Spaghetti and Waffles
I read a book once (really!) called Women are Spaghetti and Men are Waffles. The premise was that women have a view of the world that overlays and intertwines like spagetti on a plate. Almost any topic or emotion can lead to any other at any time. They are almost always multitasking between emotion and reason. That is why the "I was almost understanding her, then she 180-ed on me..." happens a lot. Men, on the other hand, are highly compartmentalized in their thinking, like waffles. As each box is filled (yum, maple syrup), a man will then move on to another, not before. That is why a woman can ask a man, "What are you thinking?" and he can honestly say, "Nothing." if he is tasking something else at the moment, like solving a problem or gathering data. The man isn't around to assimilating the data into self, he's just soaking it up.
An example: women are wonderfully suited to combat piloting They have fast reflexes, better response to g-forces, good visual scope, etc. However, they usually end up as bomber and cargo pilots, not combat fighter jocks. Truth is, they lack is the ability to dogfight well. The problem is usually when to pull the trigger. A woman is usually sourcing more data for that decision than a man ever would, and so the decision is delayed by that margin, often a fatal one. Men have already pulled the trigger, made an "X" on the side of the plane, and ordered lunch (and often ask, "Was that a bad guy I shot?").
The upshot? Well, men have to learn that a woman's brain very rarely idles, it is constantly moving and adapting. When talking about a problem, be ready to chase a few threads around and cover emotional as well as practical ground. Women, conversely, have to understand that reading stuff into situations will largely be their responsibility, because men rarely play that section of their brains. When he says that he doesn't care what she cooks tonight, he's probably not slamming her cooking. He honestly just doesn't care which dish gets served up as long as he's fed. The weirdest thing about this phenomenon is that it is largely invisible in conversation, but is demonstrated in time spent on topics and how frequently they are approached.
One final quote: accurate or not - "A man without sex on the brain is a woman with one ugly body." - Anonymous
