The Art Of Thinking Clearly
How To Do More Than Just Survive And Reproduce
The 3 Steps To Clarity
Introducing The Art Of Thinking Clearly
The art of thinking clearly starts with the sobering realisation that our brains are designed to achieve two things:
- Survival
- Reproduction
As Nassim Taleb succinctly put it:
“Our minds are not quite designed to understand how the world works, but, rather, to get out of trouble rapidly and have progeny."
98% of our thinking is unconscious, automatic and impulsive.
This thinking uses our mammalian brain which is all about emotions and is driven by our reptilian brain which is focused on survival.
The process of this thinking is based on assumptions, analogy and mental short-cuts and leaves us wide open to a very wide range of cognitive biases and distortions as it so often leads us to conclusions that confirm what we want to hear.
All of this is just wonderful from an evolutionary perspective as it keeps us alive and reproducing, but this conflicts deeply with the art of thinking clearly.
Professor William Irvine gives an overview of evolutionary psychology and the development of thinking systems in our brain:
The art of clear thinking is developed and exercised when we use the more recently evolved parts of our brain. This involves slower thinking that is thoughtful, deliberate, and calculating.
Only 2% of our thinking is slower thinking.
This slower thinking is hard work and involves effort and the use of a range of applied thinking skills
The function of slower thinking is to analyse, interpret and make connections, with the objective of achieving perspective, insight and understanding.
In his book "Thinking Fast and Slow" Daniel Kahneman describes these two thinking modes as 2 Systems.
System 1 is our fast thinking impulsive and reactive brain and System 2 is our slow thinking brain.
According to Kahneman:
"What gets in the way of clear thinking is that we have intuitive views of almost everything. So as soon as you present a problem to me, I have some ready made answer. What gets in the way of clear thinking are those ready made answers, and we can’t help but have them"
How To Exercise The Art Of Thinking Clearly
[1] Stop thinking
As regular visitors to this site will know, our big themes are about learning: how to think effectively and how to stop thinking.
The first objective of effective thought is a natural product of the second objective. Why? Because when your mind is quiet you have insight and see things as they really are.
So, counter-intuitive as it may seem, learning and mastering the art of not thinking is a useful and practical foundation for learning how to think effectively.
The difficulty with this is that without practice, your mind is not going to stop thinking on demand.
The most effective way of achieving this is with the zen practise of mindfulness.
So your first challenge in exercising the art of clear thinking is:
We are not talking about becoming a zen master or any kind of expert practitioner. This is just about learning a few simple techniques that will enable you to pause and take an inwards step back.
This will allow your observing mind to disengage from your everyday "monkey mind" to observe the ebb and flow of your impulsive reactions to the events that take place in your life.
[2] Develop awareness
- You need to have a deep awareness of the range of cognitive biases and distortions to which we are all so susceptible.
- You also need to have deep awareness of the power and pitfalls of the mental short cuts [heuristics] that we all use all the time in everyday decisions.
- Equally important is an awareness of the boundary between knowing what you do know and knowing what you don't know. This is all about understanding your circle of competence.
[3] Learn how to think
As noted in How To Think:
"We are currently living in an age of unreason where:
- Experts are denigrated and ignorance, bias and prejudice is celebrated;
- Woke thinking takes precedence over reasoned debate;
- Virtue signally takes precedence over private philanthropy;
- Intelligent discussion and agreement to disagree and respect for other shades of opinion are denied in the current cancel culture;
- Public debate is hijacked and taken over by group think and mob rule.
All of this provides another very powerful rationale and motivation for learning how to think effectively."
This site has extensive resources on thinking skills and I recommend that you pay particular attention to:
The Art Of Thinking Clearly And The Balanced Life
I want to conclude this article by making an appeal for:
[1] A balanced approach to the art of thinking clearly.
[2] Taking the middle path and the avoidance of extremes.
Further Reading:
- Asking The Right Questions - How To Avoid Wonky Thinking
- How Not To Be Stupid - 4 Key Tips
- Finding Signal In The Noise - How To Avoid The Noise Bottleneck
- How To Win Without Succeeding - Avoid Losing!
*************************
Next Article: Algorithms to Live By
Return from "The Art Of Thinking Clearly" to: Walking The Talk
LATEST ARTICLES
And So This Is Christmas
There Is No Path To Peace - The Path Is Peace Thich Nhat Hanh, the renowned Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk, teacher, and peace activist, often spoke about peace as a state of being that begins within on…Curiosity Skilled The Cat - Optimize For Interesting
Curiosity Fuels Excellence The old adage, “Curiosity killed the cat,” warns of the dangers of venturing too far into the unknown. But what if we reimagine it not as a risk but as a gateway to developi…Let Stillness Speak - Living Within A Complex System
To let stlllness speak is to learn it's first major lesson: you are not your thoughts. To let stillness speak is about stepping back from the constant chatter of your mind and allowing a deeper, quiet…Understanding Complex Systems Thinking - It's Not Complicated
Understanding, and being able to work with, complexity is an important thinking skill.
We are all working with complex systems, and we do so every day. The biggest one is life itself. We automaticall…Stay On The Bus - When To Keep On Going
The Helsinki Bus Station Theory
Have you ever started a new project, initiative or role with a big vision and a determination to make a difference? Initially you were full of enthusiasm and highly mo…Zen Thoughts Email Series
Conversations With A Friend Zen Thoughts is an email series of 50 short messages spread over 3 months. The messages are written in the style of a conversation with a friend who is going through a toug…How to Get What You Value by Changing What You Measure
Give Up Control & Gain Influence To Get What You Want
The metrics we choose to focus on can significantly shape our outcomes, sometimes in ways we don't intend. The challenge is to make sure that you…How to Become A Master At Overcoming Hard Moments
"The best in the world are not the best because they win every point. It's because they lose again and again and have learned how to deal with it." This quote from Roger Federer has got a lot of cover…Drop The Story - Deal With Your Demons and Transform Your Experience
Are you living your life from the stories you tell yourself? Learning how to drop the story and deal with that voice in your head can be a game changer. When you can do this you will have a powerful t…Standing In The Gap Between No Longer And Not Yet
Standing In The Gap In Conditions Of Imposed Change. This is about imposed change and surviving a dire and desperate situation where you are stuck in a difficult or seemingly impossible set of circums…Preparing The Ground - For Things You Can Not See
We plough the fields and scatter the good seed on the ground. The phrase "preparing the ground" is a metaphor for making the necessary preparations to create the favourable conditions for something to…Easing The Weight Of Expectation
Don’t you often feel like you are carrying the weight of the world on your back? Our start point is understanding that the ego has a very clear idea of how things ought to be, and its intention and ex…Coram Deo - Living In Consciousness
In you there is a dimension of consciousness far deeper than thought. It is the very essence of who you are. Coram Deo is about living in consciousness. It is a Latin phrase which literally means “to…The Power Of Patience - Why You Need The World's Toughest Quality
Nothing in the world can take the place of patience. Patience and persistence are omnipotent. In everyday life, patience is often overshadowed by the desire for immediate results. We live in an era of…Demonizing The Other and Personal Acts Of Compassion
What Does Demonizing The Other Mean? Demonizing the other refers to the act of portraying a group of people or an individual as inherently evil, threatening, or inferior. It often serves to justify di…