Pier Forni "The Thinking Life"
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-12-19/pier-forni-thinking-life
In a world increasingly dominated by digital media it’s often hard to find the space to think. Our time is overtaken with emails, texts, and surfing and shopping on the internet. So much so, that according to author P.M. Forni, we are in a “crisis” when it comes to thinking. His latest book, “The Thinking Life” provides a remedy to this age of distraction and lessons in how to rediscover the art of serious thinking. He draws on the wisdom of classical philosophers as well as everyday situations to explains how we can successfully think our way through an increasingly complex world and live a better life.
Guests
Pier Forni
Program Highlights
Americans spend hours each day using digital media, but many of us complain we can't find a few minutes to think. That comes as no surprise to author P.M. Forni, who says thinking has become a casualty of the digital revolution. His new book "The Thinking Life: How to Thrive in an Age of Distraction," aims to help people become more "serious" and careful thinkers.
Are We Really Thinking Less Than We Used To?
Though he says there isn't much scientific data available to prove that we are actually thinking less than we used to, Forni cites survey data and anecdotal evidence that support this conclusion. For instance, college students today report spending about 15 hours per week studying; back in 1961 they reported studying for 25 hours per week. Executives and superviors report spending about 3 to 4 percent of their time at work thinking about long-term procedures and activities for employees and for their companies. Many of these executives, Forni said, say they're frustrated that they don't have more time to think more deeply and thoroughly.
Online Distractions
Part of the problem, according to Forni, is the distractions we must either learn to tune out or control in the digital age. "A large amount of time in which we are engaged online is dedicated to things that are not really crucial, that are trivial in many cases," he said. "We become what we think...if we spend many hours in things that are essentially irrelevant or trivial, well, that changes who we are, and it changes our cognitive abilities."
"We Shy Away From Important Issues"
Aside from being constantly distracted by trivial matters, Forni believes we latch on frivolous thoughts or daydreams, too. We spend more time thinking about how we're going to spend our annual vacation days than about planning the rest of our lives. Some of this is human nature. Forni also laments what he sees as a lack of critical thinking skills currently being taught in American schools. Especially among youth, Forni thinks that "connecting" - mainly on social media - can be mistaken for "thinking," but it isn't. He thinks children don't read enough today, and for him, weak readers are weak thinkers.
Conflict Between Retrival and Retention
Forni thinks that the way stuents think about knowledge itself has changed. "Our students today think of the acquiring of knowledge as retrival. And we, the older generation, still think about the acquiring of knowledge as retention," he said. Forni looks at the culture of the Internet as perpetuating the culture of retrival. He fears that we believe we don't have the time to absorb and solidify any knowledge properly, and that we quickly forget what we have learned from what we've read online. Forni suggests meditation and better training of young students in critical thinking as ways to move us toward becoming a nation of more serious thinkers.
You can read the full transcript here.
Comments
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This is a great topic. Dr. Derek Cabrera's TED Talk on "How thinking works" is a great introduction to how to teach anyone advanced thinking skills. His research has isolated four universal skills that develop critical thinking, creativity, systems thinking and prosocial thinking (emotional intelligence). His ideas are changing education because they make it possible for teachers to teach thinking skills from grade school to graduate school. See the TED talk here: http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/TEDxWilliamsport-Dr-Derek-Cabre;search:de...
Do we really want people to think seriously when much of the social and economic order depends on people's not doing so? Most of our management and all of our advertising depends on the invocation of purr- and snarl-words and images to turn rational thought off.
(Similarly, do we want to end bullying when it enforces our social norms? And how can we stop recreational drug use when it is merely the corollary to the theorem promulgated by all marketing: 'Buy something and it will make you happy,' and in fact does a better job of it, at least for awhile, than anything else?)
Let's not forget the importance of FEELINGS, in addition to thought. Thoughts create feelings and this is probably the reason people find the need for distractions, or addictions. We live in a culture of avoidance of feelings!
I think it is worth noting that the contemplative traditions are very efficacious. Consider Buddhist practices, hatha yoga, Vippassana, western mindfulness practice, and so on.
I would like to hear Dr. Forni comment on this.
1.“I will think of it.” It is to easy to say this;
but do you know what great things have come from thinking ?
2.We cannot hear our thoughts or taste or feel them; and yet what mighty power they have !
—McGuffey’s Third Eclectic Reader:1879
I'm a Registered Nurse, but I have a major in philosoph. I miss having time to just think or to"Be" as Heidegger wrote about. You have to be still. When I think of great poets and writer/thinkers, they had a special, quiet place: Whittman, Thomas Mertan & his hermitage . The going in to oneself in order to be open to others. Thanks Diane for another wonderful show! People don't think because they don't know how, they confuse stillness with laziness .
MaryPat
How do we teach our children to be critical thinkers? What can parents do?
What can our schools do to encourage this?
Thought is important yes. But thought is the source of all conflict. Thought is limited always and can not touch what is sacred. Love your show!
one of the easiest ways to introduce thoughtfulness and critical thinking in my children is to analyze commercials geared towards marketing to children. When my son says 'I want that' i ask him how much he thinks it's worth and if an additional 19.99 in shipping and handling is fair for the advertiser to expect for the toy. We also discuss the quality of toys and their worth, etc. it stikes up a conversation on important consumer issues and teaches some baskic skills in critical thinking on a topic he can appreciate.
I'm a Registered Nurse, but I have a major in philosoph. I miss having time to just think or to"Be" as Heidegger wrote about. You have to be still. When I think of great poets and writer/thinkers, they had a special, quiet place: Whittman, Thomas Mertan & his hermitage . The going in to oneself in order to be open to others. Thanks Diane for another wonderful show! People don't think because they don't know how, they confuse stillness with laziness .
MaryPat
It seems to me that lack of thinking or critical thinking is contributing to a loss of perspective. I occasionally help people who are near or at hysteria over the most trivial of problems, problems that would be easily solved if they could calm down and think through the problem or look for a solution.
It seems to be happening on a national scale as well. Many voters are easily distracted by trivial, manufactured issues that are described (many times inaccurately) in sound bites, and those voters give no thought at all to critically important complex issues.
I am a public high school teacher in Dallas, Texas. I agree with the message Mr Forni is conveying, but I can tell you that the attention span of today's teenage students is minimal, at best. 'Critical thinking' is not something that can be fostered in a high school where the teachers themselves (academics, right?) are never given 5 minutes alone to gather their thoughts or to plan lessons. Students are unprepared for classes and seldom capable of engaging in extended discussions on any single topic.
Instead of being thoughtful, teachers are told to be 'engaging' and 'entertaining' to try and hold students' attention long enough to convey any type of instruction. How can we teach students to be critical and thoughtful when the administration drives the teachers to be busy without being reflective?
Is it all technology's fault? I see the problem in schools responding to demands for 'accountability' that has no way of measuring these higher-level thinking skills. Preparing for multiple-choice so-called achievement tests crowds out time for real thinking
I think that watching some movies and some television is thought-provoking or at least can be. I find that people who don't think, don't think about movies or books or facts or anything and that those who do, are thinking even during times when others are not.
Thank you. Mr. Forni has explained to me why I, as a 58-year-old writer and journalist, have been playing Lotto online for more than a week. An unbearable situation has put me in a corner of non-thinking. kw
I cared for our grandchildren -- boy and girl twins -- for five years and when they out grew their naps, I continued having them in their room for quiet time for a couple of hours. People might think it very long time for 4 and 5 years olds. But they enjoyed the time alone, played quietly, and took this time to be reflective. The conversations after the rest periods revealed lots of thought.
The book "Consider a Spherical Cow" is one example of a guide to thinking through real-world math problems without recourse to calculators. Exercising our problem-solving skills in this manner can help to protect us from deceitful representations of statistics.
How can we teach students the concepts you have presented today. As a English/Language Arts teacher, thinking is fundamental to the content I teach. How can I get students as young as 11 to engage with this topic and apply it to their learning?
Great topic! Thanks!
I came across an article called "Multitasking: A Poor Study Habit" by Noelle Alberto. She claims that multitasking can be very harmful. Students that are focused when studying, develop chemical connections in the brain that is needed for deep thinking. However, when distracted, these chemical connections break down. When going back to the task again, the brain needs to recreate these chemical connections. According to studies conducted by psychologist, Russell Poldrack, shows that multitasking makes "learning...less flexible and more specialized, so you cannot retrieve the information as easily" (qtd. in Rosen 107).
Now I'll play Devil's Advocate: do we really want everyone thinking when so many, blinded by superstition and the tyranny of images and long disuse and social discouragement as they are, will do a very bad job of it?
Read the poem "The House was Quiet and the World was Calm" by Wallace Stevens. Then do it.
THANK YOU SO MUCH for bringing this topic to light. We have "Screen Free Sunday" every Sunday in our house (much to my children's chagrin), and I love how they have responded by interacting with each other in creating projects, building things and thinking of new ways to entertain themselves. I start everyday with quiet time, allowing thoughts to come to me about whatever needs to be handled that day. It is a wonderful and peaceful way to start each day.
It amazes me that people are on Facebook at all, and amazes me even more that they are willing to be on Twitter - it gives me the shudders to indulge in an activity such as twittering! Seems to me we are all turning into twits. This used to be something said in a very derogatory way by the nuns who taught me, and I think they were right. Thank you for this show on this subject!
urmilladeshpande.com
I'm so glad to be home, baking for the holidays, so that I can be listening to this show and thinking! Like the last caller, I also do a lot of thinking while I'm cooking, but my very favorite time to think is when doing yard work, ESPECIALLY when I'm weeding!
I've joked in the past that this is my 'zen' moment, and I've been told that it's a bit like one form of meditation as advocated by Thich Nat Hahn.
Great show! I look forward to finding Mr. Forni's book.
I think the commandment 'Keep Holy the Sabbath" was intended to have people stop working and THINK, reflect. We need to regularly think about our lives, take an inventory. Turn off all distractions, sit quietly and think how are we doing with our family responsibilities, jobs/career, relationships, taking care of our finances, health, retirement. We need to sit and focus on problems and think of ways to handle the problem, find people who can help, seek good advice. We should not live like robots, just doing things and not getting the most important things done.
I've always found that the best way to solve a problem that has been puzzling me is to get on a quiet Interstate Highway more than 50 miles from home w/o the radio. It is amazing how clearly you can resolve issues when it is quiet and you have some distance.
Please speak to connection between internet dependency and attention deficit disorders.
In addition to my earlier comment, according to Christine Rosen, author of 'The Myth of Multitasking," she states that "when people are task-switching, they use the 'stratum, a region of the brain involved in learning new skills" (Rosen 107). "In contrast, people who are not multitasking 'show activity in the hippocampus, a region involved in storing and recalling information" (Rosen 108).
Thanks for this great conversation about thinking with PM Forni -- we all need to cultivate a more thoughtful way of living. Dr Forni joins great thinkers, from Socrates to the Buddha, in reminding us that our minds cultivate fitness in the work of thought -- just as our bodies cultivate fitness in the a good workout.
Several callers have noted that we can combine the practice of physical fitness with the practice of intellectual/moral fitness -- Thich Nhat Hanh calls this "active meditation," suggested especially for westerners who have trouble with "sitting" meditation and do better by engaging the body in repetitive acts (such as walking, folding clothes, washing dishes, painting) that free the mind for thought. In our rush to "save" time through convenient technologies, we are literally losing our minds. Perhaps we should embrace the silent, timeful indulgence of housework and walking to cultivate our minds?
Why do we think? Some French cognitive sociologist have argued that we think not to gain the truth but to gain the upper hand. So reason becomes more of a weapon than a way to the truth.
Since we think so badly, why would we want to do more? And if flawed reasoning is an evolutionary adaptation, why (if we can) get rid of it?