On Thinking and Systems

Fragments from imaginary dialogues

“How can I optimize Thinking?”

“Deconstruct it. Think of it as a system, identify its subsystems, and optimize each of them one by one.”

“What are the subsystems of the Thinking system?”

“This is a work in progress. The model at this stage, looks like this.

Filtering system
Processing system
Retrieval system

Viewed through the Input/Output filter, it looks like this:

Input
– Filtering system
– Integration system (Processing system)

Output
– Organization system (Processing system)
– Retrieval system

Each of these has subsystems of its own.

Filtering system

With this system, you limit and prioritize information.

Viewed through the Quality/Quantity filter, it has two components:

Quantity-Filtering: reducing the amount of information to process, by having macro-filters in place. I, for instance, have the Practical as a macro-filter, which gives me a clear focus and eliminates a huge amount of information. 

Quality-Filtering: focusing only on quality information. The quality of the output is dependent on the quality of the input. I’m very selective about the information I absorb.

Integration system

With this system, you improve the efficiency of information absorption, by extracting the essence of the information, and connecting it to the existing information. 

Organization system

With this system, you make the information usable. You’re essentially structuring it, through modelling and categorization.”

“What do you mean by modelling?”

“The intentional construction and refinement of conceptual mental models. 

Retrieval system

With this system, you make the information accessible. Not being able to access the information is almost the same as not having it. 

Intuition is key in this process, as it can navigate a huge amount of information in a heartbeat. But to optimally make use of it, you need to tell it what to look for. 

That’s where an essential system comes in:

Querying System: The Art of Asking Questions”

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