Thinking Well Is Hard?
Oh, please . . .
“Ommm… Ommm… Stay positive, don’t let them drag you down into negativity.”
That’s what I have to say to myself because a recent e-mail miffed me.
As I mentioned in a previous article, I enjoy spam e-mails. No, really. I sign up for the spam e-mail lists spewed out by crazy fluffpreneurs and alpha male business bros. I have found that their highly hyped e-mails are not only entertaining but an interesting touchstone on popular culture. The targeted hype of the spam e-mails highlight what are the current fears and biases that these con artists hope to exploit. Usually, the spam e-mails try to exploit fears of poverty or social inadequacy. This particular e-mail did something different, something more malicious.
The Stupid E-mail
The e-mail I received started with the headline “Thinking well is hard.” It continued with wall-to-wall negativity about how people are “wired” to not think and instead are biased and need help. The purpose of the e-mail spinning this yarn was, unsurprisingly, to get you to click over to some site that will save you from your hopelessly biased self and tell you how to think because it’s so hard to do on your own.
Also unsurprisingly, the site to which the clickbait e-mail referred contained no information about philosophy or logic and no encouragement toward independent thinking. The site’s encouragement came in the form of exhortations to not trust yourself but trust them instead. They will tell you how to think. It’s too hard for you, you know.
Same Old Playbook
I’ve seen this basic marketing message before. As someone who teaches students to think critically for a living, it’s a never-ending disappointment to see yet again another cock-and-bull story about how people can’t and/or shouldn’t think for themselves.
There’s an industry (well, several, to be honest) that tries to get people to doubt their own capacities to take in information, process information, and arrive at their own solutions to situations before them. There’s a continual denial-of-service attack on all of us to prevent us from thinking for ourselves. And it’s not just the advertisers, marketers, politicians, or the corporate news media trying to drown out our clear and independent thinking.
They’ll tell you there are hundreds of reasons why you can’t believe in your own perceptions, your own thoughts, and your own decisions. If they can convince you to believe those stories, then they can get you to believe what they want you to think. Thinking is too hard, you know.
DIY
No, it is not hard to think well. Good thinking may not be the quickest way to respond to situations, but thinking well is not difficult.
Compare thinking to a DIY project. There are two basic ways you can approach a DIY project — a slapdash hurry-up and get it done approach or a take your time and get it done properly approach.
My grandfather, a carpenter and all-around handyman who could fix anything, had a sign in his workshop. “The hurrieder I go, the behinder I get.” The meaning of the saying was that a slapdash hurry-up and get it done approach is always the harder approach. The take your time and get it done properly approach is always the easier approach. Yes, easier in the long run, but that’s the point.
In thinking, taking the time to think well is easier in the long run. Thinking quickly is not thinking adequately, and like in carpentry, you will produce sloppy work that you have to then spend time to fix. Thinking is never as hard as not thinking.
Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t think for yourself. You aren’t hard wired to not think anymore than you are hard wired to believe bullshit e-mail hype.
