What do we mean by instinct?

The mind's ability to perform actions by making decisions in a very short time and / or in the absence of sufficient data.

What do we mean by rationality?

The mind's ability to perform actions by making decisions having the necessary time and being able to analyze sufficient data.

The definition already gives rise to the fact that the areas of use of these two modes are different.

As man has become aware of his ability to rationalize, he is convinced that rationality is an ever better method than instinct.

But is not so.

If a decision has to be taken very quickly, that is, there is no material time to make a rational decision, as if there are no important data, in this case rationality is not able to give better results than instinct.

There are human activities that require a certain amount of both, for example art, which is a mix of rationality (the technique, for example, how to use a brush) and instinct (artistic inspiration or whatever you want to call it, those emotions that through the brush fixed on the canvas).

There are other areas in which the use of rationality is only an obstacle, for example if a lion chases me, reasoning about it will lead me to certain death, it is better to run away in the wrong direction than to stop to think which is the right one.

Verbal communication is an area in which instinct can only do damage, because word and writing are the farthest from instinct around us.

It is no coincidence that they are said to count to 10 before speaking, but no one has ever said to count to 10 before playing, drawing, etc.

Why, then, does instinct not only do its job, when it is necessary and does not leave to the rationality the areas that compete for it?

In my opinion, the modern man in particular, overestimates rationality and confines instinct into a corner, does not allow him to do his job when he would be the best manager of the situation, this makes him an extremely frustrated component of our mind , which then tries to take control when it is not absolutely the case, when it is the rationality that would have the right to decide.

He does it when he succeeds, that is when we momentarily lose control, in particular situations, the instinct comes out and says: "Get out of the way rationality you are slow and baroque, now I do, I'm dude we send him direct fuck you and bon, finished the speech!"

How, in my opinion, can these inopportune exits be easily avoided by making even better choices and actions? Simply leaving free rein to instinct in all those situations where we should use it and instead we make an exaggerated and inappropriate use of rationality.

First I would put all the cases in which, even if the decision would be rationalizable in theory, objectively we do not have the necessary time, we take the decision or we take an immediate action, following the instinct, it will happen very rarely to make mistakes, also because if times are tight it is very likely that doing something immediately is more important than what to do. If a vase is falling on my head it is likely that moving to the left or right is better, but it is preferable to move in any direction and as soon as possible, even if a direction might take me to break my arm while the other would have done me come out unscathed, because while I choose the best solution the vase has already crushed my skull.

Being instinctively involved in a myriad of situations, as well as being the right choice, is also extremely relaxing, because it requires a lower mental effort while achieving better results.

A test to understand the difference between instinct and rationality is this play. Ask a friend to hold a 10 euro note between your fingers and place your thumb and forefinger on the sides of the banknote in half of it in length and width. Ask your friend to give it up without warning and try to take it. As long as you think you take it, you will never succeed. Try to think of something else, to distract yourself completely, you will never miss a grip. When you thought about how to take it you used rationality, but the time it takes is too short and failure is safe. When you think of something else your instincts will go into action and he will not miss a shot, he will always tighten police and forefinger at the right time. How does? Boh, he does it instinctively ...

I give an example of a dialogue between mind, instinct and rationality, if rationality is used where it is not the case:

M: "We have to buy a T-shirt, what color can you see fit?"

I: "Red!"

R: "It also depends a lot on where we want to use it, will we put it at the bar, in the office?"

I: "Red!"

M: "Well now I don't know where we will put it, maybe at the bar, maybe in the office, maybe both."

I: "Red!"

R: "In the office it would be better maybe a dark color, a blue, a dark green, a black ..."

I: "Red!"

R: "If it's to go to the bar, maybe a striped one is better, a nice yellow, even an orange ..."

I: "Red!"

M: "Oh well let's take it dark gray, you never know."

I: "Red ... damn, I said RED!"

How should inner dialogue be instead? So:

M: "We have to buy a T-shirt, what color can you see fit?"

I: "Red!"

R: "Ok."

In general, aesthetic choices, manual actions and feelings are areas where we should let instinct act.

If instead we have to choose an insurance for the car ask instinct could be deleterious, it would make you choose the red one ...

To sum up, as I see it, if we let instinct flow where it is better than rationality, and there are so many cases, it will not try to bully us when we have to take the necessary time and use rationality, for example when we talk and when we write.