Information Intelligence - The Workshop and The Factory

The Workshop and The Factory

After surpassing the barrier of perception and overcoming limited attention, information advances to the next stage: processing. The brain’s ability to process information is genuinely remarkable. This is demonstrated by its capacity to create detailed analyses of complex objects and situations. For example, a chess grandmaster can assess the state of a game instantly and predict the next dozen moves within a second. FBI detectives can often immediately tell if a suspect is lying or identify the offender among many suspects. Football players can decide in milliseconds whether to pass, carry forward, or take a shot, by analysing the positions, speeds, and body movements of more than 10 players. Experts can usually identify whether a painting, vase, or piece of jewellery is genuine or fake after just a few seconds of analysis, without needing any measurements.
However, in other situations, processing information can be challenging, even when the objects involved are simple. For example, when organising a meeting with a few people, we need to consider their schedules, the meeting’s duration, and possibly the availability of the meeting room. The amount of information required to schedule a meeting is much less than analysing an ongoing chess game; however, we still cannot schedule it instantly, as quickly as a chess grandmaster assesses the position. Another example of challenging low-density information processing is following a manual. Recall the last time you operated a new multi-function slow cooker, assembled new furniture, or played with Lego pieces — more often than not, you would get stuck on a specific step of the manual or instructions, not knowing what to do next. (This happened to me last night when my daughter asked me to fold a paper plane following instructions from a book. There are only seven steps, and I was stuck on the “double reverse fold” step for as long as 10 minutes.) It seems that operating a rice cooker or folding a paper plane would require less information processing than identifying suspects for the FBI, but the brain cannot simply find the answer straight away. Why?
The answer is that we are using two different brain systems to process information. Neuroscientists and psychologists have multiple terms to refer to these two systems (System 1 and System 2, Controlled pathway and Automated pathway, global workspace and predictive workspace). To illustrate, let’s call them the workshop and factory.
The workshop is a small space equipped with a few tools and pieces of equipment. Operating these tools and machines requires following a clear and logical sequence. The operations demand a lot of power, and each tool runs quite slowly. The machines in this workshop operate at about 40 bits per second, which is nearly the same as the speed of early punch cards (the initial form of mechanical computers). Because the machines consume a lot of energy, they cannot run continuously for more than an hour or two. The entire workshop must be shut down after two hours of operation; all machines are switched off, left to cool, refilled with lubricant oil (in the form of coffee), and then they are ready to restart. The good thing is, we (our conscious mind) can freely enter this workshop, alter how the machines operate, and decide which material (information) needs to be processed by these machines.
Conversely, the factory is large and spacious, housing hundreds of thousands of machines and pieces of equipment. Unlike the equipment in the workshop, which must operate in a specific sequence, machines in this factory are highly automated, allowing most to run in parallel. Thanks to automation, these machines can gather information independently. The factory processes information at 11 million bits per second, roughly 3 million times more powerful than the workshop. Suppose the workshop can read 300 words per minute (the average adult’s pace). In that case, the factory can read 900 million words per minute — enough to fill 20 to 30 full shelves of books, or 870 times the entire Harry Potter series (We will discuss later why the factory isn’t used for reading books). The factory is very energy efficient, using less ATP than the workshop. It also has direct access to our emotional database — sensing the feeling we last experienced when processing similar information. If the factory detects a connection between information being processed and anxiety in the emotional database, it adds that same anxious emotion to the current processing output. The factory is almost always online, without needing rest or recharging. Although fatigue can reduce processing quality, it won’t lead to a ‘stop everything’ situation like in the workshop. Unfortunately, our conscious mind doesn’t have direct access to this factory. It only receives the binary results of its processing, without explanations. That’s why sometimes we instantly like or dislike someone, a place, or something, but can’t quite explain why.

With these two distinct information processing units—the workshop and the factory—can we choose which one to use? Unfortunately, we cannot. There are a few instances when the workshop must be used.
Firstly, new things need to be processed in the workshop. For example, a new book or manual has no context in the factory; therefore, the factory cannot do much with it. It must be our conscious mind that first understands the new thing, especially by linking it with something we already know (a process called internalisation), and then the factory can handle it next time. This is exactly why we can’t rely on the factory to read a new book, as mentioned above. When we pick up a book we’ve already read, even without consciously recalling the exact details, we immediately sense the book’s tone, attitude, and main points—that’s when the factory kicks in.
Secondly, we can only use the workshop to perform highly logical tasks. Arithmetic calculations, writing software code, creating a meeting schedule, solving puzzles, and following a manual to operate a multifunctional rice cooker all require specific steps in a particular order. These types of tasks are full of “if…then…else… finally” logic. There isn’t much feeling involved, and they can’t be run in parallel, so the factory is useless.
Thirdly, we can only use the workshop to perform inhibition. Not eating that extra cookie, not saying that word to hurt someone, not touching that tree branch that is dangling, and not taking your phone out to start mindlessly browsing—all these tasks are managed by the workshop. The factory, on the other hand, is like cowboys taking a task ride at full speed and can't handle “don’t do something”. In the next chapter, Emotional Intelligence, we will discuss willpower and ego depletion, which will again highlight the inhibitory power of the brain.
Lastly, the workshop is the only place where self-awareness happens. In other words, all retrospective thoughts, self-reflection, analysing one’s own behaviours and biases, and pondering mistakes and improvements are exclusive functions of the workshop. In philosophical terms, the meta-thinking (thinking about thinking) is a function of the workshop. The factory is more similar to other organs, in that it functions, without knowing it is functioning.


What is the connection between the workshop and the factory? In simple terms, the factory supplies the workshop with conclusions based on the topic the workshop is working on. As mentioned earlier, our conscious mind can only access the workshop but not the factory. We can decide what to think, with the thinking occurring in the slow system (the workshop). The factory decides which information it will process and produce, feeding the workshop with a binary conclusion without revealing how it arrived at it. Let’s look at a concrete example. In a chess game, a player faces a situation where his queen is attacked by the opponent’s queen. The conscious mind directs the eye to check other pieces’ positions, exploring possible next moves and several variations (or dozens of variations, depending on the level of the game). The conscious mind might also consider the remaining time, deciding how much more time to allocate to this particular move. All this thinking happens in the workshop. However, in the factory, much more information is being processed. To name a few:
“What was the result of the last game two years ago when I faced a similar situation, with the queen being attacked by the queen? Oh, I lost with the move Kg3, so maybe I shouldn’t do the same thing.” “What does the opponent’s facial expression suggest? Hmmm, it looks like he’s a bit anxious, so perhaps he’s not very confident about sacrificing the queen. I should take it, alright, let’s exchange queens.” "If I exchange the queen, my pieces will have more strength on my left side—that should be a good thing. I know I am better with an endgame that has a left-side advantage." "My coach on the side looks relaxed, torso flat with arm open. He must know I’ll probably exchange the queen, so I might as well do it."
Although all the above sentences sound like people are thinking in their conscious mind (the workshop), they are all happening in the factory, which means the chess player has absolutely no idea they are happening! All the chess player knows is that he should exchange the queen, not do Kg3, based on some “gut feel”.He is unaware of how he reached these conclusions because his factory did not relay the details of information processing to his conscious mind at all; only the conclusion is presented.
Similar to playing chess, the FBI detective’s factory processes suspects’ micro facial expressions, the tone of each word, subtle wrinkles in clothes, smells, and many other clues that the detective has previously solved. The jewellery expert’s factory would analyse the angle, cut, purity, colour, market value, and uniqueness of a jade. The football player’s factory would instantly process positions, speeds, and body movements of other players, then draw a conclusion about what to do next. All these processes are entirely hidden from the FBI detective, the jewellery expert, and the football player’s consciousness!

What can we do to enhance our information processing, given that we have two systems? First, we should aim to activate both systems. When encountering situations where an immediate conclusion is reached, that is probably the factory’s output (I know this is my dream house!). In such cases, try to involve the workshop in the analysis (will the space be sufficient if the family expands? What if the kids start going to school? Have we checked recent crime data in the suburb?). The factory makes a conclusion based on existing information, but the workshop can gather new data to improve the outcome. Second, use the workshop wisely, since it consumes a lot of energy, can become fatigued, and can handle only a few tasks at once. Therefore, allocate focused periods for deep thinking (early mornings or after coffee) for the most important tasks, and avoid multitasking. Keep your energy levels high with nutritious meals. For less critical tasks, let the factory decide (follow your gut; book the first hotel on the search list that matches the location, availability, and budget). Lastly, purposefully improve your factory by keeping the results aligned with your intuition (football players review game footage to find better passes, chess players re-analyse a game, FBI agents follow up on cases even if they aren’t in charge anymore). The feedback exercise for the factory provides extra context, helping improve its processing ability over time.