I gained 1000 MMR by turning off auto-pilot

I wanted to make this post to share some insights (from an ex-3K, now 4K noob).

I never realized just how many decisions in Dota I was making on "autopilot", and how much this affected my gameplay. I was basically not using my brain to make decisions, and this is a huge mistake.

Here's some examples of what I mean:

1. I see a big wave coming in on one lane, and my autopilot would immediately go "lots of farm, must TP; gold good". But if I actually used brain, I would ask myself some questions before doing in like "After I TP, what am I doing on that part of the map? Is it worth it for me to play there? Where is my team/the enemy team? Are there any objectives on that lane?", and a lot of times I realize the decision to TP is wrong.
2. I see an enemy support on some lane, and it's a free kill if I walk over to them. Autopilot tells me "Free kill good, go kill". But brain says "Do you really want to commit for that kill? What resources would you have to lose? How much CS would you miss? Where is the enemy team, what is the risk? Even if you get the kill, are you getting any objectives out of it? Do you want to show on that lane?"
3. My team is engaging in a teamfight in the enemy jungle. Autopilot says "You must help your team. They're going to lose the fight 4v5.". But brain comes in and says "OK, you can TP to your tower and walk there. By the time you walk there, 1 or 2 of your teammates will already be dead. Even if you go, you are still probably losing the fight. Maybe instead you should keep pushing on this lane and get not only one". Will this lose my team the fight? Yes. Will everyone start pinging my TP and probably report me after the game? Also yes. Despite that, I got 2 towers while the enemy team got 0 because they were busy chasing the last kill through the jungle.

There are so many instances where this happens. I never realized just how important it is not just to focus, but to make a conscientious effort to turn off the autopilot and relying on actual thinking and analysiis instead.

I know for most people this is obvious. "Duh, of course you have to use brain to play video game". But I wanted to share this anyway, because maybe it helps some of my fellow low players. Cheers!