Automatization

Automatization is the process of making a skill automatic through practice — so it requires little or no conscious attention. It works for physical actions (walking, typing) and mental ones (recognising a decisive criticism).

Why automatization matters

• Conscious attention is limited. Roughly seven items at once, per Oism.
• Automatic skills don't count against the limit. They run in the subconscious.
• Mastery = automaticity. See mastery.

How it works

1. Practice a skill consciously. Walk, write, argue.
2. Repeat. Many times, in varied contexts.
3. It becomes habitual. Less attention needed.
4. It becomes automatic. Almost no attention needed.
5. You can do it while thinking about something else.

CF's interest

CF uses automatization for:

• error-correction routines. Automatic habit of looking for errors.
• Tree construction. Automatic organisation of ideas.
• breakpoint finding. Automatic detection of qualitative changes.
• Refutation recognition. Automatic spotting of decisive criticisms.

CF notes that automatized habits can be a source of bias — but they can also resist bias if the habit itself encodes good reasoning. Practice makes the right thing automatic.

Anti-patterns

• Don't automatize errors. Bad habits become stronger with practice.
• Don't skip objective-reasoning.: Some things should not be automatic.
• Don't rely on automatization to replace judgment. It's a tool, not a substitute.

"Automatization also helps fit more in our mind at once. It involves practicing to make things automatic (habitual, intuitive, second-nature, mastered) so they require little or no conscious attention." — criticalfallibilism.com