Prisoners of our own minds

The human mind is an amazing tool. We first learn to use it an early age, before we are even aware of its presence. Somewhere within our brains a process occurs that allows us to perceive the world, and to then order our perceptions. Recognizing patterns, and then acting upon them, is an amazing skill. We take this pattern-recognition for granted, as we take much of our thinking abilities for granted.

We assume that we are pretty much stuck with whatever thought process we are currently using. Many treatises examine our brain function, and postulate why we think they way that we do, but few suggest how we might improve our thinking. Again, the dominant assumption is that we're stuck with what we have.

But, in fact, we can tweak our thinking in important ways, if we direct our attention to a key aspect of the thought process: namely, our perception.  We find it hard to distance ourselves from our perceptions, and so we don't readily grasp how our perceptions affect our thinking.

The photograph at the right is an example of what I'm talking about. In the photo you can see bars, which reveal that there is an obstacle between the viewer and the policemen. If the camera had been placed between the bars, the obstacle would still be there, but you wouldn't see it. If you know there is an obstacle between you and the policemen then you know that you can't really get closer to the policemen. Obviously, perception is the step in the thought process where information gets gathered, and it's important to have the right information.

Perception is often an obstacle to better human thinking, and understanding how our perception impedes our thinking is the key to improving our thinking. In this area, the works of a fellow named Edward De Bono are invaluable.  I am currently reading his book I am Right; You are Wrong which explains how our strong tendency to look at problems in an oppositional way is, though useful in many areas, actually an impediment when we seek solutions to certain types of problems.

"When you have a hammer," the saying goes, "you look at all problems as though they were nails." And our thought process is the same way: we tend to look at problems in the way that is dominant in our Western Culture. If we could tweak our thinking just a bit we would see things differently and thereby improve the outcome of our thinking. In short, most of us could be better thinkers; we just need to understand how our thought process works, and how our instinctive mode of perception shapes our thinking.

As the world becomes more complicated we are going to need better tools to help us deal with the information overload. The best tool is not the amazing personal computer, though it is certainly one of the best tools.

The best tool is our own mind. We are stuck inside our minds, but we have the ability to improve the thinking that takes place there.  If we choose to.

Last update: 6/5/2003; 10:08:53 PM.