The Psychology of Deep Thinkers

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:00]If you feel like you're pretty smart, you've always done pretty well, like you did well in school, you understand things more easily when other people struggle with it, then it probably means that you are a deep thinker. And when it comes to learning, this is actually quite rare. Based on my own surveys and the data that I've collected from tens of thousands of learners, less than 10% of the population is a naturally deep thinker. And these are usually the people that are in that top band of performance. So, if you're going through school and you were in the sort of top band, you know, maybe not the smartest person, but you know, you're generally better than your average, and you were able to get through school and uni without really trying that hard, then there's a decent chance that you are one of these natural deep thinkers. [music] But one of the really common things that happens with deep thinkers, especially when it comes to learning, is that they [music] peak. They peak early, and so over time, like after university, going into life, or or for some people as they are going through university, it's harder and harder to stay at that top band. And you get to this place where you know that you're capable, intelligent person, but for some reason, you are not really getting the types of results and the performance that you would have expected yourself [music] to be getting. And it's not for lack of effort, you're studying and you're putting in the hours, but still it's not really enough. So, what happened? Are you just not that smart? Did you get less intelligent over time? Did you truly just peak too early? Uh the reality is probably you're facing something that I call deep processing tanking. I see this pretty much universally across all of my natural deep thinkers. And if that is happening, then there's something that you can do about it that unlocks those bottlenecks and allows you to be that natural top performer all over again.

[00:01:49]So, first I'm going to tell you what deep processing tanking [music] is, and then how you can figure out if it applies to you, and if it does apply to you, what you can do about it.

[00:01:58]So, deep processing thinking. I mean, I've been using the word deep thinker, [music] but thinking is such a vague term.

[00:02:06]We should be a bit more specific. When I say deep thinker, I'm talking about someone who takes a piece of information, learns something new, and they don't just accept it for what it is.

[00:02:15]They're not looking at the surface.

[00:02:16]They're not just trying to memorize the definition. They're really thinking about what this means. They're trying to go beneath the surface. This is the deep part. And really connect it with what they already know and other things that they're learning and really create what in the learning science space we call a schema of knowledge. So, there's this mental model of this topic that's forming. Whether that's an academic topic or something that you're learning for work. A deep thinker who uses their deep thinking when they're learning, we call that a deep processor. The processing is you processing new information. So, there's new information.

[00:02:54]This is the stuff that you're trying to learn.

[00:02:56]You take this in, you read it, you you you hear it in a video, whatever it is.

[00:03:00]And inside your brain, you process it. And if you process this in a deep way, you're doing deep processing. And deep processing is really one of the most influential things that dictates whether someone is a good or bad learner. If you do a lot of surface level processing, then you can spend hours and hours and hours on learning something and still get pretty bad results. A lot of people, if you are a deep processor that you saw around you, like spending all of their time studying, always writing lots and lots of notes, and you sort of wondered to yourself, "Why do you need to do that? Like, why do you need to try so hard just to understand it?" And often, if you observe closely enough, even after doing all of that, they still don't really get it. The reason is because they're using all of these different techniques, but mentally, they're not thinking in the right way. And because they're not thinking in the right way, those memories are not forming to a high quality. Whereas, if you're naturally really good at deep processing, then you don't even need those techniques. You just think about it. And as you think about it, those patterns emerge, and that memory just naturally happens to be pretty good. And so, if that is the case, then there are a few things that we can use to check if that is true or not. So, one of the first things is that if you are a natural deep processor, you probably have a track record of having pretty good results. Like I said, going through something like school, you know, you're typically expect that you'll be in that top 20th percentile without really having to try that hard.

[00:04:28]When you do put in a little bit of effort, it's easier to maintain that sort of top 20% performance, probably even throughout university. And the only times you really struggle are when things are really hard, like there's an enormous amount of volume where you have to learn things to a really uh deep level. So, a lot of people that enter into medical school, they feel really hit in the face because they are typically naturally good deep processors. They do really well in school. They go into medical school, and now they're just surrounded by people that are just like them. And the curriculum is geared for that level. So, suddenly now they're having to study like really, really hard because it's never been that challenging before. But, generally speaking, if your deep processing ability is naturally really high, you're going to get good results without trying as hard as as most other people. The other way that we can check is if you uh think a little bit about your actual thought processes.

[00:05:20]So, deep processing is not this abstract term. It defines a pretty predictable set of thought patterns that we know are really effective for learning. So, if you are doing proper deep processing, then when you think about what happens in your brain when you're learning something new, you should recognize that you are doing a lot of evaluation.

[00:05:44]This word gets thrown around a lot in just, you know, lay speak. But, when we talk about it in our learning science, evaluation means very specifically creating a value judgment on something.

[00:05:56]It's taking a piece of information and asking yourself, how important do I think this piece of information is? Is it more or less important than this other piece of information? If I told you to rank it, you're having to really make a ordered decision about what comes first, what comes second. So, most people when they're learning something new, they don't do that. They're going to They read a page, and they get to the bottom of the page, and what they're focused on is just, did I understand that? Whereas, if you are naturally a deep processor, then as you go through it, you're having a lot more thoughts and a lot more questions about that. You're asking yourself questions like, how important is what I just learned? Why do I need to know that? How would I apply that for my own context or my own problem? Why did the author choose to explain this thing to me? What was the purpose behind that?

[00:06:39]You ask yourself questions like this all the time. You also do a lot of comparison.

[00:06:46]So, you read about a concept, and you ask yourself, how is this similar or different to a concept that I've already learned about? You're really actively trying to create analogies and search for how it connects to existing knowledge or other things that you're learning. And again, most people don't actually do this. Most people when they're learning something, they will just be focused on trying to remember it and trying to just understand what is being said. Their uh litmus test for whether they're learning it or not is just, does this make sense to me? And for someone with really high deep processing, they're using that same does it make sense to me test, but the standard is much higher. They're only saying it makes sense to them if they've been able to make it simpler, if they've made it relevant and connected to other things that they've learned, if they've found a way to create an analogy for it.

[00:07:32]They're saying that until they really see how it connects together, and they've made a value judgment on how important it is, and they've seen how it is similar or different to something else that they know, it doesn't make sense yet. And so the natural consequence of this is that deep processors tend to also be uh naturally a lot more curious. And often you see this as a trait that comes through from a young age. And obviously it's the fact that they're engaging in these deep thought processes that allows them to get these really good results because these processes are the ones that create really strong, durable, uh complex memory structures. And so far if you look at these items, you can determine whether you're a deep processor or not. Do you have a track record of getting pretty good results, better than other people with less effort? And when you think about whenever you're learning something new, forget about what technique you're using or what strategy, whether you're using, you know, just writing your notes like any other person or you're doing flash cards or you're highlighting or whatever you're doing. Forget about that. When you just think about what is happening inside your brain, are you making these value judgments pretty much constantly?

[00:08:34]And you And are you by default uh tending to make comparisons? And probably, have you also always been a pretty curious person? If the answer to that is yes, then you're probably a naturally high deep processor. But there is also one other symptom of a naturally high deep processor, which is also the problem. And this is what can cause some naturally high deep processors to peak too early.

[00:08:59]And that is a pretty low or superficial level of learning strategy.

[00:09:08]Naturally high deep processors and deep thinkers don't tend to have very sophisticated and effective learning methods, which is ironic but actually makes a lot of sense. If you are a competitive athlete and you can lift 100 kg with one hand, no problem, you don't need perfect technique to lift up 5 or 10 kg because the majority of people are not like you, do not have that really high natural deep processing ability, school curriculums and standards, university examinations, things like this, they tend to be geared towards the average person. And so, for you to do well in those types of situations, you don't need any special strategy. You can use really any strategy of learning that you want because your brain is habitually thinking deeply about it. It doesn't matter. And it's this combination that creates deep processing tanking.

[00:10:07]And this is really what is happening with that early peaking issue where you used to be a lot better than you think you are now. You probably haven't gotten any dumber. You've just reached the limit of the strategies that you're used to using. And by the way, if you're wondering about whether you do have high deep processing or not, and you actually want to have that assessed, I do actually have a free quiz that I created where I ask you a bunch of questions. It takes a few minutes to do it. And then it will actually do an estimate about 80 to 90% accurate, I think, on your deep processing level. So, if you're not quite sure based on what I've told you so far, or you also want to assess some of the other dimensions of learning outside of deep processing, then you can take a look in the description. I'll leave a link for you to do this free quiz. Now, as a learning coach, one of the telltale signs that I often see with people that have this deep processing tanking issue is when you look at what happens to their performance during transitions.

[00:11:10]So, this is a transition from one tier of challenge to the next tier of challenge. So, common transition would be like going from high school to university. There's often, especially if you're doing like a STEM subject, medicine especially, there's this sudden increase in the difficulty and the volume of learning that you need to do.

[00:11:28]You get another transition from university to workplace. Again, sudden transition of the complexity and the volume that you're responsible for. And so, what I see with deep processing tanking is that during these transitions, there is a disproportionate increase in the amount of effort that person needs to spend to get the same level of result. This is how you need to think about it.

[00:11:53]If I draw this graph, time on the x-axis, what happens as you go through school, uh you know, time passes, what's also happening as time passes is that the level of challenge is also tending to increase. And so, your performance, if we draw that on the y-axis, in the early stages, tends to just generally increase. And there are three major levers that create this upward trend.

[00:12:21]That is the amount of time or effort that you're spending.

[00:12:26]It is the strategy that you're using for learning, and there is your natural processing ability. So, for most people, when the challenge increases over time, they start by first putting in more time and effort. And so, they're able to keep their performance matched. And at a certain point, when you need to hit a certain level of performance for a certain difficulty of challenge, most people, because they're not even thinking about strategy at all, they reach the limit of time and effort. No matter how much time or effort that they put in, their performance is not really going up. Or maybe they're studying as much as they humanly possibly can, and it's not improving. And at that point, uh their performance is either going to plateau or or it's going to drop off.

[00:13:09]Now, some people, hopefully you guys, because you're watching this video and you hopefully follow my stuff, are aware of this concept of learning strategy.

[00:13:17]You can actually change the methods that you use, so you're getting more return for the time and effort that you're actually spending. So, you reach a certain reasonable limit of time and effort that you're willing to spend and then you change focus on developing your strategy. So, as your strategies get better, you're you're now able to continue to improve.

[00:13:37]That's the the average person.

[00:13:40]Someone with really high deep processing skills, they often can just skip this entirely. And purely by just adding more time and effort, they can just make that go all the way through until they hit some level of challenge that's often significantly more difficult than what they were doing before. And at this point, the gap is exposed because they have not improved their strategy since all the way back here. Whereas the average person has been continually improving their strategy all throughout here because that's the only way that they were able to improve during that time. When your deep processing is strong enough, you don't have to think about strategy at all. And before you know it, you're in the middle of the ocean, but you don't know how to swim. Now, this line this is different for everyone, right?

[00:14:31]If your deep processing is super super super strong, like you are an outlier, you are an anomaly, then this line may just never come for you. And you would be in that sort of just natural top 1% top 0.1% of performance. For some of you, it happened when you started uni, when you started work, when you got a promotion. You can think about a time in your life where you were really good at things. Things were easy and you can fast forward and at a certain point, it wasn't that easy anymore. You got to ask yourself, during those two points, did my strategies improve and grow enough to cover the difference in those two conditions? When it went from level three difficulty to level seven, did my strategy also go from level three to level seven? Or did it only go from level three to level four? Now, the good thing is as you You already figured out because I'm talking to a bunch of deep thinkers.

[00:15:22]Uh is that you can actually train your deep processing ability and you can, if you learn the right strategy, start improving again. And often your ability to improve is much faster than the average person. Because for the average person, the thing that eventually limits them is their deep processing ability.

[00:15:40]They have great strategies, they're very proactive, but their natural processing habit are still a little superficial.

[00:15:48]And so, rebuilding and unworking and training those habits, that's what takes a really long time. Like one of the unique things about my program, the the paid program, is that I teach this skill. Like I train people on that deep processing. And for people that are starting from a really low baseline of deep processing, it takes months or years to get to a point where they're not limited by their deep processing anymore. If you're already starting from that high baseline, then as soon as you start using strategies that are geared towards how your brain naturally wants to think and learn, you can start seeing improvements in your learning efficiency, that is how good your memory is after learning something, how much content you can cover, and how long it takes you to cover that content in literally days or weeks. And it's learning those strategies that's going to take you to that top 1% top 0.1% of performance. That's what happened with me. Like I said before, I was sort of in that sort of top 20th percentile uh in high school, and then when I went into university, I had that sudden increase in effort. Like I had to study 20 hours a day to try to enter into medical school because I just had no other tools at my disposal other than time and effort. And then by learning eventually about all these different strategies, I felt that I had somehow become that outlier. I was that person who was sitting there in a lecture just listening to things, reading through books, and I could just remember it. And it's crazy because I remember being on the other side of that. I remember looking at those people and feeling like they're just built different. And in a way, they are because their natural deep thinking is because of their genetics and early childhood experiences that sort of shaped their brain to be that way. So, I guess they were built different, but the good thing is that we can continue to rebuild ourselves to be like that. So, if you feel like you are deep thinker who is sort of getting left behind lately, then I would strongly recommend trying to pick up methods and strategies that align with your natural thinking ability. If you want a good place to start, I'd actually recommend checking out this video that I've created on thinking on paper, which is a really, really great strategy that deep processes can often pick up very quickly. As I mentioned, I also have a paid program for those of you that want to go in more depth as well. I'll leave a link to that in the description as well if you want to check it out. But otherwise, thank you so much for watching and I'll see you next time.