In my opinion, memory limits,. filtration, and access limits (although access limits maybe less so) are evolutionary traits that allow humans to conserve energy. It's extremally energy-exhaustive to process everything happening around us - so ours brains have developed ways to conserve energy by modelling and processing the information around us. Many books about habit formation will talk about the function of the vasoganglia in our brains which stores patterns as habits so we can execute them without thinking. As an extension of human nature to follow the path of least resistance in processing information around us, we sometimes fall into the trap of biased thinking (because, as you mentioned, it's easier to be ignorant.
Although it may be sometimes necessary to our survival as humans, I think following the path of least resistance opens us up to be heuristic. I agree that everyone should work to exercise unbiased thinking.
I really like the following quote, which I think supplements your post nicely: "Don't criticize them; they are just what we would be under similar circumstances - Abraham Lincoln".
That Lincoln quote reminded me of this Epictetus quote, which is along the same vein:
"The uninstructed will lay the fault of their bad condition upon others, the novice instructed will lay the blame on themselves, the perfectly instructed will place the place blame on nobody."
In my opinion, memory limits,. filtration, and access limits (although access limits maybe less so) are evolutionary traits that allow humans to conserve energy. It's extremally energy-exhaustive to process everything happening around us - so ours brains have developed ways to conserve energy by modelling and processing the information around us. Many books about habit formation will talk about the function of the vasoganglia in our brains which stores patterns as habits so we can execute them without thinking. As an extension of human nature to follow the path of least resistance in processing information around us, we sometimes fall into the trap of biased thinking (because, as you mentioned, it's easier to be ignorant.
Although it may be sometimes necessary to our survival as humans, I think following the path of least resistance opens us up to be heuristic. I agree that everyone should work to exercise unbiased thinking.
I really like the following quote, which I think supplements your post nicely: "Don't criticize them; they are just what we would be under similar circumstances - Abraham Lincoln".
That Lincoln quote reminded me of this Epictetus quote, which is along the same vein:
"The uninstructed will lay the fault of their bad condition upon others, the novice instructed will lay the blame on themselves, the perfectly instructed will place the place blame on nobody."