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Archive for the ‘Thinking’ Category

Can’t Sit Still?

December 7, 2023

Blaise Pascal, 17^th century French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, and Catholic writer, said, “Many of our major problems derive from our inability to sit still in a room.”

Pioneering Swiss psychologist Carl Jung told of a patient who exhibited anxiety and restlessness. Jung prescribed for him to go home, go to his office, close the door, and sit for a few hours every day.

The patient returned for his next appointment stating that he didn’t feel any better. Jung asked about his day. He said, well, I sat in my chair. Then I got a book and went through a few pages. Then I got out my violin and played for a short while. Then I tried another book.

Jung reprimanded him, “I told you to sit quietly. Just be with yourself. Just sit.”

Modern psychology? Pascal prescribed that 300 years earlier.

If you cannot stand to be alone with yourself for even an hour or even a half-hour a day, is it any wonder that others cannot stand to be with you, either?

The story concerns an elementary schoolroom from many years ago, but it could be yesterday. The teacher noticed that while she was explaining something a little boy sat staring out of the window. “What are you doing, little boy?” asked the teacher. “Thinking,” replied the boy. “Don’t you know you’re not supposed to think in class?” responded the teacher before realizing the irony.

The boy was on the right track. Finding time to sit and think is a good thing. Try it.

Posted in Disciplines, Meditation, Thinking | Leave a Comment »

Process Control, Quality In, Quality Processing, Quality Out

August 11, 2023

Two conversations this week involved process control. One involved coffee beans and the other scrap steel. One discussed why the direct trade coffee (from the Chavarria farm in Nicaragua) tastes so much better than the big chain brands. The other conversation with the CEO of a software company discussed achieving high quality steel products from the raw material input of assorted scrap steel.

A couple of takeaways.

The quality of the feedstock, the raw material the process begins with, impacts the process and the final product.

Adjusting the process to allow for variations of feedstock impacts the quality of the final product.

Just so in our own development.

What is the quality of the feedstock with which you fill your attention and mind?

How do you process, that is, reflect on, the stuff filling your attention and mind?

Posted in Disciplines, Learning, Listening, Thinking | Leave a Comment »

Beyond Labeling People

July 31, 2023

Our brains have less work to do when we can devise shortcuts. Thinking is hard work requiring attention, focus, and energy.

One of my favorite detective novel series comes from Rex Stout whose lead character is an overweight, narcissistic “genius” private detective called Nero Wolfe who hates to go to work. One sub-theme of the series involves the assistant, Archie Goodwin, trying to find the appropriate time to prod, cajole, irritate Wolfe into working—which in this case is thinking.

Thinking is hard work.

Reading from a late 18^th Century German philosopher where he complained about contemporary philosophers were dismissing one of the previous generation by applying labels. Labels serve no good purpose toward understanding, wrote FWJ Schelling.

A psychologist explaining autism to an interviewer mentioned that higher functioning people with autism resisted the label of autistic preferring to being acknowledged as people with different social skills. Labels often cause harm. People become easily dismissed.

We look at someone and immediately apply a label. We now can adjust our attitude of how to relate…or not. Or we hear someone or read something they wrote or listen to someone else describe them.

How often have I been surprised when I’ve taken the time for a conversation and listened. The label disintegrates before my eyes as I discover the person beneath the label.

Maybe I mute you on Facebook, because I don’t wish to see the information you’re reposting. Yet, there is a person with hopes and fears and pressures and pleasures.

Behind the label exists a human. One of God’s children. Worthy of respect and consideration.

Posted in Listening, Thinking | Leave a Comment »

Can You Think?

June 29, 2023

OK, I never thought I’d ever quote that famous behaviorist psychologist B.F. Skinner, but this thought was too good to pass over without, well, thinking about.

The real question is not whether machines think but whether men do.

John Wesley, among many other Christian writers and preachers, talked about using experience, tradition, and reason while coming to understand scripture.

If I took Facebook as an example of the level of thinking in the world right now, I’d be forced into skepticism about the ability of humans to think. Perhaps other forms of communication, as well.

Some people are worried about artificial intelligence technologies such as ChatGPT taking away our ability to think. On the one hand, I wonder about our ability to begin with. On the other hand, I have heard teachers explain that ChatGPT can be used along with thinking.

How, you may ask. Have the student (or you can try it) think and devise a topic sentence. The big question. Then write three or four supporting statements. Then turn ChatGPT loose to research and write some paragraphs. Then go back and rewrite that prose into English (or whatever).

My first geometry teacher told us that we’d learn about shapes and angles, but also that mostly what we would learn was how to think. Solving proofs of theorems is a great model. I use it to this day.

Try thinking sometime today. Read a passage (not just a single verse which can lead you astray). Think of possibilities. Not just one interpretation. What if the writer meant this? Or that?How did the original readers take this? Go sit in a park or by a pond or river and just think.

This reminds me of a story I heard many years ago. This could have been about me at 10 years old. It seems a little boy was sitting in class in school. He was staring out the window totally oblivious to the class. The teacher noticed and stopped talking. Soon, all the kids were staring. He realized something was up and his attention returned to the classroom. “What were you doing?” asked the teacher. “I was thinking,” was the reply. “Don’t you know you’re not supposed to think in school?” she said. When the entire class burst out in laughter, she realized what she said.

But, too often it’s true in school and at work—we’re not supposed to think. Be that little boy. Think.

Posted in Disciplines, Thinking | Leave a Comment »

Why Do We Want That?

June 1, 2023

Seth Godin recently asked on his blog a question I used to pose to my daughter when she was in high school, “How much of what we want, really want, is due to the ideas that culture has given us, and how much is truly what we need?”

It was easy for me to observe her and ask if she, for example, hated cafeteria food at school because the food was bland or tasted bad or if she was just saying what “everyone” was saying.

It is less easy for us to observe ourselves and ask if we believe something because we’ve thought it through or because “everyone” is saying it on social media.

There is probably a reason that even the most ancient wisdom literature teaches that unsubstantiated opinion is the lowest form of thought. Forming an opinion from a combination of learning and experience reflected on is a much higher form. Even better when we are open to someone pointing out the possibility of misinterpreting a source or a thought we may have overlooked.

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Make Why Your Most Important Word

May 8, 2023

Who, what, when, where, and how are also important words.

“I’m sorry, I don’t understand, why do you say that?”

“I am not sure what you mean. What do you mean?”

“That is interesting (when someone says something with which you disagree). Where did you learn that?”

Of course, when you use these words, it follows that you must listen carefully. Otherwise, all is futile.

When you don’t understand something, ask why five times. Sometimes even by the third time understanding will come.

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Questions

May 5, 2023

If you were on a long train ride with the smartest person in the world, what would you ask her?

How long would it take before you returned to doom scrolling on your phone?

How long can you maintain thinking without diversion?

What don’t you know that you would like to know?

I knew a teacher of the Bible who would get to a point where there were questions. He would say, “I guess we’ll have to save that one up to ask God when we get to heaven.” What if we had the patience and attention to ask God now and then wait for an answer?

I was taught to express myself as if I knew. These writings are the results of exploring. Searching for answers to many questions. Mostly, how to live in a healthy, positive way with-God. Every day brings a new wonder to consider.

Posted in Attention, Disciplines, Thinking | Leave a Comment »

The Answer With The Fewest Possible Complications

March 2, 2023

Occam’s Razor guides us to seek explanations with the fewest possible set of elements. Often we paraphrase it as the simplest explanation is usually the best.

I went from one rabbit hole to another. First a discussion on LinkedIn where I thought the explanations missed the point. Which led me to a search for the meaning of Occam’s Razor. If you follow all the arguments by philosophers on the Wikipedia page I linked, you will find yourself in another massive rabbit hole. Funny that these philosophers take a maxim about simplicity or fewest elements and write paragraph after paragraph.

We do that when explaining Christianity, too. Or, too often.

When Jesus was pressed for an explanation, he cited his scriptures to love the Lord and he added from a different location to love your neighbor. At the end of his ministry he left one command for his followers–to love one another.

When the rich young man came to Jesus asking about eternal life, he said he’d followed all the commandments since he had been a child. Jesus saw still an impediment to his loving others and told him to give away all his wealth to the poor. He saw that this got in the way of the young man’s opening of his heart. Rule following and attachment to wealth weren’t enough.

I follow this line of reasoning simply to go to the argument with the fewest elements–Jesus clearly taught us to guide our lives by love. Why do we complicate things like the philosophers and theologians? Maybe because love is too hard.

Posted in Living, Love, Thinking | Leave a Comment »

Confusion

February 27, 2023

I wonder if geese become confused.

It’s northern Illinois in late February. We have warmer days and colder days. The ice on the ponds has melted in spots and remains in spots. Do you wonder what exactly geese see when they are circling above and coming in for a landing at a pond they know well? Have you ever seen them land on the ice and go skidding for several feet?

During my walk, I saw most of the flocks of geese swimming in the open water. There was a couple, though, walking on the water–well, the ice at the other end of the pond. Everyone else was contented. They raised a ruckus with their honking.

Were they confused? Looking for help?

I wondered about our confusion. Perhaps reading something from the Bible or some random spiritual writer. Inevitably we will read something confusing. What is our response?

Do we ignore it and hope it will go away?

Do we think of something we agree with that is similar and just push past that part?

Do we pause? Puzzle over the phrase? Grab our iPhone, go to Safari, search for what other people on the Web have to say?

Perhaps we stop and contemplate for a while. Opening ourselves to God for the spirit to bring us at least a partial enlightenment.

I used to rush through things. I’d try to do many things at once. Then I learned to slow down. Hit the Pause button. Instead of looking for immediate relief from confusion, stopping to think and contemplate.

We can wonder where the water is and honk our fool heads off. Or, we can pause and re-center ourselves and find the open water.

Posted in Study, Thinking | Leave a Comment »

Asking More Questions

December 6, 2022

Wisława Szymborska, poet and recipient of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Literature, wrote, “Any knowledge that doesn’t lead to new questions quickly dies out: it fails to maintain the temperature required for sustaining life.”

I’ll admit, I have problems asking questions. On the other hand, I read something, and I wonder about it. Why did the author choose that series of words? What was the point? Wait, doesn’t that remind me of …..?

Too often we read something and stop. We take the words at face value. We don’t try to understand just what the writer was trying to tell us.

Doesn’t this often happen when reading the Bible? Do we assume the tone of the priest reading the Gospel at church? But when we are studying and trying for understanding, it is fair to ask:

Hey Luke, why did you include this story?

John, I don’t understand why you always talk about light and dark?

Paul, why do you use such confusing word plays?

Posted in Study, Thinking | Leave a Comment »

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