Wittgenstein (1953) observed, “[w]hen I raise my arm, I do not usually try to raise it” (p. 623). On his view, trying occurs when, for example, you want to raise your arm, yet someone is holding it down, or it’s numb, or you want to be called on to speak …
Some people thrive under pressure, while others, like me, get anxious, then crash and burn. Why does anxiety lead people some individuals to perform far worse than would be expected of them, why does it lead them to, as it is said, “choke under pressure”? No one fully knows the …
Can you think productively while in action? Or, once you’ve practiced what to do, is it better to let everything run offline? This week, I’ll try to say something by way of response to these questions, drawing on my book Thought in Action: Expertise and the Conscious Mind (OUP, 2016). …
