An interesting study on decision-making finds that, while conscious thinking about the pros and cons of your choices is best for simple decisions, more complex decisions are actually better made by instinct. I don't find this at all hard to believe. I think much of our decision-making operates, like an iceberg, below the visible (remember the recent discovery that decision-making is incomparably more difficult if our emotional processing is impaired).

That doesn't, despite what economists might think, make us irrational. It just means that ... cognition doesn't just happen at a conscious level. In fact, I think we'll one day be surprised to learn just how much of what makes us "human" doesn't require consciousness.

Recognizing this at a practical level, if not an intellectual one, when I was young I would sometimes flip a coin to help me come to a decision. Nothing unusual in that, you say? But I didn't flip it to tell me what to do; I flipped it to clarify my subconscious decision. If it came up with the answer I secretly wanted, I would know by the feeling of satisfaction. If it came up with the "wrong" answer, I would know it by my decision to flip it again!