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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I think that the most fruitful form of thinking is SYNTHESIS which results when one muses on the connections between two or more pieces of knowledge.
The reason that people avoid thinking is that it leads to introspection. It is very difficult to hide from your own shortcomings as a human being during solitary thought. I spend 20 hours per week driving long distances and rarely have the radio on and it has definitely made me a better person.
If we read Virginia Satir's writings of the five freedoms that we all need.
We may discover that we do not allow our children to think. Until Children are allowed to think; grownups will not know how to think.
This is such a wonderful topic! After the first caller made his observations about the Internet Sabbath, I was struck by the possibility that the rise of Alzheimer's in our population may be directly related to our increasing dependence on the internet. The concept of the "flabby" brain seems potentially related to this serious condition.
Thinking is just another word for one behavioral alternative among the choices we have to make among the options available to us at any one time. How we make choices among the alternatives available to us is the basis of ethics.
I would love to call you and speak on this subject with you but I do not have your phone number. This is a serious problem. The majority of people do not have permission to think. "Use your Time and Intelligence wisely and this will ensure that you will think" Laura Allard would say this to all her elementary school students at Windsor Park in Corpus Christi, Texas. I am the proud Mother of two of her students one is a teacher now and the other one is a creative artist. They both are making sure that their children have the permission to think.
I teach in Indianapolis, In, and every semester I get a few students who think the world is at fault for their failings. I find that a percentage of our young population believe that they should not be held accountable for their mistakes and basically come up with excuses and reasons to blame their families and teachers. Where is this type of thinking coming from?
I would like to have heard more about how Dr Forni feels about education and I'm thinking here specifically of homeshooling.
It seems to me that the public school system is too far gone and without some catastrophic event cannot be changed.
Pier Forni is correct, think is our #1 most important thing we do for others and ourselves. We also let our political system do our thinking for us - this must stop and evaluate what we intake and come to our own point of view separately in every aspect of Life. Computers are not our enemy. Our reliance on letting other people do our thinking for us; this is a terminal disease to our society. Absolutely.
Let's be honest...if you're easily distracted from thinking, or you need to schedule time to think deeply, you're probably not really all that bright to start with.
Jobs for philosophers.
Many years ago I began to encounter a number of philosopher-farmers--men and women who engaged their bodies in tangible work with the earth and simultaneously engaged their minds in a variety of topics from the value of good food, to current events, to literature and beyond. I have met so many philosopher-farmers it cannot be a fluke.
I work as a wildlife biologist and the field is similar: at work in the woods, I am free from the distractions of the internet, telephone, etc. My mind and body connect with the human/nonhuman company in my environment. I have adequate mental space not only to observe and analyze my surroundings but to think freely about many things, including about those I love (Forni's insight on the double meaning of 'thoughtfulness'). Many revelations occur for me at work.
Manual work like this is perfect for philosophers: a job that has intrinsic value, engages the body which in turn engages the mind, and yet gives a lot of freedom for reflection.
What an excellent, fascinating show! And a beautiful photo from the Kremlin, too.
I am a teacher and I agree with Mr. Forni. He did not mention the detrimental effect of standardized testing on student thinking. In this format a student is trained to psychic out the correct answer, not think for him/herself. Independent thinking is not valued or taught, as it can not be measured and evaluated .
I tried to get the number to call in, but couldn't rememeber long enough to put in my cell phone. A perfect example of my growing inability to remember numbers, etc.
I teach college composition in a community college in Rochester, New York and one of my better students wrote..."We don't need knowledge anymore now that we have the Internet." I think he meant we don't have to remember anything anymore, take notes, think about ideas--it's all there in an instant in in I Phone.
Still I continue "raging, raging against the dying of the light..I will not go gentle into this good night."
Thanks for a fabulous topic. Professor Forni came to MCC to talk about civility & he was an inspiration.
I think when talking about the lack of thinking in America, television can be compared to a gateway drug from thought. My generation was raised on television. Realizing this, I have not owned a televsion for years and cannot stand that my family's television never gets turned off. Some people in America cannot bear the thought of silence. This culture of technology addiction has been a long time developing.
The thinking discussed in this show is a fundamental ingredient of the human mind. This kind of thinking needs language. Language is a prerequisite to history. Without our history, we do not know who we are. The thought process bestows consciousness.
Martin Heidegger's thoughts still are pertinent in today's brain-based world. Read more here:
http://brainmindinst.blogspot.com/2010/09/prologue-to-theory-of-mind.html
Firstly you must iether be smart or be able/willing to assist. The greatest assistant to thinking is geography and culture [who don't know who you are or where you've been, but have some kind -or another- of openess], or directed history.
Persons who are smart [objectable-/-objectively] yet as geo-cultural-aliens are normally unhappy, who then travel to their ancestral-world in a quiet area and season'''s may decend into deep thought! this is both an equation [politically sensitive as a "Git Mo" for children, sans "Ally" & without history] and a potential outcome. And squeezing such [ripe?] splinters of thinkability from the wanton geography of historic inaccessibility. That is a functional physical 2 way equation and filter {A.N.N.Y.T.} of goodness and education in the field of reality without the camera nor illussion. WHEN the Facebook founder came to California it was like the lights came on [many millions in fact], Bill gates is 3rd gen, and has a mind sympathetic to Korea [so they say?] just across the "pond"?, when Christopher Hitchens MOVED to America/Canada, well, I think he was thinking.
But at the en d of the world {not 2012 but geographic realities !outside [of] the ivory (Emmigrant) tower}, there are thoughts so deep, that delving into them is a colossal feat [good shoes required, not hired], that climbing a great mountain is the only way you can see into them without getting sucked in, and by that time dependencies may, may just be the corner of mathEmatical translation and understanding. But without the temptation of deprivation, your inspiration may be much less contentious and yet liberating, allowing others to simply have unthreatened thoughts.
New arrivals think at the expence of [locAlly raised UNHAPPY] persons who don't belong. A 2 way [filterEd] poli-equation. 'nnnyt Allied policy.
I just happened to notice one day while watching CNN, et al, that if you break it down, they show about 2 1/2 minutes of news, usually bad news along with associated horrid images.When they are telling the story, in the dominant part of the screen, they are also scrolling along the bottom a constant stream of different, also bad news.
Then they go to commercial.
Overwhelmingly, it is for a drug, suggesting that you "May have this or that disorder, and to ask your doctor".These commercials usually include 30 seconds or so of potential side effects at their conclusion including sometimes "Suicidal thoughts and/or death".
At certain times of the year, these commercials are augmented with the addition of the wonderful, hateful, dishonest political attack ads we hold so dear in this country and supposedly what our elected officials have to spend a good part of each day raising money to be able to afford to air.
So, we have around 3 MINUTES of double bad news and images, followed by at least 5 MINUTES OR MORE of drug and dishonest political ads, followed again by 3 minutes of bad news.
Our mainstream media is profiting and is complicit in this phenomena.
I believe people are in some way hypnotized by watching the news, and if the average person never stops to think about what they are allowing to enter their brain, and here is the sad part, THEIR PSYCHE, it is no wonder our country is in the shape it's in.
I began thinking -Clearly & RATIONaLLY {ALgebraic ...zen?}- when and whenever I leave California -the crucible! of 2 worlds and the overlap of cult--thoughts, "thinking i should leave" annyt* LEFT me spinning, always.
And when I finally got desperate (1996***2001 to present) enough to escape, and had the uncommonly rare conclusion of truth... After that I FORBID all other thinking except 4 me within the sound of my radio [ok; small speakers]. This absolution is so I can think in longitudes and lAttitudes (THERE! i Think MORE) & it's a lonely thought -hence man. dest., ethics of ruin and moral dust {what DID you see inn geo-culturAlly-EXP?}.) More algebraic thoughts for humanity "from" somewhere normal "to" somewhere different with fractions of truth -and the lence of computation {wrong brain: Rite mind N-C-left-behind (ambiguous context)}- always! looking back at what was missed & left behind (P.O.W.cultural narcolepsy).
The numerator of primary-reality and the denominator of secondary-truth; X files the spot & 1,000 parachutes fore 1 formula, to liberate the new world geographic mind.
Eat , think and leave me alone [culturAlly] and, uh... show me yours. blind thoughts must get over the hump.
Foreign oil, foreign coffee/tea and foreign roads lead [back] to the local/regionAl truth{!} or (!!!). without the politiCal [delusions] of foreign free...k's pushing lies ;) . Thinking fore! truth under a distancEd [faux Ed] foreIGN roof.
*annyt= advoc notisably normative & nominal youth transplant /student!exchange_