FreshHorses

I had never seen this before:


It is a profoundly erroneous truism repeated by all copybooks, and by eminent people when they are making speeches, that we should cultivate the habit of thinking of what we are doing. The precise opposite is the case. Civilization advances by extending the number of operations which we can perform without thinking about them. Operations of thought are like cavalry charges in battle - they are strictly limited in number, they require fresh horses, and must only be made at decisive moments.

- Alfred North Whitehead, Introduction to Mathematics

quoted by Ethan Akin, In Defense of 'Mindless Rote'



I love it!

'Fresh horses' and 'cavalry charges' are much more fun to think about than working memory and automaticity!

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