17 December 2022

Book Review: Are you thinking clearly?

Written by two journalists – Miriam Frankel and Matt Warren – this book will intrigue you if you care to understand how poorly we all think. The self-conviction we have about how clearly we think (albeit with some humility that we might be wrong at the edges) could not be more misplaced.

The authors fairly comprehensively cover the various variables that often cloud our thinking – yes, simply feeling hungry (or hangry as the authors say), make people make very different decisions. This has been proven by multiple researches.

It gets into how your thinking is influenced by what you eat (thru the gut), what language was your first language that you learnt, simple marketing tricks… about 29 such factors.

In the end, you will realize that you are not one uniform identity that thinks and makes decisions consistently. Far from it. We are all social beings that change our thinking or decision based on who we are with. Or who we were with.

I have to admit that while reading the book chapter by chapter, I found no “flow”. It was like moving from one independent variable that affects your thinking to the next one in a very disjointed way.

But in the end, you realize that – that is the exact point the authors are trying to make. Our thinking is not a smooth one – it gets affected by different variables and circumstances at different times. At least this helps you understand what is likely making our thinking murky even if we do not realize that.

I think the following excerpt from the book sums it up well…

“Despite what countless other books will tell you, positivity and optimism come with plenty of pitfalls – not least that they can make you overconfident, blinkered and gullible – and the relentless pursuit of happiness will likely only make you miserable. Nor is a high IQ the foolproof solution it is claimed to be – it doesn’t make us immune to bias, prejudice or mental illness, and it won’t automatically make us challenge our own thinking. To make the most of our intelligence, we also need intellectual openness, flexibility and conscientiousness as well as emotional stability and intelligence. And if you believe love will clear your head, think again. We all know how muddled and mindless that can make us.”

Category: Books | LEAVE A COMMENT
11 December 2022

Started yet another new thing

Let’s see how long I can maintain this.

The other day, I was reflecting on how I used to write letters every week and nowadays, I don’t. In the past, every week, I used to sit down to write a long letter to thank the host and hostess after being invited for lunch or dinner. These days, I do not get invited for those (I can be insufferable at parties) and when invited, I do not show up (prefer to meet at a bar or coffee shop instead of home). Which means, my letter writing is mostly restricted to my best friend in Perth, Australia or my friend Madhuri from Singapore who has now moved to San Francisco.

In one more of those flights of fancies, I wondered if having a few pen pals might get me back into writing every weekend. Did some research on how to find pen pals.

The only time I had a penpal was in sixth or seventh grade and that died quickly after a couple of letters. It was somebody from South India and I never heard back.

In the old days where there was no internet, correspondence by snail mail could get you to learn about new places, new people and all that. These days, you are one Google search away from being the local expert on any topic.

So, I was intrigued to find out that pen pals corresponding thru snail mail is still alive and kicking. (More alive than kicking, though).

Signed up on a couple of Facebook groups – that was not much help. But became part of a group on the internet and soon found a few set of interesting folks. There is this elderly couple in South East tip of Australia. The gentleman always has used fountain pen like me and the couple write letters together! I found a young gentleman in Vanuatu (did you know there is such a country?) and another in Argentina. And finally, a couple of elderly ladies in Lithuania and back here in the USA – Cleveland. A few of them have been doing snail mail pen pal for many years.

I am going to get started with these friends and see if I can make it last longer than the last time.

Have you started anything new lately? Would love to know. I might try another new thing in the coming year if I get an interesting idea. Doing it together often helps.

Category: Fountain Pens | LEAVE A COMMENT