The Power of
Deep Thinking: Essence of Creativity
Imagine for a moment that you could put on a set of inverted
goggles and see the world through an entirely different lens. On one hand, you
would literally see differently, but you might not view the world differently.
If we look deep enough and allow ourselves to observe from a new lens, we will.
Thomas S. Kuhn remarked in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions,
“What a man
sees depends upon what he looks at and also upon what his previous visual
conceptual experience has taught him to see.”
The power of deep thinking is the essence of creativity. By
learning how to think differently and deep, you will find that it is not only
your creative thinking, but your critical thinking skills that vastly improve.
This leads to higher levels of thinking and powerful problem-solving skills
that you simply did not have before.
Let’s take a look at what deep thinking is, why you should learn
about it, and what it will do for you.
How Do You Know
That You Know the Stuff You Think You Know?
Have you heard
the saying, the more you know the less you know? If you haven’t, take a moment
and think about that phrase. By looking at the Theory of Knowledge, we can pose
the following question: How do you know that you know the stuff you think you
know?
Let’s look at an example. Solve the following: 2 + 2 = ?
I am hoping you answered 4! Yet, let’s take a look at another
way to look at this. In Plato and Platypus Walk into a Bar by
Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein, we find the following story.
A western anthropologist is told by a Voohooni that 2 + 2 = 5.
The anthropologist asks him how he knows this. The tribesman says,
“By counting,
of course. First, I tie two knots in a cord. Then I tie two knots in another
cord. When I join the two cords together, I have five knots.”
Deep Thinking
Is Thinking About Thinking
Rene Descartes
famously stated, “Cogito ergo sum” or “I think, therefore I am” where he
believed thinking as the essential characteristic of being human.
In Why the World Doesn’t Seem to Make Sense, Steve
Hagen discussed that Descartes arrived at the cogito through
an experiment in radical doubt to discover if there was anything he could be
certain of; that is, anything that he could not doubt away. Hagen
commented,
“He started out
by doubting the existence of the external world. Then he tried doubting his own
existence. But doubt as he would, he kept coming up against the fact that there
was a doubter. Must be himself! He could not doubt his own doubting.”
Essentially, Metacognition is awareness of one’s awareness.
It is thinking about thinking or cognition about cognition.
1. Meta
means Beyond
2. Cognition
means Thinking
Thus, Metacognition means Beyond Thinking.
To be aware, it refers to the ability of the mind to stand back
and watch itself in action. Here, we are able to examine the way we learn,
remember, and think. The knowledge of how we process information gives us the
opportunity to change how we process it.
Can We Really
Know What Anything Is?
Hagen poses the
following question in his book Why the World Doesn’t Seem to Make Sense:
Here it is, but what is it? Do we truly know what something is?
Hagen remarks,
When we try to
answer this, have we merely answered the question “how do we conceive of it?”
or “what do we call it?” Some deeper question remains.
For example, if
I say, “Here, in this cup, is water,” you may ask, “What is water?” But as
scientists we might wish to point out, “Water is hydrogen and oxygen.” Thus, by
using scientific methods it seems we can discover what water is “made of.”
With confidence
we say, “What is really in this cup is hydrogen and oxygen, combined and
transformed into this unique substance we call ‘water’.” But the questions
continue.
Hagen concludes, “What is hydrogen? What is oxygen? And so we
look again, using scientific methods, and say, “Hydrogen is an element made of
atoms, each consisting of a single proton and a single electron.”
But still the questions remain: what are atoms? What are protons
and electrons? It seems that we’ve started on a never-ending regression. At no
time do we ever really get to the other end of the question: “What is water?”
We can name the mind object, even break it down and name its parts, but we
still don’t really answer the question.”
Reading this passage leaves me to ask myself: can we ever really
know what anything is? Let’s look at another example from Hagen.
He illustrates just how strange our world is through the
conversation between a physicist and a philosopher:
Physicist: …and so we conclude an electron is a particle.
Philosopher: But you also claim an electron is a wave.
Physicist: Yes, it’s also a wave.
Philosopher: But surely, not if it’s a particle.
Physicist: We say it’s both wave and particle.
Philosopher: But that’s a contradiction, obviously.
Physicist: Are you then saying it’s neither wave nor particle?
Philosopher: No, I’m asking what you mean by “it.”
A Gap in the
Stream of Consciousness
You might be
wondering what the difference is between Metacognition and Cognition.
- Cognition. This is the process of
acquiring knowledge for understanding. Cognition is thinking.
- Metacognition. This relies on
awareness and control of cognitive processes. Metacognition will help you
find gaps in your learning and thinking. However, you must have acquired
some previous knowledge about a topic prior to Metacognition. As mentioned
earlier, Metacognition goes beyond just thinking… it is thinking about
thinking.
Now that you have an understanding of the fundamental principle
behind deep thinking, let’s take a look at how to develop it.
In the book The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle, we learn
the following lessons.
Constantly
Observe Your Mind Without Judging Your Thoughts
Here we should ask one simple question, “What will my
next thought be?” Try it. Can you think of your next thought? Probably
not.
By continually asking this question, you can delay the arrival
of your next thought. This is due to what is called the quantum zeno effect,
where we can freeze our current state by observing it. Essentially, there can
be no change while you are watching it.
Life Is Simply
a Series of Present Moments
Here we are informed that the past is simply all the present
moments that have gone by. Tolle posits that the only important time is the present,
for which we think about the least. Furthermore, the present is simply future
present moments waiting to go by.
Imagine leaving your body and watching yourself think. Think of
this as a mental movie where your goal is not to judge the actors, but to simply
observe them.
Tolle refers to entering into the Now or the Present as creating
a gap in the stream of mind. Asking yourself the question “What
will my next thought be?” creates that gap and allows you to dis-identify from
your mind. Once you do this, you have elevated yourself above thought. This is
Enlightenment.
Stages of Deep
Thinking
Before we look
at strategies you can use to become a deep thinker, let’s briefly look at the
stages of deep thinking known as the Three Levels of Thought.
- Level
1: Lower Order Thinking. The individual is not reflective, has a
low to mixed skill level, and relies solely on gut intuition.
- Level
2: Higher Order Thinking. The individual is selective on what to
reflect on, has a high skill level, yet lacks critical thinking
vocabulary.
- Level
3: Highest Order Thinking. The individual is explicitly
reflective, has the highest skill level, and routinely uses critical
thinking tools.
Strategies to
Become a Deep Thinker
To enter into
the Highest Order Thinking, try the following strategies.
Increase
Self-Awareness by Thinking About Thinking
Imagine you could become aware of how you learn. We know that we
must have a baseline of previous knowledge about something to use
Metacognition. Think of your Intelligence as what you think and Metacognition
as how you think. Let’s look at a series of questions you can ask yourself by
using the Elements of Thought.
- Purpose. What am I trying to
accomplish?
- Questions: What question am I
raising or addressing? Am I considering the complexities in the question?
- Information: What information am I
using to get to my conclusion.
- Inferences: How did I reach this
conclusion? Is there another way to interpret the information?
- Concepts: What is the main idea?
Can I explain this idea?
- Assumptions: What am I taking for
granted?
- Implications: If someone accepted my
position, what would the implications be?
- Points
of View.
From what point of view am I looking at this issue? Is there another point
of view I should consider?
Challenge
Current Learning Methods Through Meta-Questions
Meta-Questioning is higher order questions
we can use to explore ideas and problems. Here are some examples.
- Why
did it happen?
- Why
was it true?
- How
does X relate to Y?
- Why
is reasoning based on X instead of Y?
- Are
there other possibilities?
Let’s look at a practical example.
- When
you say: “I can’t do this.” Change this to: “What specifically can I not
do?”
- You
say: “I can’t exercise.” Then ask: “What is stopping me?”
- You
say: “I don’t have time.” Now ask yourself: “What needs to happen for me
to start exercising?”
- You
discover: “What time wasters can I eliminate in order to create more time
to exercise?”
- Then
imagine how you could start exercising: “If I could exercise, how would I
do it?”
Thought Experiments
One last technique you can use to become a deep thinker —Thought
Experiments. This is a device of the imagination used to investigate the nature
of just about anything. Thought
Experiments seek to learn about reality through thinking:
- Visualize
a situation and set it up in your imagination.
- Let
it run or carry out some type of operation.
- See
what happens.
- Draw
a conclusion.
The team at Stanford describes this using the following example:
Since the time of Lucretius, we’ve learned how to conceptualize space so that
it is both finite and unbounded. Let’s see how this Thought Experiment can
work.
- Imagine
a circle, which is a one-dimensional space.
- As
we move around, there is no edge, but it is nevertheless finite.
- What
can you conclude? The universe might be a three-dimensional version of
this topology.
Think Deep, and
You Will Think Creatively
Thinking deep
will change how you think, feel, and view the world. When you understand this
concept, you will start to think beyond simple beliefs.
“When the root
is Deep… There is no reason to fear the wind.”
Deep Thinking will change how you think, feel, and view the
world. When you understand this concept, you will start to think beyond simple
beliefs.
By applying all the skills mentioned in this article, you will
be able to think deeper and explore more possibilities.
Dr. Jamie Schwandt
http://www.lifehack.org/624692/the-power-of-deep-thinking-essence-of-creativity?ref=mail&mtype=newsletter_tier_2&mid=20170825&uid=687414&hash=707e797f7e757e6d794c856d747b7b3a6f7b79&utm_source=newsletter_tier_2&utm_medium=email&action=click
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