I love when I discover real thinking–as opposed to the usual mental efforts to categorize and organize existing knowledge or to rationalize and justify what one already wants to believe. So I was very happy to find Herron Stone’s work online, and specifically, his development of a new language, r7ly5 (pronounced EarthLing). You can read [...]
Why “insight provoking questions?” Flickr photo by Jan Tik The more common expression is “thought provoking questions,” but I decided against that as a title after considering the definitions of “thought” and “insight.” Thought is: 1. The act or process of thinking. 2. A concept or idea. The definitions – and the meanings – are [...]
By Steve Gillman Our thinking on a given matter often starts with hidden assumptions We have unspoken, unacknowledged ideas about how things are or should be, and we try to apply them to every situation. We want simple guides to follow, and these assumptions provide them. The problem is that they may not always result [...]
Is TV bad for us? Is it good for us? We would like to believe it is one or the other. Simple answers make for less mental work. But the world is complex, and context is often more important than people think it is. We might rightly say that too much television viewing here in [...]
It has occurred to me that angry opinions and beliefs come from doubt. To explain this I want you to consider what most people’s reactions would be if you argue that there is no water in the oceans. They will think you are strange, but even though they hold the opposing belief that there is [...]
By Steve Gillman I am the rare people who has a subscription to Mother Jones and Forbes magazine at the same time. I like to read widely, and that (for me) means reading articles that come from many different perspectives and biases. Mother Jones has important stories that just don’t get covered elsewhere–that need to [...]
What is morality? We probably can never all agree on the specifics, but there are some interesting questions that are related, like whether it is necessary to have a religious or other philosophical belief system in order to have moral people. Certainly not, in my opinion. Richard Dawkins, in his book, “The God Delusion,” mentions [...]
Apart from the question of whether a god is watching everything we do, there is the more interesting question of whether believing this makes a difference in our behavior. It is more interesting–to this writer at least–because unlike the first question, it is one that can be answered to some degree by science. Take, for [...]
You may have noticed that the advertising you see online is more and more targeted to your location and your interests. More than that though, even the search results you get from Google and other search engines are tailored to fit what their programs determine is right for you. This filtering of what we see [...]
It is entertaining and sometimes even enlightening to read quotes of the famous and not-so-famous. But to generate new thoughts, look at what they are saying from another perspective, or with other words. Then create your own quotes that show some other aspect of the matter. For example, I was reading a collection of quotes [...]
