Here is Musea's 4th installment of its growing list of suggestions to fine tune your processes of thinking. Those with 'GKHB' at the end are by Musea Columnist, Gregory K.H. Bryant. Those with 'th' at the end are by editor Art (Tom Hendricks).
BE LUCKY: In the sci-fi classic Ringworld, one crew member is chosen because in the evolutionary process she has the trait of GOOD LUCK. Just think what Da Vinci could have done with an electric motor, but he was born too soon so most of his brilliant ideas were parlor tricks to his contemporaries. It took some 400 years to bring them to fruition. th.
WHY AM I BORED? Boredom almost always comes about because whatever it is we are doing at the moment, we would prefer to be doing something else. Which means that our minds are not here and now our minds are elsewhere, but our bodies trapped here. this disconnect between body and mind is a painful thing, and we often seek to avoid it reflexively, without giving any thought to what our state of boredom indicates about ourselves. Boredom gives us a chance to learn about ourselves. If we study our own sense of boredom, we will learn many useful things. If we avoid it, we learn nothing. GKHB
LESSER SENSES: Don't forget the lesser senses. Expand your wisdom with not only experiencing sights and sounds but with tastes, smells and touch. Widen your thoughts and feelings on the world around you by noting all the smells, tastes, and textures etc. Each is another full world in itself! th.
BILE RISING: When you feel the bile rising in your throat, when you feel that irresistible impulse to interrupt the other speaker with loud shouting and name-calling, stop it and ask yourself honestly, 'Why am I getting so angry?' Nine times out of ten, you'll find that the anger arises either because you take disagreement as an assault on your own sense of self-worth, or because the disagreement causes you to feel fear. If your beliefs are so delicately poised that a single doubt may bring them to ruin, then you ought to seriously reconsider those beliefs. If you argue to yourself that the different point of view is dangerous, (or that it may seduce other, not-so-sophisticated people into evil, and should be suppressed), then you are admitting your own fear. Stifling expression of thought because we fear it is intellectual cowardice. GKHB.
STRESS-TEST YOUR THINKING: We build a new technology, and find that it works. But that is not sufficient. Before we market our new technology, we subject it to stress-testing, to find our when, and under which conditions it will break down. We also want to find out specifically the kinds of breakdowns that will occur. We ought to do this with our own thinking. My present beliefs work for me now, and under these present conditions. Now let me find out whether these beliefs will stand up to other conditions, and let me actively seek out the conditions under which my beliefs are untenable. GKHB.
THINK PATTERNS: Recognize that everybody has different think patterns. A child's is different from a teen, or someone in their 20's, 30's,...80's, etc. Men are different from women, Asians are different from Africans, and our thinking now is different from 500 years ago and 500 years into the future. To understand anything or anybody, recognize that they will probably NOT be sharing your think patterns, (i.e. the way you thoughts and feelings) th.
THE UGLY TRUTH: The ugliest truth is always better than the prettiest lie. But it is a temptation to fill our heads with pretty lies rather than face these ugly truths. Resist this temptation. We so often try to drown out the voice of truth in our own heads because it is telling us things we don't want to hear. GKHB.
DESTROY ALL RATIONAL THOUGHT: This is the call to arms given us by William S. Burroughs. The point here is that a narrow insistence upon rationality ignores 99.9% of human existence, and the nature of reality. It is nonsense for us to expect that all our experience should conform to the limited applications of rationality. Give up all fear or the non-rational and the irrational. GKHB.
READ: 15 minutes a day for 4-6 years is a college education, and if you choose a little bit of everything from economics to Chinese poetry, it's a very GOOD college you went to. th.
DON'T PUSH IT: If it's not working today, go fishing-- give up-- take a walk. There are days when it just rolls oh so well, and others when everything you try is blocked. There's a weather to everything, included thinking. th.
WHAT A THING IS AND WHAT I THINK OF IT ARE TWO DIFFERENT THINGS: As a rhetorical device we often deny that a thing is what it is because of some quality we do not approve of - "He is not a man!", "No self-respecting individual would do a thing like that," Thinking gets confused when we promiscuously throw fact and opinion together into a single vat- it is also a technique of the sophists (read politicians) to confuse the difference, treating opinions as if they were facts, and facts as if they were nothing but opinions. All we do when we make these meaningless assertions is to confuse our own thinking. GKHB.
1. CREATIVITY HELPED: Creativity is sometimes HELPED not hindered by these 3 things: structure (must fit the format), competition (pushes you to excel), and stress to complete on time (forced to be brilliant). So consider: sonnet forms, art contests, and deadlines, as all sometime-pluses.
2. LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT: If you love what you're learning, you'll learn it - absorb it like a sponge and go for more. If you hate it you, like the horse, won't drink the water!
3. PUT IT TO THE TEST: Put your ideas to the test. That's the philosophy of science and it's made an incredible impact on human knowledge. You can ponder all day, but sooner or later you have to look/see!
4. DON'T JUMP - SLIIIIIIDE! Move from one layer of the onion to the next until you get to the core of the problem you're trying to figure out. No major discovery was ever jumped to. They all required little steps; but, amazingly the little steps keep moving you forward until you reach marvelous and incredible endings.
5. DISCUSS WITH EVERYONE: Problems are often already solved or led to solution by something someone else says. Listen and learn.
6. NEVER OVERLOOK THE EXCEPTIONS The rules should cover the entire waterfront. Exceptions are the key to why a rule isn't the final answer. Pay special attention to exceptions, they often lead to amazing discoveries in human thought.
7. DON'T LOCK INTO A PREDITION: Go into any problem open-minded. Let the facts show you the truth instead of you trying to force the facts to suit any predisposed ideas.
8. MUSE FACTOR Pray for inspiration. STOP LEARNING. When you graduated from high school, you thought the junior high kids were morons. When you graduated from college 4 years later, you thought the high school grads were morons. Now imagine what someone who continues learning every day after college for the next 30 years thinks of those who never cracked a book after graduation day - moron squared! Moral being - keep learning.
10. DO WHAT'S RIGHT If you're searching for wisdom to do the right thing then the entire universe is behind you. If you're searching for wisdom for wickedness the entire universe is against you. Go with good.