This got me thinking, are our thoughts really ours? Because none of our thoughts are ever original, so what if what we consider our true perspective is just a collection of other perspectives we've seen over the years? This articles got me thinking more, and I like it, so thank you!
I like to think of others’ thoughts as “Base Camp” to visit, and then decide if it is worth pitching your tent there, or does your reasoning urge you to move on and set up camp somewhere else, either with other likeminded thinkers or in solitude.
This reminds me of Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language,” where he talks about the decline of language and its relation to thought and politics. He also argued that use of unoriginal phrases and ideas lead to manipulation, and outlined a set of rules for the common person to follow in order to think independently. I’ve noticed my immediate acceptance of information and I think this is definitely useful, especially with ai thinking our thoughts for us. Thank you for writing this!
“If you live by someone else’s thinking, you live by someone else’s judgment” and isn’t that an outsourced mind allowing their horse to pull your cart of knowledge in their direction “without you ever giving it a thought”? We sadly are trained to comply, not to think. Saddle your own horse and put your questions and experiences in your cart of self expression, conversation and examination. Ride off into the sunrise and into the light!
Makes sense. I sometimes feel a tinge of guilt that I haven't fleshed out my opinions thoroughly, are they really defensible? Great article, your perspective is inspiring 👏.
School or maybe the whole dependant thing think has gotten me soo used to memorising information given that when I was trying to write what I understood from this in my own words I wrote exact sentences from this newsletter(even here the author kept calling it a newletter so i did to)
Any more tips on how to solve this or does anyone think this is a nice thing
This is a very well written article and provided me a new perspective in life.
For so long, i never had a clear stance, and when i try to look at things a little different from the rest, i ask "is this really the right thing for me?", but really i was just conforming to public consensus— bc i didn't (and still don't) have a clear judgement at everything. Lately I've been watching how to think critically videos n well... it's a process. I love how you said "perspectives are offers because no perspective is an absolute truth", and that helps me a lot. I've been scared of being different. And thank you for this, seriously. This newsletter is an offer im willing to take. It makes me braver on the inside. I love you thank you again. I'm so grateful i got to read this. 🩵
This is the hard part “What are the hidden assumptions?” - there are so many layers that we inherit that it’s difficult to unravel those assumptions before engaging in rational dialogue.
The classic version of trivium is Grammar -> Logic -> Rhetoric.
Another version of trivium is Knowledge -> Understanding -> Wisdom(Wise Behavior that utilizes your understanding of knowledge)
The modern version of trivium is Input -> Processing -> Output.
In the grammar/knowledge/input stage, you absorb all sorts of information without judgments and prejudices even if they seem crazy. In this case, grammar means information from all sorts of sources.
In the understanding/logic/processing stage, you make sense of your information.
In the rhetoric/wisdom/output stage, you act on your understanding of information.
If you censor knowledge from circulation and add misinformation to the pool of available knowledge, people's trivium process will be poisoned.
Control by the ruling class is mostly achieved through censorship and dissemination of misinformation. Most people were trained in schools to ignore information that contradicts what they already learned, so if you feed children with a bunch of misinformation and tell them to reject things that contradict what they learned, they will reject truths.
Only after you gather all sorts of information from various sources, you can make sense of them all. Then, you act on your understanding.
Most things you learned from government schooling system are misinformation that serves the ruling class agendas. History was written by victors, so mainstream history is mostly a bunch of bullshit. However, "alternative" histories are mostly bullshit as well. It would be wise to not care too much about history unless you do hardcore history research from various sources.
So, to put trivium in practice, don't believe my claim that there is a global ruling class that censors information and pushes misinformation at the global scale. Collect information from various sources without prejudice and judgment. Only then, try to make sense of it all. Then, act upon your understanding.
Be wary of not utilizing your knowledge in the real world. Unused knowledge is useless knowledge. At the very least, I'd try to use my knowledge by teaching it on the internet or earning money with my knowledge. The last stage of trivium is output. If there is no useful output, then your research is useless.
This got me thinking, are our thoughts really ours? Because none of our thoughts are ever original, so what if what we consider our true perspective is just a collection of other perspectives we've seen over the years? This articles got me thinking more, and I like it, so thank you!
I like to think of others’ thoughts as “Base Camp” to visit, and then decide if it is worth pitching your tent there, or does your reasoning urge you to move on and set up camp somewhere else, either with other likeminded thinkers or in solitude.
This reminds me of Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language,” where he talks about the decline of language and its relation to thought and politics. He also argued that use of unoriginal phrases and ideas lead to manipulation, and outlined a set of rules for the common person to follow in order to think independently. I’ve noticed my immediate acceptance of information and I think this is definitely useful, especially with ai thinking our thoughts for us. Thank you for writing this!
I’ve read 1984, Animal Farm, and Road to Wigan Pier. I really like Orwell’s stuff, I plan on having a deep read into 1984 soon!
Oh cool. Animal farm is a good one and I’m actually reading 1984 right now.
What do you think of it so far?
How far in are you?
> Disagreement = collaboration (not combat)
This is genius! Because when you connect seemingly unrelated ideas, unique ideas, unique perspectives, they become even more unique!
Powerful, Craig. 🔥 “Your perspective is an offer, not a law” says it all—curiosity over certainty, respect over ego.
Thanks for reading :)
this is important to moden world for thinking strait and do good things,great work
Thought Provoking
“If you live by someone else’s thinking, you live by someone else’s judgment” and isn’t that an outsourced mind allowing their horse to pull your cart of knowledge in their direction “without you ever giving it a thought”? We sadly are trained to comply, not to think. Saddle your own horse and put your questions and experiences in your cart of self expression, conversation and examination. Ride off into the sunrise and into the light!
Makes sense. I sometimes feel a tinge of guilt that I haven't fleshed out my opinions thoroughly, are they really defensible? Great article, your perspective is inspiring 👏.
Fucking awesome Graig I will be thinking in a different way now, thank you
I realised this after reading
School or maybe the whole dependant thing think has gotten me soo used to memorising information given that when I was trying to write what I understood from this in my own words I wrote exact sentences from this newsletter(even here the author kept calling it a newletter so i did to)
Any more tips on how to solve this or does anyone think this is a nice thing
H
Thank you so much, Craig!
This is a very well written article and provided me a new perspective in life.
For so long, i never had a clear stance, and when i try to look at things a little different from the rest, i ask "is this really the right thing for me?", but really i was just conforming to public consensus— bc i didn't (and still don't) have a clear judgement at everything. Lately I've been watching how to think critically videos n well... it's a process. I love how you said "perspectives are offers because no perspective is an absolute truth", and that helps me a lot. I've been scared of being different. And thank you for this, seriously. This newsletter is an offer im willing to take. It makes me braver on the inside. I love you thank you again. I'm so grateful i got to read this. 🩵
Had me at the first sentence ; “most people can’t think”. That’s correct.
This is the hard part “What are the hidden assumptions?” - there are so many layers that we inherit that it’s difficult to unravel those assumptions before engaging in rational dialogue.
What you are missing is trivium.
The classic version of trivium is Grammar -> Logic -> Rhetoric.
Another version of trivium is Knowledge -> Understanding -> Wisdom(Wise Behavior that utilizes your understanding of knowledge)
The modern version of trivium is Input -> Processing -> Output.
In the grammar/knowledge/input stage, you absorb all sorts of information without judgments and prejudices even if they seem crazy. In this case, grammar means information from all sorts of sources.
In the understanding/logic/processing stage, you make sense of your information.
In the rhetoric/wisdom/output stage, you act on your understanding of information.
If you censor knowledge from circulation and add misinformation to the pool of available knowledge, people's trivium process will be poisoned.
Control by the ruling class is mostly achieved through censorship and dissemination of misinformation. Most people were trained in schools to ignore information that contradicts what they already learned, so if you feed children with a bunch of misinformation and tell them to reject things that contradict what they learned, they will reject truths.
Only after you gather all sorts of information from various sources, you can make sense of them all. Then, you act on your understanding.
Most things you learned from government schooling system are misinformation that serves the ruling class agendas. History was written by victors, so mainstream history is mostly a bunch of bullshit. However, "alternative" histories are mostly bullshit as well. It would be wise to not care too much about history unless you do hardcore history research from various sources.
So, to put trivium in practice, don't believe my claim that there is a global ruling class that censors information and pushes misinformation at the global scale. Collect information from various sources without prejudice and judgment. Only then, try to make sense of it all. Then, act upon your understanding.
Be wary of not utilizing your knowledge in the real world. Unused knowledge is useless knowledge. At the very least, I'd try to use my knowledge by teaching it on the internet or earning money with my knowledge. The last stage of trivium is output. If there is no useful output, then your research is useless.