Thinkos are mental errors that can occur when someone is under stress or distracted. They can involve speech, memory, or physical actions. It’s important to know your limits and reduce stress to avoid dangerous mistakes.
A thinko is a mental problem that causes some sort of error in someone’s thought processing. Like a typo, a thinko is correctable, though it may take a moment to unravel the confusion. You may also hear thinkos referred to as brain farts, and someone experiencing a thinko may refer to making a slip or drawing a blank. Most people have thoughts at one time or another, especially when they’re in a hurry or under stress.
The classic thinko example is using the wrong word in a sentence. This often happens when someone is thinking faster than he or she can talk, or when someone is distracted, and can sometimes result in a funny or embarrassing slip of the tongue. This type of thinko is usually easy to correct, as it is usually noticed promptly and the speaker can pause to clarify the topic under discussion. In related thinko, someone may momentarily forget which word is appropriate for a sentence or lose track of what he or she is saying.
In addition to involving speech, thinkos can involve things like memory. For example, many elderly people complain that they are never able to remember where they left their keys, glasses or other personal items. Memory defects don’t just affect the elderly, of course, as younger people can commit the same things. Lack of memory can be linked to a situation where someone is distracted or stressed, leading them to put things away in an unfamiliar place and forget where these belongings were left.
A thinko can also cause a physical fall that can vary in severity. For example, someone who is used to driving a manual transmission car might pick up the clutch in an automatic transmission car and be momentarily confused, or a knitter might lose track of where she is in a pattern and experience a momentary gap.
Frequent thinking can be a sign that someone is under stress and may want to slow down. It’s a good idea to know your limits and to stick to those limits in order to reduce the amount of stress you experience, as the mental defects caused by stress can sometimes be harmless, but they can also be very dangerous or debilitating. Heavy workloads can lead to thinkos and other mistakes, especially when combined with stressful activities outside of work, ranging from attending too many groups and organizations to raising children.
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