This is a guest post by Tom O’Leary.
A classroom full of 10-year-old students is asked to solve a problem with children crossing the street on the way to school. The children come up with ideas that have been used successfully in other places: traffic calming devices, overpasses, fluorescent jackets and speed limits. All these ideas are conventional, exactly what the teacher wants to hear.
Except for one. A student recommends that the school board sell the property and move the classroom online. This is not what the teacher was expecting.
This idea may not be practical, popular, or even possible, but when it’s ridiculed by the class it might be the last independent thought that the student dares to express — the death of another independent thinker.
Independent thought is not popular — it is absolutely, pricelessly, rare. Nothing you read about in the papers or see on the television is independent. Whatever we take in from the popular media is regurgitated conventional knowledge. There is nothing independent about most of the world.
This is a tragedy — independent thought is essential for progress. Conventional thinking moves us forward gradually at best (at worst it pushes us backwards). Independent thinking is required to achieve any substantial jump in performance.
Logically, when we think like everyone else is thinking, the best we can expect is to achieve what they’re already achieving. If our aim is to over-achieve, we need to avoid the same banal influences and think impossibly. We need to become independent from conventional wisdom.
Fortunately, you don’t have to be particularly intelligent or well educated to think independently. Consider small children. Conventional wisdom says that shoes are for wearing and bananas are for eating. Independent thinking allows children try eating the shoes and wearing the bananas on their feet. Their lack of conventional wisdom and utter disregard for how others view their decisions allows children to experiment without anxiety. In this case they may be wrong, but in other cases they can be shockingly right.
Using these 5 strategies you can develop your independent thinking ability.
1. Disconnect from sources of conventional thinking
Instead of plugging into your TV, PC, or library for answers, think for yourself first. Without cutting yourself off from the world, you can increase your capacity for independent thought by limiting the conventional opinion you absorb. This means reducing the media you consume and the level of devotion you give to it. Independent thinkers aren’t necessarily contrarian, but they don’t agree with the status quo by default. They devise new criteria for perceiving the world rather than seeing everything through the screen of their computer.
2. Immerse yourself in experiences that conflict with your current perspective
Instead of substituting a new conventional thought for the old one, deliberately seek out experiences that challenge your views. These experiences may exist in foreign cultures, unusual subcultures, or between the pages of a book you disagree with. The point is not to adopt a new train of thought, but to disrupt the conventional railroad.
3. Watch the process from a distance
Leaving your normal life behind can give you the freedom to see issues from another perspective. Watching the world instead of eating it up gives you the peace of mind to think for yourself. Standing still from time to time gives you the opportunity to ridicule your own beliefs and explore new angles.
4. Randomize your sensory inputs
Instead of visiting the same places, eating the same foods, and talking to the same people, you can actively pursue new experiences. Many people cling to the familiar to simplify decisions and create a sense of security. If you truly want to think independently, you need to get outside your comfort zone.
5. Practice disbelief
Without becoming a cynic, you can develop the habit of instinctively distrusting thoughts that rely on conventional wisdom. Instead of assuming that these “truths” are self evident, suspend judgement until you’ve have confirmed that there is reality behind the logic.
If all of this sounds too difficult, consider what can be gained from independent thought. Even microscopic steps towards thinking independently will increase your contribution to the world. You will see opportunities and solutions that others overlook. You will obtain a competitive advantage over less creative thinkers. Most importantly, your thoughts will be your own and not just recycled media.
Think independently and you create a world of limitless opportunity. But don’t take my word for it…find out for yourself.
Tom O’Leary is an Australian Alien living in Japan. He considers his life a safari and the goal of his journey is to reach his personal potential. He writes about this and other areas of personal development at www.lifegoalaction.com.
(10 votes, average: 4.4 out of 5)
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Great articles. Independent thought usually come to me when I am alone, when I am not connected to anything but thinking about an event, like war in Iraq and such. One of the most ridiculous ‘independent’ (or media influenced) is to create Gundam (a robot from an anime series) and destroy every single nuclear warheads available in this planet.
Independent eh?
Anyway, the link to this author’s blog is broken. You should fix it to avoid any problem.
Abdul Rahman
Thanks for the inspiration this morning; definitely will help me cook up some original thoughts at work.
[…] ones obsessed with stupid ideas. If you’re interested in thinking for yourself try reading 5 Ways to Develop Independent Thought, a guest post by Tom O’Leary at Pick The Brain. Logically, when we think like everyone else […]
I really appreciate this post, thanks. #5 in particular is important to develop. I think skepticism can be practiced with a positive, curious attitude (”I’m interested in why we think/believe that”) that is very healthy and rewarding and not at all negative.
Very sound advice. Thanks for the great article.
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I agree with everything everybody has said.
[…] Lug 23rd, 2007 by viasenzanome Traduzione del post “5 modi per sviluppare il pensiero indipendente” di Tom O’Leary ospite su Pick The Brain. […]
[…] 5 Ways To Develop Independent Thought, comes from John Wesley at Pick The Brain and shows you don’t need to be a genius or even an intellectual to think independantly. […]
Independent thought -
Thank you for talking about this. It seems like such a basic notion, but for most of us, we don’t realize how much we fail to do this.
I wish there was an easy answer, at least for our students, but it seems like we’re stuck here, having to work out way out slowly.
But on that note, there is likely more independent thought than ever before. In the work that I do, I encounter a number of high school students that regularly impress me with what they think about.
But, on the flip side, I realize that the majority of students are just following the images they see on television.
So, where’s my independent thought?
Maybe there really isn’t any?
Thanks for the post. This reminds me to think twice before saying no - saying no to any wried ideas that pops up, saying no to suggestions that I have not heard of before, saying no to foreign experiences… Somehow we need a open mind and a big heart to think independently, right?
It his a great post. However, the fact that you listed ways to become an independent thinker makes all followers of this guide non-independent thinkers for instinctively following your views. They must find out way to achieve this on their own rather than use a simply-planned 5 step guideline. Nonetheless, this is a well thought out article (and I agree that we should not automatically conform to societal views) but the article should be used as a starting place for independent thought rather than a literal guide to be taken word for word.
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The emperor’s new post.
Well, not entirely but it appears to me that you take an altogether too simplified view of the world.
>Logically, when we think like everyone else is thinking, the best we can
> expect is to achieve what they’re already achieving.
I don’t logically agree.
We may think similarly, yet achieve better, through a process of refinement and evolutionary, if not revolutionary, progress.
Don’t dismiss this.
This evolutionary progress and refinement is very important.
It often doesn’t make as good a story, but many of the great achievements of humanity are the result of people working together, over time - the direct result of no single person’s genius, but of co-operation between many.
For if no two people are to think alike, how will the unity of purpose required to see through complex endeavor hope to be achieved?
>1. Disconnect from sources of conventional thinking
“If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.”
We make breakthroughs because the work done by others enables us not to repeat their time spent going down blind alleys.
While we should certainly keep a critical view point, we should strive to learn as much as possible from the experiences of others. By educating ourselves as to the opinions of others we learn faster and broader than if we go it alone.
>Instead of substituting a new conventional thought for the old one, >deliberately seek out experiences that challenge your views. These >experiences may exist in foreign cultures, unusual subcultures, or >between the pages of a book you disagree with. The point is not to adopt a >new train of thought, but to disrupt the conventional railroad.
This is a nice metaphor, but the metaphor seems to be more important to the writer than the clarity of meaning behind it, or indeed, a desire to make sense?
Don’t deliberately seek out experiences than challenge your views. Seek out experiences, period, and don’t refuse to embrace them because they challenge your views. Don’t assign any extra value to something because it is different than what you are used to, but judge it on it’s own merits.
If we each explored the world from first principle, rather than relying on the past results and learned wisdom of others, we would essentially have no complex technology, and our philosophy and education would be at the same level as the caveman.
While I completely agree that we must learn to think critically about the world, and about the sources of information that we choose to believe and consume, the approach advocated here - little short of throwing them out and starting from scratch - is not the answer.
The key is expending effort to ensure we choose to believe the right sources of conventional wisdom and thinking, rather than trying to rethink everyone from the start.
IF everyone decided to eat their shoes, we wouldn’t travel very far.
[…] the article. […]
[…] http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/5-ways-to-develop-independent-thought/ […]
I agree with Frank.
>”the fact that you listed ways to become an independent thinker makes all followers of this guide non-independent thinkers for instinctively following your views.”
This applies for every time we ask the question “how do I do it?”, especially to someone else (or get that answer from a book or website). Because the moment we ask “how” we will get a system and then we will start following it instead of independently thinking as to how to solve the problem.
We should also ask ourselves whether independent thinking is required. What is wrong in following the collective intelligence? Is it really true that independent thinking will help us achieve “substantial leaps in performance” as the author claims. By asking ourselves the question, we might get an answer “yes - independent thinking is required because …” or “no, collective intelligence is better because …”. Then in the answer you will find the strategies to develop independent thinking (or contribute to collective intelligence).
everyone needs a “thinking chair”, get a nice comfortable chair and place it in a part of your room thats not facing your tv, computer or any other distractions and go into your mind
I enjoyed reading this article a lot, I made me think and I hope others will do the same!
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[…] From Pick IN the Brain: A classroom full of 10-year-old students is asked to solve a problem with children crossing the street on the way to school. The children come up with ideas that have been used successfully in other places: traffic calming devices, overpasses, fluorescent jackets and speed limits. All these ideas are conventional, exactly what the teacher wants to hear. more… […]
[…] 5 Ways to Develop Independent Thought by pickthebrain.com. To me, independent thinking becomes more important as one grows older. Too bad independent thinking also gets harder to do as one ages and gets used to the world. […]
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[…] society has on nurturing (or in this case, hindering) independent thought at a young age. “5 Ways to Development Independent Thought” analyzes how different thinking is used today, and offers tips on building an individual […]
Some good tips, like the “conflict with your current perspective” need to start doing that with more books.
Guess comes down to “think for yourself, question authority” (Timothy O’Leary). Quite true the turn on your tv, pc etc through at times find can be quite stimulating taking apart a news program.
Cheers for a good article
I loved the article - and I would add one more thing - seek out other independent thinkers. You will expand your mind with thoughts you never dreamed of having, and you also get the acceptance that the “herd” will never give you…
Idea Block? Think Independently…
I found a great article on the effects society has on nurturing (or in this case, hindering) independent thought at a young age. “5 Ways to Development Independent Thought” analyzes how different thinking is used today, and offers tips on b…
A well written article. The education system currently is NOT designed to teach students how to either think or learn. It is designed solely to teach specific approved facts and opinions in a preset manner.
[…] The Brain. A good read and there are some very interesting discussions going on. The article “5 Ways to Develop Independent Thought” at Pick The Brain did make a stir and today Tom is giving some tips on How to Market Yourself […]
boundary dissolution through
~~~Psychedelics~~~
Mushrooms especially.
[…] a healthy readership for a site less than a week old. Earlier in the week I wrote an article on Independent Thinking which I gave to an excellent site called Pick the Brain. This article caused quite a stir and […]
Isn’t it amazing how there isn’t one institution you can rely upon to teach a kid how to think? Colleges enable students to GET a good job…nothing teaches students how to DO a good job anymore.
The biggest deprivation for independent thought is lack of encouragement.
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Guy’s a %100 right. Independent thought is the best and is how all new innovations come about.
When my animated series, SCAF hit TV-you’re gonna see a ton of that. *thumbs up*
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Great post. Thinking for yourself is something you HAVE to do if you want to be successful.99% of people give you advice you should completely ignore.
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[…] Developing Independent Thought August 12, 2007 Posted by Brian in Uncategorized. trackback We’re up to our necks in research, Web 2.0 shenanigans and all the ideas we want to be ours but are already taken. It’s hard to just begin thinking out of the box, but here’s a step in the right direction (from one of my favorite self-improvement blogs): Five Ways to Develop Independent Thought […]
[…] 5 Ways to Develop Independent Thought by Tom O’Leary. The way we think greatly affects our life. Unfortunately, we are far too often bound by the conventional wisdom which is a great obstacle for progress. So we need to develop independent thought. […]
Do we really understand what independent thinking is? Who defines it? and what makes it independent? there can be new innovative and independent concepts based on your thinking. As with small kids they are just curious and they want to burn their hands in everything in and around them. They are independent thinkers, well I have my reservations.
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Stepping out of your comfort zone for new experiences feels akward in the beginning. But after you have had the new experience you feel alive and everything you have become used to becomes somewhat bland. Soon after, you begin to seek small daily changes whenever you can and life is wonderful.
great list, but i disagree, in part, with number 4. limiting sensory intake can greatly increase introspection, allowing for a wide range of independent thought. stepping out of one’s comfort zone can mean slowing down and introverting, especially if one has an extroverted personality. try slowing down your life to as near a standstill as you can and you will most definitely gain new perspectives.
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I would have appreciated this article more is the writer showed more practical examples and acknowledgment of the many great true Independent Thinkers in human history.
Modeling is also a great tool. When I think of Independent Thought I think of the many Great humans that have lived on this Earth. One thing that they all seem to have in common is that on some level they Thought Independently. This can be learned.
They looked at a situation, a way of thinking (challenging conventional beliefs), a problem (unaware by others), an opportunity, as a platform or a chance to achieve something better. They come from all environments, backgrounds, and cultures. They are our Artists, Scholars, Athletes, Scientists, Architects, and so much more. I believe that independent thought is a necessary ingredient for continued Human evolution.
[…] 5 Ways to Develop Independent Thought - Tom O’Leary at PickTheBrain writes a post on how to think independently. […]
[…] For you to be able to be okay with being alone, you have to be okay with yourself. That is why it is sometimes easier for women to get dressed up and look their best before they go. As for men, they usually do not have issues with being alone. They can be alone, they can eat alone, they can sleep alone and so on. Men do not have security issues like women. If you truly dislike being alone, you can spend more time with loved ones, but you will never know how it feels to be independent. […]
Independent thought is crucial to success. If most people are not succeeding then conventional wisdom obviously is not enough. We need free thinking creative individuals to help us learn to become successful. Come join us in our continuing efforts to discover the secrets of success.
These issues are good but not enghough and
i try improve them in future ….
[…] society has on nurturing (or in this case, hindering) independent thought at a young age. “5 Ways to Development Independent Thought” analyzes how different thinking is used today, and offers tips on building an individual […]
‘You will see opportunities and solutions that others overlook. You will obtain a competitive advantage over less creative thinkers’
This, to me, does not sound very original, creative, or constructive. So is the purpose of all of this advice here just to prove to ourselves and others that we are better than everyone else (and can exploit and take advantage of them in the process)? If this is the case, then Tom O’Leary you are NOT an independent thinker, just another mindless drone who has fallen for the lie that, in order to be ’successful’ (how society has defined that term, i.e. a greedy, selfish and self-absorbed multi-millionaire - like Paris Hilton) one needs to compete with, and if possible, impoverish and disempower one’s ‘opponents’.
Apart from this major flaw, the advice is actually good. It’s a shame that he had to ruin it like this at the end.
[…] not free to be yourself, you’re not free. If you’re independently wealthy but not independent in thought, you’re not free. If you’re maintaining control without finding contentment, […]
[…] not free to be yourself, you’re not free. If you’re independently wealthy but not independent in thought, you’re not free. If you’re maintaining control without finding contentment, […]