The Independent Thinker Written by
Patrick King
Narrated by Russell Newton.
What does it really mean to be an
independent thinker?
In the spirit of originality,
let’s begin not with the perspective
of this book’s author,
but with yours.
When you opened this book,
you had a few expectations about what
you’d find inside,
as well as some idea of why you were
reading such a book.
These expectations may be unconscious,
or you may be more aware of them.
But whatever they are,
they’re an excellent starting point
for the themes and ideas we’ll be
exploring in the chapters that follow.
The Levels Of Mastering Independent
Thought.
In choosing this book,
you’ve already shown a desire for,
or interest in,
independent thought.
Some part of you is already independent.
And yet,
ironically,
in picking up a book that guides and
teaches you how to be more independent,
you must necessarily already lack this
characteristic.
If you were truly independent,
you would not need the book,
right?
Take a moment to imagine in your
mind’s eye everything you associate
with an “independent thinker."
Imagine it now,
before you read on.
Imagine what it looks like,
sounds like,
and how you envision you’ll be once
you are a more critical thinker,
a more authentic individual and
self-governing agent able to live in
the integrity of their ideals,
instead of other people’s.
Now,
this somewhat disheartening start is
simply to illustrate that many people
are merely imitating autonomy in the
personal development world.
They have a picture of what they think
this looks like,
and they try their best to perform that
image.
Level 1 - A Patchwork Identity.
Maybe in your mind,
you’re attracted to the “cool
guy” aesthetic that certain
celebrities,
authority figures,
historical personages and fictional
characters put forward.
Maybe you like the attitude of the
rebel,
who is confident,
a little arrogant,
and so,
so appealing.
Maybe,
without realizing it,
you mimic the mannerisms,
beliefs,
thoughts,
and speech patterns of people you
admire.
Or maybe you buy into certain shared
cultural ideals of what intelligent,
independent,
enterprising or creative people ought
to look like.
Teenagers are masters at mimicry and
creating patchwork identities from bits
and pieces they find in their world.
It’s as though you show up to the
great Identity Marketplace,
being a blank slate yourself,
and pick and choose the costume and
role you like best.
It’s not a personality so much as a
curated collection.
While a 13-year-old going through a
goth phase in the 90s may be a blatant
example of this,
we all do it to some extent.
We even do this when we’re explicitly
trying not to do it (i.e.,
“I want to be a truly unique
individual!
Now,
let’s Google some other people who
are doing that and see how it’s
done…”).
This is the first level on the path of
independent thinking.
Level 2 - Developing trust in the self.
If you’ve been in level 1 for any
length of time,
you’ll notice something obvious -
it’s uncomfortable,
and it doesn’t really “work."
You don’t feel like yourself because
you aren’t yourself.
No matter how compelling and
well-crafted the patchwork is,
it’s still just a mask,
and it doesn’t contain you.
Now,
this isn’t a problem.
Humans are social creatures,
and imitation is a normal and healthy
part of engaging the external world.
But eventually,
as we develop and mature into our
authentic selves,
imitation is not enough.
In level 2,
you gradually experiment with being and
acting in the world as yourself,
without a mask and the influence of
other people.
You begin to tire of other people’s
filters and interpretations and become
curious about your own,
which you realize are valid.
In all honesty,
becoming an independent thinker can
feel scary,
awkward and outright weird.
It can also feel lonely,
like you are suddenly far away from the
warm,
comfortable crowd and have to suddenly
take full responsibility for your own
reality.
So,
in this stage,
you are experimenting with being more
independent,
falling back into convention,
playing with trial and error to test
your perceptions,
and developing resilience for being
truly autonomous (yes,
autonomy is a muscle that needs to be
strengthened!).
You realize that dependence on the
external has its advantages and that it
comes with a cost.
While it can be intimidating to tune
out other people’s opinions,
culture,
society’s expectations and so on,
it can also be incredibly rewarding to
remind yourself of your own sense of
right and wrong,
your innate feeling of what you want,
and your deepest core values.
Level 2 can be tricky,
because it’s here that we start to
encounter our own mindsets,
biases and assumptions at a level
deeper than their superficial
presentation.
We realize that we,
like everyone else,
possess a reality filter.
We don’t encounter reality,
but reality as it appears after it’s
been pushed through this filter.
The filter takes shape according to our
past experiences,
family history,
cultural environment,
religion,
education,
the historical period we live in,
and class… .
We all take in the same data,
but we come to different
interpretations of what that data means
because of our different perspectives.
The question at level 2 is,
are the filters working for you?
What do you want the filters to be?
Can you live without filters at all…?
Level 3 - Truly independent thought.
Follow that line of reasoning long
enough,
and you start to understand something
important - choice.
As an individual,
you can choose what material you take
in,
choose how you respond to it,
and choose what you wish to create and
put out into the world.
And in that act of choosing,
you express and experience your own
perspective,
desires,
and will.
When you choose,
you self-create.
When you allow others to choose for
you,
then they create you.
When we are independent thinkers,
we have our own weight and gravity,
and stand strong in ourselves,
regardless of what others are doing or
thinking.
We are tuned into our inner compass,
values,
and selfhood.
We look within and evaluate actions and
ideas according to our own criteria,
and not criteria we’ve borrowed from
others or had foisted on us when too
young to realize.
We are free,
and we are consciously participating in
our life rather than passively
receiving it,
pre-digested by others.
We take responsibility for our
worldview and perspective (yes –
it’s our responsibility to know and
maintain the state of being we choose)
and engage with the external world with
an unshakeable sense of our own dignity
and value.
We are comfortable testing our own
assumptions and the assumptions of
others.
We don’t just think but reflect on
our thinking (i.e.,
metacognition),
and we realize that we always have the
power to choose our behaviors,
thoughts and beliefs.
We try to understand things from the
inside out rather than happily
believing everything we’re told.
We are no longer an echo of someone
else’s values or actions or
perspectives,
but our own original voice.
Sounds great,
right?
“Think for yourself” is something
people say,
but it is an incredibly difficult thing
to do.
The world is filled with readymade
opinions,
untested assumptions,
unintelligent biases,
lazy thinking,
denial,
escapism,
imitation,
and unchecked ego.
Ask yourself,
when was the last time you had a truly
independent thought?
Something that your own mind generated,
and which didn’t come directly from
more forceful personalities and
ideologies around you?
The conventional,
unadventurous thinker goes out into the
world and asks,
“what are the rules of the game here?
What am I supposed to be doing?"
In this way,
he passively asks for the external
world to tell him what to value,
focus on,
feel,
and want.
The independent thinker goes out into
the same world and instead asks,
“what can I create here?
What’s happening,
and how can I learn more about it?
What could potentially be?
What do I want to do?"
There is only one way to think and be
for conventional thinkers,
and they figure that out by looking
outside themselves - other people’s
opinions,
culture,
politics,
whatever.
But to think independently,
you need to turn within and generate
your own original response,
your own authentic perspective and your
own view on life.
This is infinitely more valuable than
anything you’ve simply been told,
because you value yourself,
and you trust what you know,
and what you’re capable of.
It's a guarantee that almost all the
content you encounter out there in the
world is,
essentially,
telling you what to do,
think,
feel,
or focus on.
News headlines,
social media noise,
junk on the T. V.,
advertising pasted on every square inch
of your life,
peer pressure,
endless political squabbling... You
just drift along and go with it without
your own independent thought.
But the next time you see a talking
head on a pixelated screen,
realize that you have a choice.
You can become conscious in that moment
and ask yourself,
“this is what this person is creating.
That’s them.
But what do I think?
What do I want to create?"
Independent is not the Same as
Contrarian.
When I was a teenager and just becoming
aware of the possibility of independent
thinking,
I got into the habit of mistaking
cynicism and distrust for critical
thinking.
I had correctly learnt that the media
often lied,
and so every time someone mentioned a
news article,
I would say something like,
“come on,
you don’t honestly believe everything
you read,
right?"
This annoying habit had come from the
unconscious belief that if I wanted to
stand apart and be independent,
all I had to do was push against the
popular opinion.
I would never have admitted it at the
time,
but I assumed that intelligent,
switched-on people were necessarily
argumentative and oppositional.
However,
I was a contrarian,
and not a truly independent thinker.
What’s the difference?
The clue is in the name - a contrarian
is contrary to,
or against something.
You know the bratty two-year-old who
will tell you the sky isn’t blue just
because you said it is?
This is the position that has,
as its essence,
the fact that it’s not some other
position,
but that’s all it is.
It’s the “anti” position.
However,
an independent thinker forms their
opinions and ideas from scratch,
not merely in opposition.
They do not care about what they
disagree with or dislike.
For them,
critical thinking is not a competition
with a winner or a loser.
Something within them guides the
formation of their opinions – their
own experience,
logic,
reasoning,
desires and values.
Sure,
the outcome is often at odds with
convention.
But being at odds is not the goal.
There’s usually a hearty dose of
emotional bias,
excitement,
passion,
or ego driving their resistance for a
contrarian.
For independent thinkers,
though,
the thought process is less flashy,
more reason-driven,
and,
well,
not as glamorous!
Meanwhile,
for contrarians,
the goal may be to bolster a certain
ego-image,
or it may be a deeply unconscious
psychological need to dominate,
to be heard,
to stand out,
or to protect against assumed attack.
The focus and direction of such
thinking is external – it pushes
against other people and attempts to
certainly affect other people.
Some find them fun and interesting and
creative and brave,
while others find them annoying and get
tangled in arguments with them.
But for independent thinkers,
other people are… beside the point.
The goal is to understand.
To figure things out.
What other people think?
Largely irrelevant.
Now,
contrarians and independent thinkers
often arrive at the same conclusions,
but the question is why they end up
there.
They’ll often do the same actions
(for example,
“question everything”)
but for very different reasons.
Often,
a genuinely independent thinker will
win the admiration of others,
who then attempt to mimic that person
(see level 1 above)
and attach themselves to that worldview
to be contrarian.
But the independent thinker does not
consider the popularity of his position
as an indication of its value – he
isn’t interested in fame,
but he also doesn’t relish notoriety!
The Fundamentals Of Independent Thought.
Let’s look at ways to develop
autonomous,
critical thinking in ourselves.
Independent thinking is not a
personality trait or fixed behaviors
but a continually refined attitude
expressed in habits.
Habit 1 - Critical reading.
To practice and strengthen your ability
to generate your own opinion,
you need to take in information from
various sources and engage with it.
Passive reading merely absorbs the
content with no individual response.
But critical reading is where you
practice passing the material through
your filters,
turn it over in your mind,
and examine it on many levels.
There are two ways to read - Reading
the words (i.e.,
comprehending the surface level meaning
being conveyed),
and.
Reading beyond the words (i.e.,
not automatically assuming the words
are a perfect and truthful
representation of reality,
and becoming curious about how and why
the words have been written as they
have).
For example,
you may read a popular current events
magazine piece about the dazzling new
frontiers of cryptocurrencies and how
tech empires are being built to reshape
the digital world.
If you are just reading the words,
you merely try to comprehend and absorb
the material as it’s given.
You assume the excitement and optimism
in the piece is natural and obvious,
and the author’s opinion is an
objective reflection that this topic is
exciting.
At the end of the piece,
you think what the author thinks.
Or you could read the words,
and also read what isn’t written -
What is fact,
and what is just presented as fact?
What are the assumptions the author is
making?
In what ways is the reader being led,
convicted or even manipulated?
Why was this piece published and not
literally any other piece?
Who is this author,
and what is their incentive –
economically,
psychologically or culturally?
Who benefits from you reading this
article and going along with its
premise?
What is the evidence for the view being
put forward?
Independent of what the author thinks,
what do you think about this topic?
You could read to find out what other
people’s opinions are so that you can
have them too.
Or you can read to gather information,
analyze it,
and use it to inform your own position.
It’s a mistake to think that
“critical reading” means exposing
yourself only to that material you
already like and agree with.
But an independent thinker is not
threatened by low-quality or
challenging information – because
they trust their ability to appraise
and evaluate whatever is in front of
them.
Habit 2 - Not getting too fond of your
own perspective.
Don’t be the person who finds their
position and then clings onto it
forever after,
no matter what.
Humans have a natural bias for
protecting and defending the opinions
they already hold.
They naturally seek information that
confirms these opinions,
and work hard to discount everything
that directly challenges it.
To be an independent thinker,
you need to get into the habit of
poking holes in these cherished
opinions.
Now,
this is not a cognitive or intellectual
exercise.
It’s a psychological one.
Most people have ample brain power to
see the plain truth.
However,
even ultra-intelligent people
jeopardize themselves when allowing
bias,
ego and fear to control them.
Getting too attached to your
perspective means you don’t abandon
it when you should – i.e.,
when confronted with ample evidence
that something is rubbish.
Many people like to style themselves as
smart philosopher types yet only seem
to invoke their vast intellectual
powers to reinforce sloppy beliefs and
opinions they formed without a second
thought.
Be independent of other people’s
opinions,
but free yourself from the chains of
your own outdated opinions,
too.
This takes two things - humility and
curiosity.
Thinking novel,
original thoughts means we have to go
outside our comfort zone.
The biggest threat to generating a
truly unique and new idea is the
assumption that you have the best idea
already!
Independent thinkers can think outside
themselves and try different worldviews
for size.
They genuinely want to see the world
through the eyes of people different
from them.
That means that they don’t engage
others to argue or win them over but to
actively expand their own understanding.
They don’t read new material,
get into conversations about the idea
that they need to defend themselves,
or forcefully make their point until
the other person recognizes them as the
winner!
Habit 3 - Being O. K. With Being
Disliked.
Independent thinking means thinking
that is not dependent.
But,
dependent on what?
The thoughts,
opinions,
reactions or behavior of others.
So,
you think what you think even if other
people don’t agree,
don’t understand,
or actively don’t like you because of
it.
It comes down to how you view the
purpose of thinking - For conventional
thinkers,
an opinion or thought is an identity
marker,
or a stick to beat others with.
It’s something done to win other
people’s approval or comply with
norms and fashions.
They engage at the superficial level,
i.e.,
within the realm of other people’s
thoughts about reality.
For independent thinkers,
the primary goal is always to learn,
understand,
and directly engage with reality.
Therefore,
having their thoughts and opinions
disliked is not a problem.
It’s far more satisfying to be
respected than to be liked.
Being the same as people around you can
outwardly make you feel safe and
accepted.
Isn’t it better to witness and
appreciate the differences in one
another and still respect them and
cooperate,
not in spite of differences,
but because of them?
Mature adults can disagree without it
threatening their relationship or
causing trouble.
They also don’t expect everyone else
to be identical to them as a condition
of their friendship or affection.
They enjoy and relish challenges and
differences.
They like the friction and find it
useful and generative.
A group where everyone thinks the same
is not experiencing true harmony and
closeness;
rather,
they have all merely agreed to mimic
one another in non-threatening ways.
There is one big difference between the
contrarian thinker and the independent
one - the ego.
For the former,
the most important is the ego,
and their way of thinking and being in
the world is present to serve that.
Meanwhile,
the most important thing is genuine
insight,
understanding,
creativity,
and mastery for the latter.
If the selfish ego hinders that,
then that ego is dropped,
every time.
Habit 4 - Always staying curious.
The ego wants to have all the answers,
like a precious possession to be
hoarded and guarded from others.
Conventional thinkers prefer the
feeling of being seen to be right than
they do actually being right.
One final habit that sets independent
thinkers apart is their commitment to
curiosity,
instead of clinging to assumed
“facts” and never questioning them.
Genuinely questioning the world is a
lot harder than it looks.
How many of us assume that if someone
quotes a scientific paper in their
argument,
this is automatically sound and has to
be accepted?
How many of us see statistics and
assume that it is correct – because
numbers are more trustworthy than
words,
right?
How many of us believe that if a Doctor
of Philosophy expert in their field
says something,
it must be true?
Well,
this information may be true.
But if it is true,
it’s not because it was in the right
publication,
or written by the right author,
using the right terminology.
It’s true because we could find
enough sound evidence to support the
fact.
This is a subtle but major distinction.
As independent thinkers,
we question everything,
including the ingrained and culturally
sanctioned methods of questioning what
others have taught us!
You are most at risk for sloppy and
useless thinking when you are most
blind to your own shortcuts,
assumptions,
prejudices or expectations.
It’s great to challenge all the
biases you’re already familiar with,
but what about all those biases
currently invisible to you?
How are you going to uncover them?
Independent thinkers are driven not by
the desire to conform and win
everyone’s approval,
but they are also not reacting
defiantly by being automatic rebels.
Instead,
they care most about real,
valuable ideas,
thoughts they generate themselves,
and using that power of thought to its
maximum potential.
Independent thinkers are driven by a
passion far greater and more lasting
than the compulsion to aggrandize the
self – they want to improve in life,
learn,
grow,
and bring illumination and
understanding to the world in general.
It’s a much bigger prize,
isn’t it?
What independent thinking actually
looks like.
At this point,
let’s clarify a few characteristics
of the independent thinker -
•They can gain awareness of their own
thinking as thinking,
and take conscious control over it
rather than passively and unconsciously
going along with others.
•They trust their own perceptions,
will,
desires and interpretations and do not
automatically privilege other people's
over their own.
•They are comfortable going outside
their comfort zone,
and don’t mind admitting errors or
being disliked for their positions.
•They take in enormous amounts of
information but actively engage with
it,
not just on a superficial level but
also critically.
•They know their cognitive biases,
expectations,
blind spots,
and the ever-present ego and try to
minimize any disturbance to their
genuine understanding.
A conventional thinker occupies a
mental model unconsciously,
and the model they use may be something
of someone else’s creation.
An independent thinker knows many
mental models,
and owns their responsibility to choose
which one to occupy,
and for what reasons.
This section will look at a few key
historical figures who are broadly
considered to embody the above
characteristics.
These thinkers and theorists have
demonstrated thoughts and opinions so
genuinely novel and independent,
that they always have changed the
course of history or else drastically
broadened the existing paradigm.
But in reading about these people,
we are not trying to answer the
question,
“how can I be more like them?"
That is simply level 1 thinking!
Instead,
we want to see what we can learn from
their experience,
and understand what it says about our
own.
You may wonder if independent thinkers
are always philosophers and scientists.
Independent thinking can manifest as
the scientific method,
but this is not all it is.
Seeking evidence,
establishing the truth through
experiment and falsifiability,
and using reason and logic are all used
in the sciences,
but they are more rightly a part of a
broader approach to reality.
You need not be a scientist to be an
independent thinker!
As long as you are questing for deeper
understanding and will consider your
role in the equation,
so to speak,
then you are a critical and independent
thinker.
The people we’ll discuss below all
liberally used analytical,
logical,
conscious,
and reflexive mental models.
These models gave them a richer and
more lively perspective on reality than
people who merely swallowed convention
without a second thought.
You could argue that independent
thinking should just be called…
thinking.
Everything else is a knee-jerk
reaction,
habit,
ego,
coping mechanism or piece of culture.
Let’s see what we can learn from the
independent thinking heavyweights.
Socrates – teaches us about
challenging assumptions.
Socrates was basically a one-trick pony.
That trick?
Asking questions.
That’s it.
Socrates wanted to understand.
He wanted to dig dep,
and when he thought he found an answer,
he questioned that.
He knew that correctly honed mental
faculties were humanity’s saving
grace,
and he took it as his mission to use
dialogue,
logic and reason to uncover the truth.
Besides Socrates’ philosophy,
he was known for what’s now called
Socratic dialogue.
Reality is revealed to us when we
engage with our ignorance.
In curiosity,
we ask questions,
and keep on asking them.
We question even our questions,
and our means of interpreting the
answers.
We start from the bare bones,
assume nothing,
and take small logical steps to
discover what we absolutely can know.
Socrates would demonstrate this
dialectic to uncover hidden assumptions
in a literal conversation.
Step by step,
the Truth is revealed.
In classical Socratic dialogues,
two people discuss higher concepts like
virtue,
the nature of knowledge,
and art.
But we can use a similar approach to
uncover assumptions in our everyday
lives.
We can ask questions such as - “What
do I mean by X. Y. Z. ?"
(what assumptions have I made about
definitions?)
“What is my evidence for thinking
this?"
(do I have any reason to believe it?)
“What do I know here?"
(and what am I simply guessing?)
“What am I (or you)
not seeing?"
(I may have made an error by omission)
Getting a handle on your own
assumptions means being willing to
think from scratch.
Consider even what you think is obvious
and ask,
is it really that obvious?
Is it a given?
You might ask yourself a series of the
above questions five times in a row to
get to the root of your deepest held
assumptions.
This process might not illuminate the
truth,
but it will show you more clearly any
impediments to seeing that truth!
“I think I’ve got cancer."
Is that so?
“Well,
I’ve got this weird lump,
and I know what that means… cancer!"
Does a lump always mean you have cancer?
“Well,
I don’t know.
But I’ve read that it’s a big
warning sign."
Is what you read absolute proof that
you have cancer right now?
“Well,
no,
obviously not.
But I could."
What is the evidence?
“There’s no evidence exactly…”
So,
what do you really know?
“Uh.
I guess the only thing I really know is
that I have a lump."
Niall Ferguson – teaches us the power
of counterfactual thinking.
Famously a historian who wrote about
alternative history (specifically,
what life would have been like if
Germany had won World War I. I. ),
author Niall Ferguson was a master of
using the all-powerful phrase,
what if?
Counterfactual thinking is an
out-the-box approach that is
intrinsically innovative and creative.
Every independent thinker must be
familiar with the process of seeing
what is… and being curious about what
isn’t.
For example,
in business,
you could use counterfactual thinking
to look at past failures and imagine
how things could have played out
differently,
thus devising an improved strategy that
prevents those mistakes in future.
If you’ve asked a question and gotten
a puzzling answer,
it’s counterfactual thinking that
helps you imagine what the right
question would look like.
This thinking style is a little strange
and unfamiliar to those used to working
only with what’s right in front of
them.
Still,
for those natural inventors and
creatives of the world,
thinking about what could be is as
important as thinking about what is.
When you ask what if,
you step out of your comfort zone,
drop all assumptions and pet theories,
and take a leap into the possible,
potential,
and theoretical.
This is where novel solutions are
found,
new ideas are explored,
and fresh views are taken on old
situations.
In a way,
Socrates was also a counterfactual
thinker in the sense that he repeatedly
asked,
“what if everything I think I know is
actually wrong?
What then?"
Friedrich Nietzsche – teaches us
about perspective.
Nietzsche was a philosopher who knew
how much ego stood in the way of
understanding,
and he made liberal use of teasing,
criticism and humor to poke holes in
the prevailing yet unexamined
ideologies of the time.
Rather than being a nihilist,
Nietzsche was instead keenly aware of
the fact that every person inhabits a
particularly conditioned perspective,
informed by where they’re born,
when,
how they’re educated,
who their parents are and what their
culture teaches them.
Unaware of their impact,
we are slaves to these influences.
But if we become aware of our
circumstances,
we give ourselves choice.
We master ourselves and the world at
large,
and become the creators of our
experience rather than at its mercy.
Nietzsche believed that one way to get
outside of these perspectives was to
liberally try on as many as possible,
and genuinely see the world through
other people’s lenses.
Nietzsche said,
“There is only a perspective seeing,
only a perspective "knowing";
and the more affects we allow to speak
about one thing,
the more eyes,
different eyes,
we can use to observe one thing,
the more complete will our "concept" of
this thing,
our "objectivity," be."
Thus,
all there is in the world for us as
human beings are different subjective
perspectives of that world.
But if we can appreciate as many
perspectives as possible,
we gain a richer and more intelligent
view of that world.
For Nietzsche,
there are no facts,
only interpretations,
and every person adopts their worldview
and mental models to serve their needs.
Our egoism is merely a narrowing of
perspective;
to free ourselves as much as possible,
we need to widen that perspective and
mix it up.
One great way to do this - find a point
of view that is diametrically opposed
to your own,
and pretend it is your own.
Make arguments for it.
Imagine that,
in its way,
it makes complete and perfect sense.
Genuinely engage with people who
disagree with you – imagine that in
doing so,
you are accessing another aspect of the
issue that you were previously blind to.
Your world becomes bigger.
Summary -
•Independent thinkers can think
logically,
clearly and autonomously,
outside the pressures of their
cultures,
upbringings,
past experiences or historical period.
They are conscious and aware,
rather than reactive and automatic,
and can truly think (and experience)
for themselves.
•Cultivating independent thought
takes time and effort.
The first stage is to assemble a
patchwork identity as an independent
thinker,
and mimic others we see around us.
The second stage is to gradually
develop trust in our own perceptions
and intellectual faculties,
while occasionally deferring to
convention.
The final step is truly independent
thought.
This free,
adventurous,
creative,
and proactive thought originates purely
within us.
•The fundamentals of critical thought
include learning to take in information
(especially reading)
critically,
dropping the ego so that you don’t
get stuck in any one perspective or
opinion,
having the bravery to be disliked for
being different,
and maintaining an open and receptive
rather than closed mind.
Conventional thinkers differ from
independent thinkers in their approach
to reality itself,
and how they see the function of
thinking.
For the former,
it’s to bolster the ego.
For the latter,
it’s for the thrill of encountering
reality directly.
•Independent thinking is a way of
being that can be practiced and
nurtured.
We do this by cultivating awareness,
dropping ego,
and learning to engage critically with
the information we take in.
This is not the same thing as being a
contrarian,
who goes against the grain merely to
rebel.
•Many famous independent thinkers
throughout history shed light on how we
might develop the capacity in ourselves.
Socrates teaches us the power of asking
questions and uncovering our
assumptions by taking nothing for
granted.
Niall Ferguson teaches us about
counterfactual thinking,
and imagining answers to the question
“what if?”,
and Nietzsche teaches us the value of
perspective-switching to enrich our
perception of the world.
This has been
The Independent Thinker Written by
Patrick King
Narrated by Russell Newton.