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Gidday Friends, Welcome to this week's Sunday Synapse. Let’s activate our sleepy synapses with some fresh words to trigger fresh thoughts. This week's ‘Trilogy of Thought’ covers: Thought 1: A CT idea discussed in an original way Thought 2: A philosophical quote Thought 3: CT actions to implement
THOUGHT 1 Knowledge Insecurity: Barrier to Critical Thinking At some point or another, most of us have knowledge insecurity (KI). If you’re a high achiever or someone who likes ‘knowledge,’ well, you are definitely either enthralled in knowledge insecurities, or it rears its ugly head randomly. Or perhaps you used to be that person. It is important to talk about because those who are KI, participate in self-fulfilling prophecy, stunting knowledge progress. For social reasons, this is not good as it causes problems inside important relationships—work, home, community. KI really gets in the way of getting to the goal of being actually knowledgeable. STEP 1: Be honest if you going through some KI. KI results in what I will refer to as the ‘Insecurity 6’: As humans, we are KI all the time for various reasons. For argument’s sake, let’s name a few: Personal grievance (high emotion linked to the topic of conversation/easily emotionally triggered) Poor knowledge of the topic intersected with an untamed ego Lack of life experience, or wisdom but desire social power (have something to prove)
We start to want to prove to the world (or mainly ourselves) how much we know. Except when we have not done the ‘cognitive work’, in order to settle our insecurities, they end up showing up in our words, reactions, and behaviours. We take a longer time to learn while we are too busy trying to prove that “we know” instead of taking notice of what we do not yet know. Examples of cognitive work: Talking about our character weaknesses Being honest about character failures Being transparent about what we do not know Being fair, flexible and humble Reading broadly, and listening to new ideas Reflecting, through writing or journaling
For knowledge progression, you need great emotional self-control. Often this comes with time, experience or wisdom. So, often people with more life experience, who have heard more stories, and have more life-data to draw from, are usually synonymous with more critical thinking ability. They have heard so many stories of human struggle, life’s problems, and inevitable outcomes, that they are emotionally mature. It is the emotionally immature, unwise, and inexperienced who struggle most with KI and CT. I remember when I first started working as an academic and researcher. I was at the point where for the first time in my life I was reading philosophy, and scientific literature daily. I was also suddenly around ‘smart’ people who could spontaneously talk about philosophers like it was regular Saturday chit-chat. I wanted that so BAD. I was new to it all but I wasn’t there yet. Inside the university walls, amongst this academic crew, I was easily recognisable as an amateur academic. But outside, to all those who viewed academia as a space of knowledge status, I could perform in the way I wanted. And I was definitely acting like I knew more than I did. I bullied people in conversations. I used buzzwords. I status signaled. I was an insecure jerk. It was happening because I was knowledge-insecure. To be a true critical thinker, you must be honest about what you do not know. Often those who think they know more than they do are representing a concept called ‘The Dunning-Kruger effect’ which you may have heard of. This psychological phenomenon describes a cognitive bias, where individuals overestimate their knowledge competence. What happens here is that you believe yourself to be better-than-average. Interestingly human beings as a standard, generally will tend to rate their own abilities above average when in actual fact abilities are average, or below. This of course leads to an overestimation of one’s own competence. This is so so common! The smartest of people all are always in doubt, and most importantly, are not ashamed to say it. The least intellectually advanced are VERY certain. Try and spot them—they are pretty easy to find. This cognitive bias seriously blocks knowledge progression. We become insecure for many real reasons (some here): As a child, you were the not-so-clever sibling Your teacher said you would never be anything worthwhile The boss who never believed in your competence That smarter friend who always called you dumb
And so, now you are bulldozing through life trying to prove intellect but doing nothing much than falling on your egotistical face every evening wondering why no one cares about what you have to say. Those who are insecure are recognisable a mile away by anyone who is worth looking up to. You also become intolerable and no one wants to talk to a know-it-all. We can also be very judgmental when we are knowledge-insecure. It goes hand in hand. The best way to deflect attention from our own bad behaviors is to talk/gossip/discuss to death about others' behaviors. How to recognize KI: You get into arguments and debate about unnecessary topics. Your internal emotional temperature rises and you talk over people and get frustrated often during conversations where people have opposing views.
THOUGHT 2 QUOTE Well-articulated quotes are powerful as they trigger us to THINK behind them and under them. This is what critical thinking is—when you think all the way around something, you see it as 3D! "When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser." Albert Camus, French philosopher, and author. This quote suggests that when someone is unable to rationally defend their position in a debate, they may resort to attacking the character of their opponent rather than addressing the substance of the argument. This behavior can stem from overconfidence in one's own views and insecurity about the strength of one's position. THOUGHT 3 Activities to implement to improve your thinking skills: Look up any words or concepts or people I used that you have not read about or do not understand. Ask yourself the following questions:
Reflecting and taking time to answer these questions will provide you with answers. 3. Look up the Dunning-Kruger effect and other cognitive biases’. Some links here but find your own if you want! Just be careful with where you are getting the information, and use balanced judgment when exploring information. Don’t overcomplicate it, just use your common sense. For Cognitive Biases click here https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/11/humans-cognitive-bias-mistake/ For Dunning-Kruger Click here https://www.bps.org.uk/psychologist/dunning-kruger-effect-and-its-discontents Stay tuned for the Sunday Synapse, which will be delivered to your inbox every Sunday! Get ready to take on a new week better than you were last week! If it does not bring value to you, just hit the unsubscribe button below. Send me an email with feedback, what you like, don’t like, want more of, or just to say hi! Until next Sunday, take care. Dr. Esha.
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