so amid today's calls for mindfulness, let's put in…

Page 31 so amid today's calls for mindfulness, let's put in a word for mindlessness. Mindless, habitual living freeze our minds to work on important things. Nas the philosopher Alfred Whitehead argued civilization advances by extending the number of operations which we can perform without thinking about them .

— from Fuel (Energy)

In the book

Spend the mental tank on purpose. Attention is the single most essential mental resource you have — it decides what you even notice, and your brain processes everything at a real cost, so automate the small, repeated decisions to save the fuel for the ones that matter. In most choices the goal is not the perfect answer but a good-enough one — spend only the energy the decision truly warrants — and let well-built habits run themselves, since a little useful mindlessness frees the mind's scarce fuel for what truly needs it. Vent the emotional tank, don't bottle it. An engine that cannot release its heat overheats and seizes — and so it is with the core emotions; they are meant to be felt and discharged, not stored. — Fuel (Energy)

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