how we think by john dewel
In an age of information overload, the depth of thinking is becoming less and less valued. Information even good information can become a distraction if you’re not thinking about it, evaluating it, or analyzing it.
Thinking is unfamiliar, Thinking can force us out of comforting habits, and it can even complicate our relationships with like-minded friends.
Thinking is slow, and that’s a problem when our habits of consuming information leave us lost in the spin cycle of social media, partisan bickering, and confirmation bias.
In its loosest sense, thinking signifies everything that, as we say, is “in our heads “ or that “goes through our minds.” A thinking process begins with a dilemma that suggests alternatives, and so thinking is evoked by confusion.
If you consistently choose not to dig deeper, you will make plans around being wrong. Deep thinking just means absorbing important information and using that to form a decision or opinion of your own rather than just spouting off what you hear others say.
Thinking begins in what may fairly enough be called a forked-road situation, a situation which is ambiguous, which presents a dilemma, which proposes alternatives. As long as our activity glides smoothly along from one thing to another, or as long as we permit our imagination to entertain fancies at pleasure, there is no call for reflection.
