Conscious Ideas

Conscious ideas are ideas currently held in conscious attention. They are limited in number (roughly seven, per unit-economy) and expensive to maintain.

What conscious ideas are

• Items in working memory. What you're currently thinking about.
• Integrated units. Each "item" may itself be a complex concept.
• Active processing. You're reasoning about them.
• Limited capacity. Around seven items at a time.

Why conscious ideas matter

• They're what you're reasoning about. Limited ⇒ limited reasoning.
• They're what you can change directly. Subconscious patterns resist.
• They're what you can communicate. Others can engage with them.

What they aren't

• Not everything you know. Most knowledge is subconscious.
• Not stable. Items drop in and out of attention.
• Not always accurate. Conscious beliefs can be wrong.

CF's uses

• integration reduces items. Combine to make room.
• automatization frees items. Move things to subconscious.
• Idea trees externalise. Don't try to hold them all in mind.
• brainstorming generates items. Generate many, then filter.

Anti-patterns

• Trying to hold too many at once. Items drop, reasoning fails.
• Refusing to integrate. "I want to see all parts separately!" — you can't.
• Treating conscious ideas as more real than subconscious ones. They have equal IGC status.

"Conscious and Subconscious Ideas" is a CF essay title. — criticalfallibilism.com