Thought
Item No. 8
“Requires a pause. Requires time.”To think is to “direct one’s mind toward someone or something; to use one’s mind actively to form connected ideas.” There isn’t only one kind of thinking. Thought happens on different time scales. Since we often measure in time, maybe it’s interesting to think about this. There are undoubtedly situations where ‘quick-thinking’ is helpful. A search of that term will surface myriad saved lives because of the ‘quick-thinking’ effort and responsiveness of someone in a crisis, for example. Quick thinking has its benefits. Like saved lives.
But some thought takes time.
Actively forming connected ideas can take a lot of time.
Most of us know Daniel Kahneman’s work, Thinking Fast and Slow. System 1; fast and instinctual. System 2; is more deliberate and slow.
For this catalog entry in The Last Catalog, we refer not to the fast and instinctual kind of thinking, but the slow, deliberate kind of thinking. Deliberative thought. The “long and careful consideration” or discussion it can take to mull through an idea. The “slow and careful,” even cautious, movement of thought. The kind that takes a big, long, quiet pause, or that might happen on a wandering walk. The kind that forces us to interrogate how we are doing things. The kind that forces us to interrogate how we are being together.
The kind that invites us to wonder a lot about the world.
Why is this kind of thought in The Last Catalog?
It seems *Googling*—or searching online for the term— ‘quick-thinking’ might yield lives saved, but searching for the second kind of thinking, the deliberate thinking–the philosophical type, the kind that means interrogating how we do things, might rather yield a series of titles like Never mind endangered animals, it’s the thinkers we need to save! or Is Philosophy an endangered species? And Are Thinkers an Endangered Species?
Cal Newport, computer science professor and author of Slow Productivity, helps us to think about why thought might sit in the endangered bucket. These days, we value productivity–the measurement of our output. Who has time for thinking when there is so much else to be done? But Newport’s work invites this question: “is there no reasonable definition of productivity that shouldn’t also apply to lying on one’s back, gazing upward at the sky and thinking hard about how to create something wonderful?”
Indeed, is there no reasonable definition of productivity that shouldn’t also apply to lying on one’s back, gazing upward at the sky and thinking hard about how to create something wonderful? Not these days, not often enough at least. We’re too busy being productive to slow down for thought. And notice, we haven’t even mentioned the idea yet of how Artificial Intelligence (AI) might start thinking for us soon.
So much for gazing up at the sky deep in thought.
And, by the way, if we outsource our thoughts to AI, where will our thoughts be?
What is the cost of losing thought?
Perhaps our mind. Perhaps the joy that can come with thinking hard about how to create something wonderful. Perhaps we’ll miss the delight of pondering about something. Maybe we’ll miss musing. Maybe we’ll miss thoughtful conversations with others.
But there are more sinister costs to us losing thought. Political philosopher and writer Hannah Arendt warns of this in her oft-quoted remark (using the heavy word wickedness): “that wickedness may be caused by the absence of thought.” (See: Arendt, Hannah: The Life of the Mind p. 13 ) Her idea? That ordinary humans might partake in evil by simply acting without thoughtful reflection.
Without pausing to think of things like this: What am I’m doing this for? Is this the right thing to do? Does how we’re doing things make sense?
Perhaps where thought ceases, compassion withers, too.
Other specifications:
Thought requires a pause. Thought requires time. Sometimes with thought there isn’t an immediate, visible, output.