The choice to think for ourselves
We have so many ways to help us think now.
We can search for an answer, ask AI, read what someone else thinks or have something suggested to us in seconds. It can be useful.
Yet I wonder what happens when we reach for an answer before we've had a chance to think about something for ourselves.
When we ask straight away
We might have a question and immediately search for the answer. We might have an idea and ask AI to help us develop it. We might be trying to make a decision and look for suggestions before we've worked out what we actually want. Our attention can quickly shift towards what someone else has said.
Sometimes that's helpful.
Sometimes we might have been better off giving ourselves a little time first.
When a thought needs time
Some things take a while to work out.
We might have a thought that isn't quite clear yet. We might change our minds, think of something we hadn't considered, or simply sit with a question for a while. That can be hard to do when an answer is only a few seconds away.
Perhaps we don't always need to know straight away. Perhaps sometimes we need to let ourselves wonder.
What do I think?
There are times when I want to know what I think before I know what everyone else thinks.
What do I think about this?
What do I want?
What feels right to me?
We can still look things up. We can still ask questions and listen to other people's ideas.
Perhaps it's simply a matter of giving ourselves the chance to have our own thoughts first.
Giving ourselves a moment
Technology makes it very easy to move on.
We have a question. We find an answer. We move to the next thing. Our attention can follow that pattern without us really noticing.
Perhaps we can sometimes pause before we ask. Not because we shouldn't use technology. Simply because there may be something worth noticing in our own thinking first.
I wonder what you might notice the next time you have a question, and what might happen if you gave yourself a little time to think before looking for the answer.