People often amplify or fake the impressiveness of a feat by describing the end result and hiding the grueling process to get there.

“I had this idea in my bedroom and then my company changed the world.”

“Beautiful poems flow out of my mouth on command”

“One day I just decided to run a marathon and I did.”

Consciousness plays the same trick on us. The end result of thought seems magical, but we are locked out from the long emergent journey of biochemical reactions, associative networks and feedback loops.

Cal Newport calls this the Failed Simulation Effect,