Thinking on your toes
Thinking on your toes
Muse #293 - more variety in thoughts than we think
Why do we get thoughts? What are its triggers? And are there various types of thoughts? Questions that I have been pondering about today. We often think on our toes (Think on our feet?) and what the heck does this really mean?
I am not looking for a scientific explanation, but more in terms of broad patterns. We can all agree that thoughts originate on their own. Of course, there is a huge influence on sensemaking we make with respect to your visual observation which leads to several of these triggered thoughts. Also, a secondary trigger of thoughts is from the currency of events. More recent and pressing things in our life trigger several of our thoughts. There are several other types of thought processes including the subconscious and those that are triggered in our sleep and dreams.
Talk is thought!
But, I was pondering about a third or even more important thing that triggers our thinking. It is talking or speaking. When we speak, we are thinking. So our talk is thought.
Talk is thought
Think about it. When we form sentences, they form not because we are forming them, but as a response to a potential stimulus. Some other person we talk to, a subject or triggered by things that we are talking about. And as the other person or persons respond we are already formulating our response even before we have heard the other side in totality. And we continue to refine our response as they continue to speak until we blurt out an intrusive response to break in or get our response in when we have an opportunity to do so. This is continuous thinking and thought refinement process mostly driven by our cognitive ease of intuition (aka System 1 thinking). Of course, some people think through and evaluate options and respond with their best answer, not driven by intuition alone (aka System 2 thinking) but clearly, that is not the norm.
So, clearly, it looks like talk is thought. A high-speed variety of thought at that. And as we lob back the ball like in the tennis court of conversations with others - we talk (evolve or reinforce our thinking) to ourselves, by talking to (with) others.
We talk to ourselves, by talking to others.