Thinker 2

Fragments from imaginary dialogues

“I want to be a World-class Thinker.“

“What does that mean? Are you thinking in competitive terms?”

“Not at all. I’m thinking in ‘so good they can’t ignore you’ terms.

The beautiful thing about asking a question is that your mind starts working on it in the background. You’re initiating a creative process. I call this question-priming.

The bigger the question (big-questions), the longer and wider the process. I call this macro-priming.”

“By ‘longer’ I presume you mean temporally.”

“Yes. If the question is big enough, it can be a lifetime process. This can be used strategically and artfully to give your life direction. It’s akin to setting goals you can’t achieve. They’re not a destination, but a compass, a guide to action and thought. That’s what my Soul Quests [<link; long] are.”

“But what do you mean by ‘wider’?”

“I mean wider in scope. Exploring a wider possibility range. Notice the difference between these two statements:

I want to be a better Thinker.
I want to be a World-class Thinker.

The former aims for simply good enough.
The latter aims for nothing short of peak performance, exploring the limits of human potential.

The latter leads you to ask very different questions than the former.”

“Why do you want to become a World-class Thinker?”

“I LOVE thinking.

For me it’s an exquisite delight. Why that is has to do with my past.

Most of my life I lived in my own head. I was disembodied, and largely disconnected from reality. I’d jokingly written a while ago that, if I were to visually represent what the world looked like for me back then, it would be mostly empty space, and attractive women. This is something I’m still recovering from. By focusing too much on one system of my life, I’ve neglected other important life systems.

In hindsight however, despite the imbalance, and because of it, without realizing it, I was honing my thinking skills.

I’ve gotten good it.

Aimless and inefficient though it was, it was my Path, which led me to where I am today, and I’m grateful for it.”

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