202109060816 Do your own thinking
It's too easy to let other people's thoughts, opinions, and models dominate our own.
202109071331 Arthur Schopenhauer has some great quotes on this topic.
When we read, another person thinks for us: we merely repeat his mental process. In learning to write, the pupil goes over with his pen what the teacher has outlined in pencil: so in reading; the greater part of the work of thought is already done for us. This is why it relieves us to take up a book after being occupied with our own thoughts. And in reading, the mind is, in fact, only the playground of another’s thoughts. So it comes about that if anyone spends almost the whole day in reading, and by way of relaxation devotes the intervals to some thoughtless pastime, he gradually loses the capacity for thinking; just as the man who always rides, at last forgets how to walk. This is the case with many learned persons: they have read themselves stupid.1
For the more one reads the fewer are the traces left of what one has read; the mind is like a tablet that has been written over and over. Hence it is impossible to reflect; and it is only by reflection that one can assimilate what one has read if one reads straight ahead without pondering over it later, what has been read does not take root, but is for the most part lost. Indeed, it is the same with mental as with bodily food: scarcely the fifth part of what a man takes is assimilated; the remainder passes off in evaporation, respiration, and the like.1
How much of these quotes are a sign of the times though? Many people today would consider reading a thought-ful way to spend their time. Today's escapism is more often linked to television and the internet.
Another great resource on the act and benefit of doing your own thinking is the timeless piece 202112201317 The solitude of leadership by William Deresiewicz. It expounds on the necessity of being solitary in our thinking and knowing of oneself.
Allowing others to think for us is obviously bad for many reasons, but perhaps chief among them is that the question of how we could ever have a new insight or a novel hypothesis if we only ever parrot the knowledge and thinking of others. No, we must build our own knowledge (202109060835 Knowledge is constructed) painstakingly through effortful engagement with the information and our existing knowledge. 202109060833 Sapere Aude!
One solution to this is to synthesize what we read (typically by writing about it, writing is important #thread). Another common pattern is the 202109061250 See, do, teach method. Another related idea is to disconnect and think deeply for an extended period of time (e.g. doing a 202110231433 Think week).
This Zettelkasten is yet another good example of synthesizing and doing something with what we've read. Writing notes that can be read by others, even if that's just our future selves, is an act of teaching (202209091142 Notes are the fundamental unit of knowledge work).
Open questions:
- Is it hypocritical that I rely on quotes for expressing a thought about doing your own thinking? #thread
- Is there a level of proficiency required before I can trust my own thinking in a subject area? #thread