Hello, World!

Why Am I Doing This?

When you think about it, there’s a lot to think about! We can think about deep subjects, like science and philosophy, but we can also think about social, cultural, and political events and phenomena. We can think about our life and the way we are living it, as well as about our world and our place in it. And not to be forgotten, we can engage in “metathinking,” in which we think about the thinking process itself.

Many people, though, are thought-averse. Rather than thinking their way to conclusions, they prefer to feel their way; rather than relying on their head, they rely on their heart and gut. As a result, their minds fill with mistaken beliefs. Even worse, they tend to be overly confident of those beliefs, which increases the chance that they act on them. This can have tragic consequences, not only for them but for innocent bystanders.

People also have a tendency to outsource their thinking and let someone else think on their behalf; indeed, for many people, such behavior is the default. In some cases it is because they don’t feel confident in their reasoning ability. In very many cases, though, they are simply too lazy to think for themselves.

To better understand this phenomenon, it is useful to contrast physical and mental fitness. To become more physically fit, you must exercise, full stop. Yes, you can pay someone to act as your physical fitness coach, but no matter how much you pay them, they cannot exercise on your behalf. You can, however, pay someone to think on your behalf; indeed, lots of people will do it for free! They are happy to tell you what to think.

The problem is that these surrogate thinkers aren’t necessarily up to the task: Despite their confidence, they don’t know what they are talking about. They might also have selfish reasons for getting you to believe something: You are simply their dupe. And finally, realize that if you routinely let others think on your behalf, your reasoning ability will atrophy, making it even harder for you to think for yourself. As a result, you will end up in the intellectual equivalent of a death spiral.

We live in a time in which many people have outsourced their thinking. Such outsourcing has always been possible, but the arrival of social media has made it easier than ever. No matter what you believe, you can find someone on the internet who will tell you that you are right, thereby increasing your confidence in your quite-possibly-mistaken beliefs.

Do you ever get the feeling that the world around you has gone crazy? Me too. It is a consequence of the internet making it possible for us to surround ourselves with like-minded people as well as avoid and even vilify those who think differently. Realize, though, that there is a very good chance that the people you think have gone crazy feel the same about you. This makes it hard for people to have civil conversations about contentious issues, much less reach a compromise—which is unfortunate since civil discourse and compromise are the lifeblood of a democracy.

In this Substack, I will play the role of tour guide. Together we will think about things to which we customarily give little or no thought. We will also endeavor to think rather than feel our way to conclusions. In doing this, we will be thinking more.

As we explore the intellectual landscape, we will encounter a number of mental hazards. One is confirmation bias, which causes us to unhesitatingly accept evidence that supports our current beliefs and reject evidence that challenges them. Another hazard is our ego, which will blind us to our mistakes and intellectual shortcomings. By recognizing these hazards and taking steps to avoid them, we can think better.

Realize that my goal in this Substack is not to tell you what to think about the topics we consider. My goal is instead to help you develop your ability to reason your way to conclusions. Stated bluntly, I don’t care what you think, I care that you think!

I am confident that with a little effort, you can transform yourself into someone who habitually engages in evidence-based structured reasoning to reach conclusions—into the kind of person I refer to as a Thinker, with an uppercase T. I would be honored to play a role in helping you achieve this transformation.

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