This scientific-conceptual essay examines how information overload, autobiographical memory, metacognition, and established cognitive patterns influence human self-awareness, learning, and decision-making. Beginning with a personal experience involving an angle grinder, the article introduces the Einstellung effect, a phenomenon in cognitive psychology in which familiar solutions can interfere with the recognition of alternative possibilities. Drawing on research in cognitive psychology, autobiographical memory, financial scarcity, and attention restoration, the discussion explores the relationship between accumulated life experience, cognitive flexibility, and personal autonomy. Within the Bio-Fi — The Human Network framework, the concept of "Clear Your Mental Cache" is presented as a metaphor for critically examining established beliefs, reorganizing attention, and reassessing knowledge acquired throughout life. Rather than suggesting that further learning is unnecessary, the article proposes that meaningful human development also requires the ability to access, reinterpret, and update existing knowledge. The essay offers an interdisciplinary conceptual reflection, not an experimental investigation, emphasizing the potential importance of human relationships, conscious attention, and reconnection with real-life experiences in supporting self-understanding and autonomy.
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Rivass Silva (2026) studied this question.
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