I flew 'bush' contracts for about 8 years in Africa and the Middle East, on turbines and jets, and we did some great flying where you have to figure things out for yourself - you get to be able to handle almost anything thrown at you.. poor weather, big mountains, long deserts, bad atc, u/s equipment, no ground beacons or facilities, no viable alternates, sometimes ground fire, major collision risk, unknown airports at night, dodgy runways, bad loading, nil support from home base, inexperienced crews, you name it. We kind of developed a generic way of doing things which kept us safe. Every dodgy experience you lived through added another facet to this 'way', which we could apply for example if we had to land at an unknown dodgy airport at night in heavy weather to ensure we made it safely.
Now I fly for a world-class airline whose SOPS are rigid, we have first-class equipment, all the support and backup we need from home base and generally things go swimmingly - because it's all just repetition of a routine... to good fields, with working equipment, and excellent ATC's.
There's not really any thinking to be done. And when the situation calls for something out of the ordinary I have seen not one but many of the old-hand experienced Captains sweat and panic a little. I'm talking about old ex-fighter pilots here included. Even a tight visual brings on that smell in the cockpit - the sweaty smell of adrenaline. I've seen some pretty poor material in the left hand seat who are there just because their number has come up and who go to pieces under just some slight strain.
I believe those pilots who have had to work things out for themselves in their formative years, and not always had the benefit of good equipment and 100% support (this includes air forces) make the better pilots, the ones who are confident they can make a plan when the chips are down, because they are used to the chips being down.