The Organized Mind

another in trillions of different ways. These connections don’t just lead to learning—the connections are the learning.

These two brain states form a kind of yin-yang: When one is active, the other is not. During demanding tasks, the central executive kicks in. The more the mind-wandering network is suppressed, the greater the accuracy of performance on the task at hand.

The implications of this are mind-boggling: Theoretically, you should be able to represent uniquely in your brain every known particle in the universe, and have excess capacity left over to organize those particles into finite categories.

these situational categories can be planned far in advance. A

relieving hunger,

Cognitive economy dictates that we categorize things in such a way as not to be overwhelmed by details that, for most purposes, don’t matter. Obviously, there are certain things on which you want detailed information right now, but you never want all the details all the time.

the act of categorizing is one of cognitive economy.

categorization, is that they are expandable and flexible, subject to multiple levels of resolution or graininess.

Third, objects although different in presentation may be of the same natural kind.