Page 133 - A Mind For Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science

Wise Waiting

We’ve learned that seemingly good traits can have bad consequences.
Einstellung in chess—being blocked from seeing a better move because of
previously conceived notions—is a fine example. Your focused attention,
normally desirable, keeps your mind preoccupied so that it doesn’t see better
solutions.
Just as focused attention isn’t always good, seemingly nasty habits of

procrastination aren’t always bad. Whenever you make up a to-do list, for
example, you could be accused of procrastinating on whatever isn’t first on your
list. A healthy form of procrastination entails learning to pause and reflect before
jumping in and accomplishing something. You are learning to wait wisely. There
is always something to be done. Prioritizing allows you to gain big-picture

context for your decision making. Sometimes waiting allows a situation to
resolve itself.
Pausing and reflecting are key, not only in stopping procrastination but in
math and science problem solving in general. You may be surprised to learn that
the difference in the way that math experts (professors and graduate students)
and math novices (undergraduate students) solve physics problems is that
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experts are slower to begin solving a problem. Experts took an average of forty-
five seconds to figure out how they would categorize a problem according to its
underlying physics principles. Undergraduates, on the other hand, simply rushed
right in, taking only thirty seconds to determine how they should proceed.
Unsurprisingly, the conclusions drawn by the undergraduates were often
wrong because their choices were based on superficial appearances rather than
underlying principles. It’s as if experts took their time to conclude that broccoli

is a vegetable and lemon is a fruit, while novices barged in to say that broccoli is
a tiny tree while lemons are clearly eggs. Pausing gives you time to access your
library of chunks and allows your brain to make connections between a
particular problem and the bigger picture.
Waiting is also important in a broader context. When you have difficulty
puzzling out a particular math or science concept, it is important not to let
frustration take control and dismiss those concepts as too difficult or abstract. In

his aptly titled book Stalling for Time, FBI hostage negotiator Gary Noesner