Further into thinking

Thinking is an amazingly complex subject. I remember a conversation with a collegue a few years back. She asked why I was so concerned about thinking. To her we are born able to think and that was it.

Well lets consider this. Given the same set of facts many people will come to different conclusions. You conclude differently when you are confident, when you are fearful, depressed, when you are anxious and when you are impatient.

Actually even our memory is related to our emotional state. When you are depressed you cannot remember your joyful moments. And when you are frightened beyond a certain point, your memory can totally shut down.

You conclude differently when you come from different cultures. And it also seems that the human mind abhors a vacuum. We do not like uncertainty. So even with incomplete facts we have this propensity to rush to a conclusion.

This problem is further compounded when we selectively hear and read.

So it seems the best we can do is to anchor our thinking on desired results. And if the results is not reached we examine our thinking again, our assumptions again. And we look at our yardsticks, our measures again.

But still its not easy is it? Lets us consider the state of our graduates. One would think that the educational system would have thought of matching skills with industry. Afterall they exist to educate. To release our potential.

And look at our thinking sport, chess. One would think that after so much money and time we would have a GM. And chess is about thinking; a mind sport. So maybe we are doing something wrong, thinking wrong. Maybe our approach is wrong. Maybe? Maybe its just more than the technical.