moneyFYI
Financial Freedom Is Merely Organized Common Sense
Thinking Is A Useful Skill
At one time people didn’t take thinking for granted. They taught debate. They taught organized research. They taught communication, and the idea there is always more to learn. They taught people to seek people who did not agree with them so they could learn more.
“Argument is meant to reveal the truth, not to create it.” Edward de Bono
It seems to me today if those skills have been acquired or at least presented, few people use them.
Edward de Bono
De Bono died recently. He taught people how to think and to be creative. Yes, you can teach creativity. It has to do with changing how you look at things. Changing your viewing point helps you see new things.
“Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way.”
It is the thinking equivalent of the idea that if you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always gotten.
“We need creativity in order to break free from the temporary structures
that have been set up by a particular sequence of experience.”
Learn to think is about new things and old things in a different way.
Does better thinking work?
It seems to.
“Teaching thinking for just five hours to unemployed youngsters increased employment 500 percent.”
“My thinking was taught to tribes in South Africa like the Zulus and Xhosas.
At the time there were about 210 fights breaking out among them every month,
but after they listened to my lessons, this fell to just four.”
How to help our children
Odd as it seems thinking is not natural. It must be learned. Some instinctive responses look like thinking but that won’t take you far. It is not totally consistent with ability.
“Many highly intelligent people are poor thinkers. Many people of average intelligence are skilled thinkers.
The power of a car is separate from the way the car is driven.”
You learn the thinking process because you try to learn it. The internet is not about thinking it is is about information.
“There’s a danger in the internet and social media. The notion that information is enough, that more and more information is enough, that you don’t have to think, you just have to get more information – gets very dangerous.”
The worst aspect of the internet and social media is the emotion. Drama is harmful. Thomas Sowell had an interesting take on this.
“The problem isn’t that Johnny can’t read. The problem isn’t even that Johnny can’t think. The problem is that Johnny doesn’t know what thinking is; he confuses it with feeling”
The takeaway
- Thinking skills are valuable and make life easier and more enjoyable.
- They are not taught in schools. You will have to acquire them on your own and help your children do the same.
- You will be able to analyze arguments and see through obvious propaganda and lies.
- The downside is you will be able to see how many people have no such skills. And that’s depressing.
I help people have more retirement income and larger, more liquid estates.
Call in Canada 705-927-4770, or email don@moneyfyi.com
moneyFYI 
Thank you very much as you say it is depressing to note how many fall short in the thinking space but equally important that we that can see share the information irrespective. You and the others are providing light in this respect we value your contribution to your research and generosity