For a long time this feeling was excruciating for me. Actually, sometimes still is, especially dealing with the "HN effect" of seeing very opinionated people from (usually) tech pop up from nowhere and discuss subjects that doesn't have much to do with their day-to-day lives.<p>Then I realized that's not a matter of quick thinking as it's of having lots of experience reading or discussing before. Of course, there are people that can draw reasonable arguments without much exposure just because they are wired this way, but that's not what's happening inside the majority's head.<p>Well, either way, mental models can come quite in handy when you need to speed up some things, but again, you need _some_ thinking before apply them.
I am the same way, however I would not want it to be otherwise. A "slow thinker" sounds very negative but in reality there is just more gaps between thoughts, gaps in which you are true to yourself and this moment.<p>A new sight or sound arises, and in the first moment of perception, there is a brief cessation in the habitual stream of thinking. Consciousness is diverted away from thought because it is required for sense perception. A very unusual sight or sound may leave you "speechless", even inside, that is to say, bring about a longer gap.<p>The frequency and duration of those spaces determine your ability to enjoy life, to feel an inner connectedness with other human beings as well as nature. It also determines the degree to which you are free of ego because ego implies complete unawareness of the dimension of space.<p>When you become conscious of these brief spaces as they happen naturally, they will lengthen, and as they do, you will experience with increasing frequency the joy of perceiving with little or no interference of thinking.<p>Inner space also arises whenever you let go of the need to emphasize your form-identity. That need is of the ego. It is not a true need.<p>I would very much recommend Eckhart Tolle's "A New Earth" if you want to read more and achieve freedom.