, the reasons for and against doing the task, and assigning it whichever priority you've granted it.


6. While working on medium-term complex tasks and possibly long-term moderate tasks, you'll be thinking in level 6. At this point, you'll also need to be thinking about how you're going to manipulate yourself when you're thinking at level 4 and below. This level introduces a layer of abstraction between your mind and your physical actions, meaning you can plan ahead for the future, whether that's deciding on your 40 year career (FYI probably not a good idea in general) or plotting how you'll get yourself to do important tasks first thing tomorrow by setting up elaborate traps and, habits. For example, let's say you open your writing book wide open on your desk, or your laptop, with the right applications open, etc. If distracting devices are turned off or in a different room, you'll naturally be inclined to get your work done, even if you wander into the room at a low level of thought. You might even think about more abstract problems than you're used to, particularly ones with no direct link to yourself. Personally (ironically), my mind has to be really active for me to evaluate the actions and perspectives of a different person or group of people. This may involve connecting seemingly disconnected areas of knowledge to solve a unique problem, or to create the best thing you can. The more you think on this level, the more intuition you'll gain for this process, so the easier it will be to think on higher levels.


7. At this level, you're either dealing with complex tasks spread over such a long time they earn the hypercomplex honour, or you're dealing with general hypercomplex tasks. On the other hand, if a task poses such incredible difficulty and resistance, it may simply be impossible or unapproachable for some particular person, so a hypercomplex task must lie on the edge of what someone is capable of doing, and not beyond it. Tasks done at this level all involve creation, whether it's a novel proof on an extremely niche topic, or an absolutely thrilling essay combining several different fields of study and walks of life. At the same time, you can't just take a new interest and struggle to do the hardest thing you can technically do; the task has to come from something which actually challenges you as a whole person, not just the you in a specific field. Working in this level of thinking may disconnect your mind from your body and the present. Sorry if I'm making this way too complicated (or hypercomplicated), but I could probably write a whole article on this topic.


8. In any system cataloguing something as vague as "levels of thought", they'll never be a limit, but let's say my system ends at level 8. If you manage to operate on this level for just 0.01% of your life, you'll probably be able to trisect a general angle with an unmarked straightedge and compass. Even if you can do that, you'll still likely be spending most of your day-to-day life in levels 4 or below. As anyone who's tried knows, if you spend 72 hours straight tackling the grandest problems of the world, completely abstract from the very concept of yourself, you'll drop dead from dehydration.

I'll be surprised if anyone reads this far, as I truly believe my model is inapplicable to 99.9% of people. In an ideal world, everyone could make their own model, in writing or intuitive understanding. But in reality, that's probably a level 6 (complex, medium-length) task, and so if you wanted to do it, you'd have to genuinely be interested in it. Not only do people spend significantly less time at higher levels, if they're even capable of thinking at them to begin with, but they get more picky. You could never convince me to spend my hard-earned level 7 thinking capability on something I don't care about, like an article about the environment, because no matter what time of day you ask me, I'd much rather slide down to the happy fun level 2 or level 3 state. There's probably an analogy to be made with energy levels in nuclei here. If you gain energy, you go up to higher energy levels, becoming more enlightened (excited). However, your new state is unstable, and eventually you'll have to deenlighten (deexcite) to a lower level, hopefully releasing a sparkling new thought (photon).