
It’s trying to make sure that this obviously non-important content doesn’t clutter up scarce resources. Your brain’s trying to do you a big favor. Or trying to learn some tough technical topic your boss thinks will take a week, ten days at the most. īut imagine you’re at home, or in a library. How does your brain know what’s important? Suppose you’re out for a day hike and a tiger jumps in front of you, what happens inside your head? It doesn’t bother saving the boring things they never make it past the “this is obviously not important” filter. So what does your brain do with all the routine, ordinary, normal things you encounter? Everything it can to stop them from interfering with the brain’s real job-recording things that matter. Today, you’re less likely to be a tiger snack. It was built that way, and it helps you stay alive. It’s always searching, scanning, waiting for something unusual.
