Initial Impressions
Initial impression about something can be misleading.
If its a problem you have seen multiple times in the past, your fast thinking system will give you an answer that is reliable. But often enough, it will give you answers that are not as good. It has matched a pattern - but might not be the best solution.
The problem at this point is that brain will defend this initial impression. Its requires some effort to sit and think of another solution - the brain will be telling you that the initial one was good. This is because the brain wants to conserve energy that will be used for thinking. But this is short term optimization that might create issues in long term.
"If I had an hour to solve a problem I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes thinking about solutions." Einstein
A good way to combat this impulse is to spend more time thinking and defining the problem in as much detail as possible(Problem Definition). This will let you think of better solutions.
Other solutions to this issue...
Initial Impressions are not just an issue when trying to find solutions. Other areas of life can be affected as well...
- [Automatic Thoughts]
- Jumping to Conclusions
- Judging things