Assignment:
In relation to first reading, analyze how your issue is "thinkable" in the author's definition.
When one faces a problem, one must always ask whether the problem is thinkable. Not every idea or concept is thinkable. Moreover, every thinkable idea deserves its own duration of time in your mind.
Our senses furnish the mind only with materials of information; it is our thinking that converts information we receive to our useful knowledge for decision making. Decision-making is described as the economy of thinking. There are six steps that must be considered in making a good decision. The steps are as follows:
- Is it thinkable? Is your problem thinkable?
- Is it my business? Is it really necessary for you to think about it? It seems like one of the hardest lessons to be learned in life is where your business ends and somebody else's begins. The moment a question comes to your mind, see yourself mentally taking hold of it and disposing of it. In that moment is your choice made. You learn to become the decider and not the vacillator.
- Do you have enough explicit information to start your strategic thinking? Information can be classified as explicit and tacit forms. The explicit information can be explained in structured form, while tacit information is inconsistent and fuzzy to explain. A good thinking resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information.
- How long should I think about it? The key is in not "spending" time, but in "investing" it. Thinking does not stay in some minds very long because unfortunately they do not like solitary confinement that is needed.Decision does not just happen; it takes reflection and thought. Reflection time must be built into the decision process allowing ample time to ponder and rethink. For many people, unfortunately, the expectation that responding immediately is far more important than responding thoughtfully for many.
- Implementation - taking action. Thinking without action is daydreaming. To think too long about doing a thing often becomes its undoing.
- Monitoring my action. Since everything changes, to be in control of my problem I have to adapt and update my thinking. The art of life is a constant readjustment to our situation.
Following the above thinking process with its many loops, then it is very likely that good ideas spring into being in response to your analytical probing. This analytical thinking is the most powerful tool for the mind. Without this, recurrence relation will keep coming back to your mind to haunt you.
Mind maintains, and holds whatever has been put on it during the last few minutes. It holds and works on it, unless we replace by something new. Therefore, in order not to think about what is not worthy one must start thinking about something else immediately. That is the hygiene for the mind.
The crux is noticed in Alices' Adventures in Wonderland: " ' How am I to get in?' asked Alice again, in a louder tone. 'Are you to get in at all?' said the Footman, 'That's the first question, you know.' "
Remember that most people waste most of their time every day majoring in minors. Time is of no account with great thoughts. Obviously, the basic problem is this: Law firms, which bill by the hour, are more profitable when less efficient. As Goethe said, "Things, which matter most, must never be at the mercy of things which matter least." Time is the scarcest resource and unless it is managed nothing else can be managed.
If you work on a nonexistent problem there are much fewer obstacles to overcome. To accomplish something noteworthy, we should look to do something worth the effort unless we are trying to relax. In times of leisure, nonexistent problems usually need to be sought out!
Here is an example of an unthinkable question/problem. Is there an after life? This question is not thinkable. You must think about it as much as you think about "life before life." We can ask primal questions, but we can never stand near the beginning or the end.
In other cases, the questions are thinkable, however, one "wishes" not even raise any doubt about them that invoke strategic thinking. These cases include, e.g., our deepest beliefs. And in many cases, one even deliberately changes the perception of the problem in order that it suits ones preconceived desirable decision. This is unfortunate, but people lie much more to themselves than to others.