Thinking is very difficult.

How much of rationality -- of being a good Bayesian Ninja or whatever -- isn't about intelligence, or knowing how to think, but about having the self-control and discipline to exercise those capacities? And what does it mean for our attempts to become more rational if, as a lot of recent psych research has been suggesting, our self-control generally is a limited resource?

How can we overcome rote cognition, if it sticks around even when we're trying our best to be mentally alert and careful?

My method, FWIW, is to remove distractions. Part of that is literally having fewer inputs, part of it is ignoring extraneous inputs, and part of it is calming my internal dialog. Rote cognition is a handy tool that should not be discarded, but it's not always the right tool for the job.

I play games to try and jiggle myself out of rote mode. When I do a pasture walk - a semi-formal inspection and evaluation - I pretend that it is someone else's pasture that I've never seen before, and dispute every thought that pops into my mind as if it was a statement made by the not very credible owner of the pasture that isn't mine though it really is mine. Bad, lazy, stupid Gary said that, not me.

It works a little, but if done too often even that becomes rote.