Why How We Come to Conclusions Is More Important Than The Conclusions We Come To ($)

How you think is more important than what you think because how you think is the skill that creates your thoughts, while what you think is an idea that only exists in your imagination.

“The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks.”
― Christopher Hitchens, from Letters to a Young Contrarian (2009)

What is the “lubrication” that enables us to come to a smooth and balanced conclusion? When we’re confronted with a disturbance and get knocked out of our usual orbit, there are many places we might land. Some conclusions are more obvious, immediate, accommodating, reassuring, and comfortable. Some are more subtle, complex, destabilizing, and honest. What gets us past our confusion?

We make our first judgements based on what we think the choices require. We secondarily focus on the truth. But we rarely focus on the skills that enable us to think, feel, act, and be resolved.

Yet it is clear that if we cannot think, act, or feel resolved, then we can never commit to our conclusions. I am calling that “thing” that enables us to move through the thicket of our thoughts “lubrication.”

Lubrication

It’s not clear. Lubrication is not an idea or a thing, it’s an engagement. It’s about holding two or more thoughts in mind at once.

Consider how you learn anything. If it’s something new, you can’t understand it in an old way. But if it’s entirely new, then you can understand it at all. We learn by fitting round pegs into square holes and enduring the irritation until our boxes break. Real learning must change something, and this means passing through a place of not knowing. The longer you can stay in that place, the more you learn.

Lubrication is being able to retain your awareness in between the state of being attached and oriented, and being lost and confused. Understanding emerges from confusion, not from what you know.

Knowledge is a confusing term. Does it mean what you know or what’s known? And if you don’t know something, how can you be sure that anyone else does? And if you do know something, and it doesn’t work, then what do you really know?

I like thinking about the foundations of physics. I’ve read the explanations of hundreds of people, published over the course of 100 years, and still neither I nor anyone else has any more knowledge than I had on the first day the fundamentals of quantum mechanics were “explained” to me. And this includes all the celebrated physicists and their weighty, mathematical tomes on the subject.

This is a metaphor for many other puzzles we encounter, psychological ones in particular. Like these physicists, psychologists write weighty tomes that explain how we think. They are famous, they win awards, and they don’t know fuck-all.

At least the physicists admit it; those who really think about it. Good thinkers are always reticent, and that’s long been recognized. The challenge is this: how can you distinguish between a sage and a fraud? To whom should you listen? The answer is easy: no one.

I’m publishing my next book, “Instant Enlightenment: Awakening States of Mind.” One publisher graciously responded with a lengthy critique, the gist of which was that the book is disjointed and confusing. I should find test readers and start over.

“With school turning out more runners, jumpers, racers, tinkerers, grabbers, snatchers, fliers, and swimmers instead of examiners, critics, knowers, and imaginative creators, the word 'intellectual,' of course, became the swear word it deserved to be.”
― Ray Bradbury, from Fahrenheit 451

Charlie Townes, one of my physics mentors and the inventor of the laser, said that you should think seriously about criticism that comes from people you respect. And I did think seriously about this criticism until I realized that I didn’t respect this person. The publisher was basically saying, “I sell hammers, and your book is a pointy thing with a contraption at the end. Go back and create a heavy stick that’s good for bashing. That’s what readers want.”

Hammers and Screwdrivers

This is the way most people react to a new idea. To most of us, everything is a nail and we want a big hammer. When I offer you a light stick to turn your problems round and round, you give me a queer look and laugh.

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