Final answer:
Our brain struggles with prioritizing long-term objectives, given our natural inclination towards energy-efficient processes and immediate rewards. We rely on heuristics for decision-making and prefer fast thinking for habitual tasks, reserving slow, conscious thought for complex but energy-demanding activities.
Step-by-step explanation:
As a general rule of thumb, our brain is really bad at prioritizing long-term objectives. This is because our brains have evolved to prefer automated processes and shortcuts, which are more energy-efficient than conscious thought. We tend to prioritize urgent tasks over long-term goals, as the immediate return on our energy investment seems higher.
Heuristics, or simple rules of thumb, make complex decision-making easier but can also lead us to overlook long-term objectives. When we break down large goals into smaller, manageable steps, we can apply these heuristics more effectively, as students do with research projects. Similarly, our brains use fast thinking for habitual activities and slower, more energy-intensive thinking for complex tasks.
However, for tasks that don't contribute to our ultimate success, often referred to as true sustainability, we may be misallocating our attention and resources, thereby inadvertently contributing to potential failure.