Thinking about thinking

Chapter 281

This is the best part of the day, coffee, peanut butter, Nutella, a beautiful computer and thinking. Not necessarily the best thinking in the world, but it is a fine start to most days. The coffee PB and Nutella is world class even when my thinking is not. Thinking is difficult and always twice as difficult when I am in Georgia and only able to give it partial attention. Thinking, at least good thinking, requires twice the focus that normal living does. Chessmasters burn thousands of calories as they sit motionless for hours thinking about their next move. That brain of yours might be the largest muscle in your body! In many of the people I meet in the world it is also one of the least exercised.

Thinking is hard work and few people want to do it regularly. I reward myself enthusiastically just for thinking about thinking. If I don’t then it probably would never get attempted because it is just that challenging. It is not the type of thing that hardly anyone does for fun, nor would choose to do for leisure because it is not a leisurely activity. Put it in the same category as digging ditches and cleaning the bathrooms and oven.

But the benefits are outstanding if you venture here. Clarity clarity clarity is the best one, and you won’t be disappointed except when you realize how little clarity you had before! The second best benefit to me is that it warms your mental engine for other activities. There are lots of things I need to use my brain for in addition to just thinking - intellectual conversation, writing, research, planning and etc etc. Give it a go and you might just change your life forever.