{"id":37969,"date":"2017-10-17T00:03:41","date_gmt":"2017-10-17T05:03:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michaelhyatt.com\/?p=37969"},"modified":"2017-10-17T00:03:41","modified_gmt":"2017-10-17T05:03:41","slug":"thought-traps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/thought-traps\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Avoid Our Most Common Thought Traps"},"content":{"rendered":"

During the early days of the Vietnam War, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara wanted to know if American military efforts in Vietnam were effective. He charted the numbers of weapons lost, enemies killed, and so on. But there was a hole in his thinking.<\/p>\n

A critical colleague told McNamara he\u2019d failed to count \u201cthe feelings of the Vietnamese people.\u201d It was a fatal miss. While experts in Saigon and Washington insisted America would win the war in no time, it seems clear from Ken Burns and Lynn Novick\u2019s new documentary<\/a> that alienating the South Vietnamese spoiled any chance of American victory.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Robert McNamara. Photo courtesy of Library of Congress<\/a><\/em><\/h5>\n

It\u2019s easy to spot the failures at this distance, but the truth is we\u2019re all prone to similar miscalculations and flawed thinking<\/a>\u2014usually just less disastrous.<\/p>\n

Smart people think, say, and do stupid things all the time. One explanation is that we're sometimes more intelligent than critical. Researchers who\u2019ve studied<\/a> the discrepancy between intelligent people and stupid decisions note that critical thinkers experience fewer negative events in life, even when compared to highly intelligent people. Why? Their critical lens helps them avoid traps others blindly stumble into.<\/p>\n

The good news, the researchers say, is that we can all learn how to think more critically. To do so takes more than just thinking. It requires thinking about our thinking. And for that, there are few guides better than Baylor professor Alan Jacobs\u2019 new book, How to Think<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

A Process, Not a Product<\/h3>\n

We often mistake thought for a product<\/em>. After all, it\u2019s what our brain produces. But thought is really a process<\/em>. Since we usually focus on what\u2014and not how\u2014we think, we\u2019re liable to stumble into unseen traps. Thankfully, Jacobs illumines our path.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

He starts by explaining most of our thinking isn\u2019t really thinking. It\u2019s more like mental shortcutting. If we had to dissect the world at every turn, we\u2019d never get anywhere. We all develop habits of mind<\/a> that help us compress and even sidestep most of the thinking we might otherwise have to do (which is good news because we\u2019ve got mortgages to pay). The problem is that some of that shortcutting fails us, and we fall for traps set by our own false assumptions or hasty conclusions.<\/p>\n

We cook up some of these shortcuts on our own, but many are given to us by others. Jacobs points out that we never think in a vacuum. \u201cEverything you think is a response to what someone else has thought and said,\u201d he says. But it goes beyond that. Our thinking is heavily influenced by our social circles. \u201cTo dwell habitually with people is inevitably to adopt their ways of approaching the world.\u201d If we\u2019re not critical enough in our thinking to recognize how the process works, we default to unhelpful attitudes, ideas, and practices.<\/p>\n

Dangerous Myths<\/h3>\n

During Vietnam, Cold War mythology shortcut critical considerations about Vietnamese reunification and independence. It\u2019s a cautionary tale. If we\u2019re self-unaware, mythologies of all sorts can wreak havoc in our business, politics, relationships, and more. Just look at social media,<\/a> where a single hashtag can substitute for an entire train of thought\u2014or, more accurately, its absence.<\/p>\n

Hashtags exemplify what Jacobs calls \u201ckeywords,\u201d by which he means the terms any given community takes for granted. If you\u2019re in the group, you know what they mean (more or less) and use them accordingly. Sometimes these keywords stand for bigger metaphors and full-blown myths. But these keywords can replace actual thinking. They\u2019re like an autopilot system steering us toward some truths, while skirting others. Occasionally, they send us into a ditch.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe come to rely on keywords, and then metaphors, and then myths,\u201d he says, \u201cand at every stage habits become more deeply ingrained in us, habits that inhibit our ability to think.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Alan Jacobs. Photo by Holly Fish<\/a><\/em><\/h5>\n

The more invested we are in our myths, the less likely we are to change our minds or value those who hold differing views. For leaders, the stakes are higher, thanks to the power differential inherent in their positions. Self-unaware leaders are likely to devalue the ideas of their own team members.<\/p>\n

Avoiding the Traps<\/h3>\n

Once we see how and why we fall for various thought traps, we have choices to make. Though he starts the book<\/a> by saying \u201cdiagnosis is the treatment\u201d and summarizes key points in a \u201cThinking Person\u2019s Checklist,\u201d mere awareness is not enough. Thankfully, Jacobs closes with a much more compelling call. \u201cYou have to be a certain kind of person<\/a><\/em> to make this book work for you,\u201d he says. \u201cWhat is needed for the life of thinking is hope<\/em>: hope of knowing more, understanding more, being<\/em> more than we currently are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Self-awareness begins by thinking about our thinking. But it only continues with a commitment to self-transformation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During the early days of the Vietnam War, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara wanted to know if American military efforts in Vietnam were effective. He charted the numbers of weapons lost, enemies killed, and so on. But there was a hole in his thinking. A critical colleague told McNamara he\u2019d failed to count \u201cthe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":37976,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[542,438,543,544],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow to Avoid Our Most Common Thought Traps | Full Focus<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/thought-traps\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Avoid Our Most Common Thought Traps | Full Focus\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"During the early days of the Vietnam War, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara wanted to know if American military efforts in Vietnam were effective. 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