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| Some people appear to never have learned how to think. Most situations
or problems have solutions, but you have to think it through. So here are
some guidelines you might be able to use: |
Learn - Get some new knowledge or understanding
daily.
Have a reason to do it.
Broadstrokes to details - application of artwork
to life.
Working from the known toward the unknown.
Don't bite off more than you can chew.
Prove It! - If you can't show that something
works, what good is it?
Faith - Not everything has a direct result; indirect
results may work.
Tolerance - a little bit goes a long ways.
Learn - Get some new knowledge or understanding daily.
A person needs to observe and conclude things daily. Otherwise, he
is another robotic machine like the ones in the factories. An old saw has
it that when a person has nothing else to learn, he should lay down and
die. In this day and age, perhaps our rushing technologies are why we live
such long and interesting lives. If you aren't trying to learn, then there
will be numerous situations and problems in your life, all with unapparent
solutions.
Have a reason to do it
Boredom is no reason to do anything or too many reasons why you can't
do anything. So you should see if there is any reason to so the thing to
begin with, before you wind up bored with just another duty or chore to
finish off. Finding the original reason for something may be all that is
needed to bring zest back to life, or any job. Even schooling is a joke
if you don't have some purpose behind it, if only to gain more prestige
or a certificate that says you know about something. But check it out -
do you have a reason for what you are doing? .
Broadstrokes to details - application of artwork to life.
Work things out by looking over the broad scene and then narrowing
down to the details. Painters do this by working in the overall color of
the background, then the broad strokes that demark the larger masses, such
as sky and ground, each other - then go on to break these down and handle
them more and closer to the detail needed.
You can do this in thinking as well: take up a subject you know nothing
about. Look for an overall organization to it - such as repairing a car.
It worked once, doesn't now. What part of it seems to not work well? Won't
start - this is either an engine problem, or no gas or not enough power
from the battery to start it. We're already narrowing it down.
But you can do this with anything from learning how to operate a computer
to nuclear physics.
Working from the known toward the unknown.
A lot of advertising gets across their point today by comparing their
company or product to a competitor, or some outstanding athlete or even
some admirable trait of a wild animal. And the press and PRs use this same
tactic to develop public opinion against someone or something.
You can use this to work out an understanding of something. Learning
to drive a truck isn't that dissimilar to learning to drive a car. A bicycle
is similar to a motorcycle in many ways. Planting a garden is quite like
planting a field. So look for something you may already know about the
subject you are trying to think about. And then tackle what you don't know
from what's left over. Sometimes there is a break, in that simple theory
of another apparently disrelated area will show you an understanding of
how to make another area work. In that case, make use of this unexpected
find. Most basic principals are applicable in wide fields. Such is actually
the study of philosophy. (And if someone made this study confusing for
you, check out "Prove It!" below.)
Don't bite off more than you can chew.
This old phrase has more to it than one would think. As above, work
on a gradient toward understanding the whole. When you learn how to drive
a car, you learn the first parts of where the controls are before you start
it up and take it out. Even then, its on a back road or parking lot devoid
of traffic. Later, you can work up to becoming a race car driver, if you
want - but this would still be on a controllable pace
There are series of books which describe how to do about anything.
Picking one of these up from the library is an easy first step to working
out how to handle something or understand it.
Prove It! - If you can't show that something works, what good is it?
Any study should result in a product. An engineer better be able to
build bridges (provided he studied bridge building); a farmer who studied
farming ought to be able to plant and raise a crop. So any profession should
be able to produce tangible evidence that they can do their job. If not,
they are open to being labeled "fake" or "quack". And honestly, you don't
know how they get paid for what they are doing. Some high profile politicians
recently have developed quite a name for themselves when it was found out
they weren't doing their job and were taking money for it (amongst other
favors.)
So this is also a test of studying or learning about anything - does
it have a provable product? Is that product of worth to someone? What are
the long range effects of their help? These questions and others apply
not just to engineers, but to salesmen and politicians as well.
Faith - Not everything has a direct result; indirect results may work.
Some areas require faith to prove the result. Purely philosophical
and spiritual systems often require this. Something may not be able to
be proven immediately, since the factors involved are not viewable in the
limited spectrum of the human senses. But they should still have result,
if only in spiritual or other peace of mind or improved outlook on life.
So these systems can still be tested and worked with. Later editions of
books or original materials may have been altered from an originally workable
faith that did have results. Some research may be necessary to uncover
the earlier workable truths.
Check if faith is an issue on thinking with a subject.
Tolerance - a little bit goes a long ways.
Where you find you have a workable system of thought or belief, still
maybe you shouldn't hold onto that so closely that you wouldn't be able
to accept that someone else has a workable belief. Some might simply be
destructive where the beliefs result in human death or impairment. Mostly,
these are prohibited by law - itself a body of work designed to protect
people from accident or worse due to dangerous activities to themselves
or others. But there are many systems of belief and their organizations
on this planet that do a lot of good for people. Many of these have endured
centuries of examination and test, resulting in the civilization of huge
geographical areas of this planet. So any individual cannot say that his
system is the best to the exclusion of all others. This isn't to say you
would withhold information about yourself and your beliefs so that they
would be able to understand your religion or beliefs much as they would
yours.
There is an old saying of walking a mile in the other person's footwear
before criticizing him. This apparently still has value today; certainly
it would bring greater peace if done by all.
Summary
Learn - Get some new knowledge or understanding
daily.
Have a reason to do it.
Broadstrokes to details - application of artwork
to life.
Working from the known toward the unknown.
Don't bite off more than you can chew.
Prove It! - If you can't show that something
works, what good is it?
Faith - Not everything has a direct result; indirect
results may work.
Tolerance - a little bit goes a long ways.
Robert C. Worstell
Mar 01, 2001
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