The Journey Within

Linear thinking, a method to think logically from A to B to C. We have used it often enough. It’s taught in schools when you are forced to memorise what comes after the letter ‘P’. Remember the multiplication tables? They start from 1 x 1 = 1, 1 X 2 = 2, 1 x 3 = 3 etc… And when you grew older, it’s memorising chronological events, i.e. the dreaded history lesson. Want more examples? Your name on the register list is listed from A to Z. Your exam report is handed out by some order, alphabetical or worse, by ranking! You queue up linearly for your food in the canteen. And when we are asked to think outside the box, no wonder we have so much trouble doing it. We are conditioned throughout our lives to think in a straight line! Nevermind imagining a 3-dimensional box, and then thinking outside of it. Our brains are wired into a 2-dimensional state!

I use a to-do list so that I can tick off one task after the other, linearly. I may also list things in order of priority, so that I can accomplish those task that seems most urgent, first. In a large hierarchical orgainisation, information is passed from one to the other linearly through the organisation’s ranking system. For example, in an office environment, if you’re a fresh graduate recently employed into the company, your report will be read by your manager first, and then by his manager, and then by her manager etc.. until you reach the top of the pyramid where the board of directors will read it. And if the directors don’t like the report, the information (or their wrath!) will be passed down the same line. This way of passing information is true for a lot of the organisations out there. Think of religion, politics, military, school, even your run of the mill tai ji class! The senior students will get more “secrets” passed down to them than the more junior ones. The common excuse? The person is not ready yet, i.e. you haven’t proven yourself to be worthy of more information.

What’s so bad about thinking in 2D? Everyone does it! The system works. It has been working for a very long time. It provides us with a structure to make sure everything is running in an orderly manner. The industrial age of specialisation, courtesy of Henry Ford has given us a production system that works linearly. Every part of the production line in the car assembly system depends on the previous part, i.e. you make the shell first before putting on doors and tyres. This mode of thinking is pervasive enough to be the structure of organising humans. But why do I feel something is not right? Something in my mind is gnawing this idea away. Something in my mind is resisting it, and not just resisting. Something in me is fighting it, looking to break free. To break free from what? Isn’t this what we are supposed to do? To think linearly?

I have come to realise that this is what we have been trained to do from young. But this is not actually how our mind works. It takes real effort to be able to think through logically from A to B to C. You’re forcing yourself into a mode of thinking that computers use. Sooner or later, computers will be doing that thinking for you and your mode of thinking will become obsolete! You were trained to think how a machine would think, but you are not given the opportunity to allow your own mode of thinking to flourish!

Our sub-conscious mind can assimilate a lot more information than our consicous mind can. We can recognise someone instantly without going through the following mode of thought:

• distance between eyes is 2 cm
• highest point of nose is 2 cm
• colour of eyes is brown
• colour of hair is red
• length of hair is 30cm on average
• ratio of distance between nose and forehead, and noes and chin is 1:1
• etc…

Instead, if we met someone we’ve seen before, we’ll just say “hey, I like your new hairstyle!” or “nice make up you’ve got on. it suits you.” Can you possibly imagine the amount of information required to actually make those statements? You have to know what the previous haircut was. You have to know the length and shape of the previous haircut. You have to know how long haven’t you seen that person. You have to take into account the change in hairstyle to recognise the face. You have to know what age can do to a person to still recognise the face. We tap into the large reserve of our sub-conscious mind to make a seemingly trivial statement. And yet we hardly use them in our consicious decisions?

So I urge you as much as I urge myself, to let go of linear thinking, even some of the times. Just let your sub-conscious do the job. Some people call it gut-feeling. Others call it intuition. Whatever you call it, you know it when you use it. See if it changes the way you do things. Something on your top priority list may not be that urgent after all, your sub-conscious mind knows it, but you’ll need to let it tell you. Allow it to surface once in a while. Let it come out to play a little. You might be surprised with the answers it can bring you. You can even try it now, as this article suggest, as there’s no better time than now.

So, what are you waiting for? Why think outside the box when there isn’t even a box!

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Related posts:

1. An over-thinking kid
2. Learning less everyday
3. A child’s defense mechanism
4. Dealing with limited information
5. Think inside the box