Editing Fast And Slow
Several months ago, I was working on the next in a series of articles for Texas Lawyer. I had decided to try and write a "how to" article about editing.
This, of course, was a mistake, because Murphy's law holds that an article on editing will take longer to edit than any article I've ever done.
But now I'm truly in the big time because the article is being carried in both the Texas Lawyer and the National Law Journal.
(This, of course, is in addition to the strong freshman year I'm having as the big man for the Delaware State Hornets. Although they grossly exaggerate my height by listing me at 6' 10").
So, I've got that going for me.
Basically the article is a list of techniques, many suggested by you readers, to make anyone a better editor. Most of the tricks are designed to make you slow down and think critically about what you actually put on the page rather than just breezing past what you thought you said.
Since I finished the article I picked up the book "Thinking Fast And Slow" by Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel laureate in economics. I'm only just into the book, but I already wish I had read it before writing my own little piece.
Kahneman describes how our brain has two different systems, "System 1" and "System 2" for short.
System 1 is that part of the brain that does things, sometimes remarkable things, intuitively and without conscious thought.
System 1 can tell in an instant if your spouse is angry when he/she calls. System 1 can tell if you were the subject of the conversation before you came into the room. System 1 may have largely driven you to work this morning. System 1 is what slams on the breaks or recognizes danger even before your conscious mind knows why.
But System 1 is the part of the brain that edits intuitively and with too little analysis or criticism.
System 2 is the conscious, complex, analytical part of the brain.
System 2 is the part of your brain required to multiply 47 times 13.
System 2 is the part of your brain that a non-master chess player uses to evaluate a position
System 2 is the part of your brain that makes the more careful editor. The judge, who does not know your case, will be trying to process much of the information with System 2 and does not have the System 1 intuition you have after living with the case for so long.
As I think on it now, many of the editing hints in the article are just ways to keep System 1 at bay and keep System 2 awake. I wish I'd read the book first.
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