levers, the possibility of touching the wrong pedal,--all
demand his undivided attention and keep him thinking every moment of the
time. But having learned, having solved his problem, he can run his car
without conscious thought, and meanwhile can devote his mind to problems
of business or pleasure. As Professor Pitkin says:

Whatsoever we can manage through some other agency we do so
manage. And, if thinking is imperative for a while, we make that
while as brief as possible. The baby thinks in learning to walk,
but as soon as his feet move surely he refrains from cogitation.
He thinks over his speech, too, but quickly he outgrows that,
transforming discourse from an intellectual performance to a
reflex habit. And he never thinks about the order and choice of
words again, unless they give rise to some new, unforeseen
perplexity; as, for instance, they might, were he suddenly
afflicted with stammering or stage fright. This is no scandal,
it is a great convenience. Thanks to it, men are able to concern
themselves with fresh enterprises and hence to progress. Indeed,
civilization is a titanic monument to thoughtlessness, no less
than to thought. The supreme triumph of mind is to dispense with
itself. For what would intellect avail us, if we could not
withdraw it from action in all the habitual encounters of daily
life?[2]

[2] _Short Story Writing_, pp. 64-65.

=40. What Provokes Thought is News.=--Men apply the same principle, too,
in their news reading. Whatever presents a new problem, or injects a new
motive or situation into an old one, will be interesting and will be
read by those readers to whom the problem or situation is new. It is
not, therefore, that American men and women are interested in the sins
and misfortunes of others that they read stories of crime and unhallowed
love, but that such stories present new problems, new life situations,
or new phases of old problems and old situations. A story of innocence
and hallowed love would be just as interesting. When the newspapers of
the United States make the President's wedding the big story of the day,
it is not that they think their patrons have never seen a wedding, but
that a wedding under just such circumstances has never been presented
before. And every published story of murder or divorce or struggle for
victory offers new thought-provoking problems to newspaper readers. Men
are cont