How Philosophers Think
Philosophers are the best thinkers I know, and their tactics can help us all.
Here are my favorite ones:
1. Be an intellectual boxer: Understand ideas by making them battle with each other. Create characters in your mind and make them debate each other.
Philosophers are the best thinkers I know, and their tactics can help us all.
Here are my favorite ones:
1. Be an intellectual boxer: Understand ideas by making them battle with each other. Create characters in your mind and make them debate each other.
2. Dissect ideas
The smartest kid in my middle school class used to take computers apart and put them back together again in order to understand how they work.
Good philosophers are like my friend from middle school. But instead of playing with computers, they play with ideas.
The smartest kid in my middle school class used to take computers apart and put them back together again in order to understand how they work.
Good philosophers are like my friend from middle school. But instead of playing with computers, they play with ideas.
3. Think by writing
Deep thinking happens by writing, which allows us to navigate the hazy labyrinth of consciousness.
Most roads lead to a dead end. But every now and then, the compass of intuition leads to an epiphany that the top-down planning mind would’ve never discovered.
Deep thinking happens by writing, which allows us to navigate the hazy labyrinth of consciousness.
Most roads lead to a dead end. But every now and then, the compass of intuition leads to an epiphany that the top-down planning mind would’ve never discovered.
4. Respect the context
You understand an idea not when you’ve memorized it, but when you know why its form was chosen over the alternatives. Only once you’ve traveled the roads that were explored but rejected can you see an idea clearly, with all the context that supports it.
You understand an idea not when you’ve memorized it, but when you know why its form was chosen over the alternatives. Only once you’ve traveled the roads that were explored but rejected can you see an idea clearly, with all the context that supports it.
5. Writing is more than typing
Most of the time a philosopher spends writing doesn’t involve typing.
Rather, it’s a form of intellectual exploration — following intellectual embryos and running into various roadblocks on their way to discovering an idea’s mature form.
Most of the time a philosopher spends writing doesn’t involve typing.
Rather, it’s a form of intellectual exploration — following intellectual embryos and running into various roadblocks on their way to discovering an idea’s mature form.
6. Ideas are like fashion
Since ideas are invisible, people underestimate the extent to which they can arbitrarily go in and out of style. We laugh at the things people in the 70s used to wear, but if we could see ideas in photos, we’d do the same for our thinking.
Since ideas are invisible, people underestimate the extent to which they can arbitrarily go in and out of style. We laugh at the things people in the 70s used to wear, but if we could see ideas in photos, we’d do the same for our thinking.
7. Copy-cat thinking is everywhere
People who don’t have the tools to reason independently make up their minds by adopting the opinions of prestigious people. When they do, they favor socially rewarded positions over objective accounts of reality.
People who don’t have the tools to reason independently make up their minds by adopting the opinions of prestigious people. When they do, they favor socially rewarded positions over objective accounts of reality.
https://twitter.com/david_perell/status/1365445813644783617?s=20
8. Beware of the Spotlight Effect
By definition, we’re blind to what we can’t see. When looking for answers, we’re like the proverbial drunk who only looks for their keys in places where the light is shining. That’s why philosophers study both the ground and the spotlight.
By definition, we’re blind to what we can’t see. When looking for answers, we’re like the proverbial drunk who only looks for their keys in places where the light is shining. That’s why philosophers study both the ground and the spotlight.
9. Live with Intellectual Grace
Philosophy, like regular life, is best experienced with an attitude of intellectual grace.
“What can this person teach me?” is a much more productive question than “How is this person wrong?”
Philosophy, like regular life, is best experienced with an attitude of intellectual grace.
“What can this person teach me?” is a much more productive question than “How is this person wrong?”
10. Intellectual patience
People leap to conclusions because they feel pressure to have an opinion on every topic. They jump on the intellectual bandwagons of those they want to be affiliated with. But favoring group loyalty over independent reasoning is the epitome of tribalism
People leap to conclusions because they feel pressure to have an opinion on every topic. They jump on the intellectual bandwagons of those they want to be affiliated with. But favoring group loyalty over independent reasoning is the epitome of tribalism
11. Human nature doesn't change
Even if history is an unceasing sprint toward the future, human nature doesn’t change. Only the laws of physics are more predictable. What’s happened in the past will happen in the future — again, again, and again.
Even if history is an unceasing sprint toward the future, human nature doesn’t change. Only the laws of physics are more predictable. What’s happened in the past will happen in the future — again, again, and again.
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