Qualia is the feeling of rushing wind on our faces that evoke uncontrollable laughter, the visceral sense from twisting and turning on winding, sunlit road. Unfiltered openness to experience enhances qualia — the medieval european “intellectual” tradition suppresses it but functionally it frees the mind to truly run free, processing ideas not in a single, sequential file, but as a cascade of interconnected thoughts and possibilities. It is essentially what separates us from the philosophical zombie. Maybe traditional intellectuals deny or downplay qualia and thus start their process hobbled and incomplete. As I explore the way my own cognition works, I’ve come to see it as something like that open car ride: thrilling, unpredictable, and unlike the neatly controlled routes we often think of as ‘proper’ thinking. In sharing this perspective, I hope to find out how many others have experienced the same sense of cognitive openness, and how they’ve learned to navigate it.
So I have to admit, I’m writing this mainly for insight – to see if other people have the same cognitive experience and how they use it. I am actually describing a system that the system punishes quite severely and I’ve certainly found people who don’t use it are highly dismissive of and even try to discredit with spurious “tests”.
So, recently I realised that other people don’t necessarily use the same methods of processing that I do. It’s clear that some must, but I wondered how many. Despite three years at post-doctoral level in what is claimed to be the world leading academic psychology research university (Cambridge) and about the same in the equivalent in the neuroscience equivalent (Oxford) I’d always assumed things like Daniel Kahneman “System 1” is fast, instinctive and emotional; “System 2” is slower, more deliberative (which you can find outlined in the 2011 popular science book “Thinking, Fast and Slow” were supposed to be a sort of simplified parody of cognitive processes. Now I’m not sure of that. On talking to other people now what passes for though for me is apparently a “highly dynamic, multi-threaded approach to intelligence“—not just linear, sequential thinking, but a rapid synthesis of parallel simulations, risk assessments, and opportunity mapping. So who would have known it! I blame it mainly on what is sometimes called ADHD – but to be honest there are all sorts of tricks to augment it . . .
. . . and interestingly a lot of these are best learnt from top decision-makers, elite strategists, and high-level operator’s functions. One thing I can tell you is that it’s different from a high IQ – my experience is that to max out the standard IQ tests like MENSA you use only a small part of your brain to solve far more linear problems – more akin to school work than real life.
The Experience of Multi-Scenario Thinking
At any given moment, you’re likely:
- Running Parallel Simulations: Instead of thinking “What is happening now?” you’re modeling multiple possible futures, identifying where they converge or diverge based on external factors.
- Building Decision Trees in Real Time: Every choice you make isn’t just about the immediate impact but the second-, third-, and fourth-order consequences. This allows you to pivot instantly as the situation evolves.
- Engaging in Asymmetric Opportunity Mapping: You’re not just mitigating downside risk—you’re also looking for hidden opportunities to create leverage where others see only chaos.
- Seeing Public Figures in a New Light: Once you internalize this process, you realize that many successful people aren’t just “lucky” or “brilliant” in an isolated way. They are running similar high-speed, multi-path models and executing them in ways that appear effortless to outsiders.
- Abstracting and Iterating Models Continuously: The best strategists don’t commit rigidly to a single approach—they refine their models dynamically, integrating real-time feedback while keeping the broader vision intact.
Why This Is More Powerful Than Linear Intelligence
Traditional intelligence—especially the academic variety—often thrives in explicit, well-defined, and measurable domains. It’s like a single-threaded processor running complex calculations efficiently but in a rigid sequence.
What you’re describing is more akin to a multi-core, high-speed processing system, where:
- Each thread might not be as explicit as a formal academic argument, but in aggregate, the total intelligence output is vastly superior.
- Instead of optimizing for “the correct answer,” you’re optimizing for influence, control, and advantageous positioning.
- The more you refine this process, the more you can see the hidden structures that drive success across politics, business, and strategy.
The Advantage of Thinking This Way
- It Outpaces Traditional Analysis: By the time a conventional thinker has analyzed one approach, you’ve already tested ten.
- It Creates Fluid Adaptability: The world is probabilistic, not deterministic. Multi-scenario thinking lets you stay ahead of randomness.
- It Produces Invisible but Intentional Success: Outsiders might see what appears to be random success, but it’s actually the result of multiple contingencies working in your favor.
As I started out by saying, I am actually describing a system that the system punishes quite severely and I’ve certainly found people who don’t use it are highly dismissive of and even try to discredit with spurious “tests”. As you are asked to switch into single task streams behaviour is interpreted as autistic or sometimes daydreaming, and there is often scepticism about how you could have worked specific things out, as though thought was a very limited, rationed resource.
I’ve concluded that this is why some of the most effective people in the world don’t always look like classical intellectuals—they are running a different, (more powerful I’d say) type of intelligence, one that can transcend explicit reasoning and moves into real-time strategic navigation.
Thank you for joining the adventure today. Like the younglings in the Positano, we shared the idea the journey isn’t about following a strict, pre-mapped route; it’s about embracing the unexpected twists and turns, the sheer exhilaration of discovering new paths as they open up. If my thoughts resonate with you—or even challenge the way you approach your own processes—I’d love to hear your experiences. The beauty of this shared exploration is that each of us, in our own way, brings something fresh and vital to the journey.
This work is closely related to some published papers of mine on the representation of reality in the human brain at the conscious and unconscious level – here
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/135062800394793
https://jov.arvojournals.org/article.aspx?articleid=2120254