Thinkers are spectators

We are such idiots, us thinkers. Babbling on, assuming that thinking makes a difference. Wild ideas compensating for dull lives. TED for the daily commute.

Thinking is like horn on a motor car. We are like a small child sitting in the passenger seat, unable to resist the urge to lean across and honk the horn, convincing ourselves that this is what makes the wheels go round.

If you don’t understand this, then my saying it won’t make much difference.

If you want to make a difference then you need to do something different. If you want to make people change then you need to show them something they haven’t seen before.

And the doing and showing? These don’t come from talking and thinking – at least not the kind of thinking that we would recognise as such. These are the domains of feeling, not thinking. These come from beneath – from the music etched into your instincts by the things you have seen, have done, have experienced.

This pathetic article, lamenting the end of thinking, crystallised it for me: the naked presumption that ‘thinking’ were ever so important – it isn’t and never was. It was only ever a façade. An affectation. The people directing destiny were never the thinkers. And now that thinking is leaving us, to be replaced by something much more ephemeral, immediate – will it be missed? Will the world grind to a halt? Will this unthinking generation do nothing, have nothing to show? Or will we finally began to understand that thinking was only ever – at best – a back-seat driver? And the stupid, fusty, middle-class arrogance of it all.

I was recently asked to do a presentation; armed with both slides full of 'visionary thinking’ and examples of the work we had done it occurred to me that my desire to share the ‘thinking’ was nothing more than a outdated affectation. Instead I asked the audience what they would prefer to see. They wanted to see what we had done so I dispensed with the ‘thinking’. Who cares, after all – it’s only ever a comforting post-rationalisation. As Steve Jobs remarked ‘we join the dots looking backwards’ – our thinking is a story we make up because we don’t truly understand why we do things.

This blog is mostly a honking of horns. I don’t believe it will change what you do – but for those who have changed it is nice to hear someone else honking the horn. I really should spend more time showing & less time babbling.

We are witnessing the death of thinking. Don’t worry, it won’t be missed.