In a game as mentally taxing as poker, the tendency is for a player to play on auto-pilot a large amount of the time. Do you think that the trick to being good is to improve your auto-pilot or is it to do as much actual thinking at the table as you can?

Also, which is the better way to improve auto-pilot, reading and discussing and analysing away from the game utilizing hindsight or playing with as many deliberate thoughts and in game analysis as possible?

I realize you must do both, but I find it a question worth asking.