NezSez

Have you ever:

• Shared a joke with friends?
• At a game, gave a high five to a complete stranger next to you after your team has just made a tough score?
• Chatted with a coworker about a TV show at the water cooler?

What do these three actions have in common?

They satisfy a need to belong.

The Instinct to Belong

I’m sure the development of this need harkens back to the days of the caveman — banding together was the prudent way for early man (and woman) to survive encounters with woolly mammoths, saber-toothed tigers and the like (oh, my!) — those who didn’t, did not survive, and so the instinct was passed on.

Today, however, with those dangers extinct, we find other reasons to bond together. In the end, after food and water, and perhaps shelter, that next need is the need to feel a part of a group, whether it’s a life-partner in the form of a husband or wife, or something beyond a simple pairing.

Benefits of a Group

Indeed, there many benefits to being in a group

• Teamwork - working together can overcome many weaknesses
• Social skills - being successful usually means developing social skills
• Respect for others - the best teams usually have members who respect one another
• Support from others and camaraderie within the group - when one member is down, the others can pick him or her up
• Getting things Done fast - such as in an assembly line
• Brainstorming ideas in a meeting
• Strength in numbers
• Specialists are able to be developed or recruited, since other aspects are handled by others in the group, etc.

In fact, achievements such as building the Golden Gate Bridge or Hoover Dam is only possible through the power of a group. The strongest nations, the strongest corporations, are all groups.

Being in The In Crowd

It’s more than a great Ramsey Lewis composition, the “in” crowd is what makes us feel happy when we belong to one, and certainly makes us feel bad when we don’t — whether it’s a discussion on the latest episode of Heroes, or joining the after-work soccer team, the good feeling we get from being part of something is usually ingrained in all of us from the time we’re born, with things like:

• Being held in mommy’s bosom, where it was always warm and safe
• Cuddling with a parent as a toddler
• Playing in small groups in preschool

And then leading on to:

• School clubs
• Spelling bees
• Kick ball teams
• Birthday parties
• Sleepovers
• Music class
• Little league

Then we hear conversations like:

• “Oh, my kid got into the GIFTED program.”
• “My daughter’s teacher is Ms. Smith — teacher of the year.”
• “My son got into Harvard.”
• “My daughter got a full scholarship.”

These are all everyday conversations we might hear, but they all seem to point to one thing.

A Sense of Competition, and OneUpmanship

In our society, we are taught to (try to) thrive on competition. That push to be better than the other guy or gal is oftentimes a great motivator, and many individuals excel. As a person develops their skills, he or she may find him or herself:

• on a team, or even an “elite” team
• in a fraternity or sorority
• in a club
• joining a political party
• becoming part of the workforce, for a company, or starting his or her own
• at a company, become part of a department
• joining a union, and so on.

The Dangers of a Group

As we can see, society inevitably puts us into a group. And while we’ve seen the benefits of being in a group, there are also many dangers. Those dangers also begin early in our lives.

For instance, in school, we get the “bad apples” who are immediately grouped by being sent to detention. “Loners” may be shunned by the rest of the students for being “strange” or “radical”.

At work, sometimes the employees (”us”) versus customers (”them”) will result in poor customer service — ever get the “that’s not my department” line from an employee? Or a certain department (HR or Accounting or middle management) will eliminate members of the “regular” employees.

However, the true dangers come from exploitation of individuals in the name of the group, simply because the need to belong is so strong:

• Gangs - the need to belong is strong enough to entice some young people to join a gang, where terms like “family”, “brother” or “sister” are often used. Actions are executed in the name of the gang — “initiation” rites, such as robbing someone “outside” the family, turf wars, and worse — done to elicit praise from the leader(s), to get that love that is perhaps missing from their own (broken?) homes or parents that are too “busy” or uncaring, or to have a purpose
• Fanatic groups - think of the extreme right, groups led by zealous fanatics who use their charisma to gather a devoted following, oftentimes pitting them against the rest of society or other groups deemed unworthy, promising deliverance for successful execution of their agendas
• Religion - Religion is supposed to based on teachings of their founders (Christ, Buddha, Mohammed, etc.), and these teachings are taught by those who know “the truth” — the religious leaders — and so they form the group at the top, a group that has great power. But, some of these groups inevitably abuse that power and become corrupted. For all the good that is done, there are also great harm done in the name of religion. Think the Spanish Inquisition, the Crusades, and so-called “Holy” wars
• Politics - the “us versus them” card is often played here as well, resulting in impasses on policies at home, questionable campaign contributions that can sway decisions one way or another. Groups can cause civil unrests and other disturbances. Special interests are groups as well, and have sometimes been linked to conflicts and wars abroad. There are many examples today, but easy historical examples include Hitler and the Nazis, the plight of Native Americans, global Colonialism, Yellow Journalism, etc.

Suppression of Individual Thought and Critical Thinking

It’s easy to see how the group can be exploited by its leaders. Through the use of peer pressure, fear (of being cast out, or even losing his or her life), or simply the promise of love, individual thought and critical thinking can easily be suppressed, forgotten, or simply abandoned.

This can lead to the Lemming effect, where individuals simply go along with the group, not really knowing, or caring, in what direction they’re headed — mob think.

But I think a lot has to the do with the ones who lead the groups. Be it a gang, political, religious, corporate, whatever, leaders of groups have great power. And sometimes decisions are made not in the best interest of the group, but rather in the best interest of the leaders (e.g. to preserve their power and status).

Group is Great But One Still Has to Think

In the end, I think it’s important to be aware of the grouping phenomenon/instinct. Unless one is a total hermit, becoming part of a group is inevitable.

One still should practice critical thinking, especially when the direction we’re headed is not ideal, and voice his or her concerns, or simply leave the group.

One still needs to tell the Emperor he has no clothes.

The Group to Which We All Belong

Ultimately, we should remember that, whether we want to or not, from the moment we are born, we already belong to one group.

The human race.

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One of the plot devices in fiction that engages me the most has always been the “alternate time-line”.

Cause and Effect

The idea of changing causes and seeing the resulting effects is a staple of science fiction.

Films like Back to the Future, The Terminator, TV shows like Quantum Leap and (certain episodes of) Star Trek all have stories that focus on how key events determine a certain future, and if those key events were altered, the future would be altered as well.

And the idea is not limited to science fiction. You may have seen or read Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol, or how about the similarly-inspired holiday “favorite”, It’s a Wonderful Life. In both stories, we get to see alternate time-lines, cleverly suggested as dreams.

There’s a whole list of alternate “history” stories listed in this Wikipedia entry.

What If? is a part of Critical Thinking

These tales all bring to the fore the question of What if? Indeed, the question of “What if?” can be used to generate entire stories. But it is also a way of exercising critical thinking. Only here, it is utilized in fiction, instead of real-life situations.

Baseball

Speaking of real life, the what if? scenario is perfectly illustrated in the American game of baseball. Like setting off a row of dominoes, a key play in baseball can result in a series of events (a player steals a base, causing the pitcher to throw to second, but the shortstop muffs the catch, and the runner from third scores so…) that gets one team closer to victory.

The interesting thing about baseball, unlike other sports, is that there is no time limit. Rather, the game is played until a key event occurs that results in one team having a 1 or more runs scored than the other team after the top of the ninth inning. Otherwise, the game can theoretically play for inning after inning, as long as the game remains tied.

This allows the game to have any number of key events. And in the end, the game announcers usually like to point out the “play of the game”, again, usually one of those key events (a crucial hit or a spectacular defensive play).

(I’m not a true fan of baseball, but I really appreciate that singular aspect of the game — that one play can affect the outcome of the game.)

Real Life Decisions

So because of my understanding, and appreciation of the fact we live in a “linear” existence, I often reflect on decisions that I have just made, or am about to make, and wonder about the resulting time-line that I’m “creating”.

I also like to look back on history, and ponder about key events that set the course of our current time-line.

It really helps to put things in perspective sometimes.

Far-Sightedness versus Short-Sightedness

I learned the difference between far-sightedness and short-sightedness in high school, and I’m not talking about needing to wear glasses. I’m talking about seeing long-term and short-term effects of a specific action.

It Happened in History class

The inciter was one of my history teachers, whom I shall call Mr. F.

He was certainly not a great teacher by any means — in fact, he normally taught P.E. — but for whatever reasons, we had him for one semester of U.S. History.

What normally happened was we would be cruising along through the textbook during lecture when one thing or another from the text would prompt him to go off on tangents. Here are two that I recall:

• Railroads - Mr. F would wax nostalgic about the railroad system of the late 1800’s, during the Industrial Revolution. Tracks spanned all across the country, and you can go most anywhere via a romantic train ride. Cities and industries grew due to the “iron horse”. Then, along came the trucking companies, who, in the interest of increasing truck sales, started buying up the railroads, and then simply shut them down, all in the name of profits. For Mr. F this was one of the great injustices wreaked by corporations, one apparently he had never forgiven.
• S.F. Municipal Transportation - On another occasion, Mr. F would talk about something closer to home — San Francisco used to have a lot more streetcar lines (verified by looking at any old historic S.F. photo book). However, the same automobile companies came along and convinced (read: bought off) local politicians to have many streetcar lines removed, so that buses could be sold to the city.

Mr. F would go on exclaiming, “Do you know how many trucks are needed to haul all the freight that can be loaded onto a string of freight cars pulled by a single locomotive, and how much fuel is wasted!?” And he would the class in a huff!

Similar diatribes would occur throughout the semester, and we, being young teenagers, would always snicker afterwards and shake our heads, thinking how bitter Mr. F was.

Looking Back at that Class

Now, looking back, that’s where I got my first taste of the kind of harm corporations can do when they emphasize short-term gains over the greater benefit that often comes from actions geared toward a long-term vision. The idea to always think about long-term effects has stuck with me ever since.

All because of one bitter old man.

A Little History

My first computer was a Commodore 64.

Ahh, memories. It was great. On the C64 was where I learned BASIC, and got to play Infocom text-based games, and even translations of cool arcade games. A few years later, I bought an Atari Mega ST.

Empire, anyone?

By the time I started working, I finally did jump into the vast PC pool, and until last year, I never got out, not even to the shallow end. So over a period of about 15 years, I had all manners of PCs: a Dell, a few home-built machines, a couple of local store-built ones, and two laptops.

But last year was when I finally jumped ship. I bought a Mac. Here’s why:

Reasons I Switched to a Mac

• Price - Over the years, I made a lot of friends who used the Mac, so it was not like I knew nothing about them. In fact, the first Macintosh I was exposed to was the Mac 128 (and I was very impressed), and over the years various friends had IIci’s, Quadra’s, G3’s and iBooks. And throughout those years, I was always aware that Apple hardware came at a premium price. But in recent years, getting the best “bang for the buck” no longer meant only looking at PCs. In fact, because of the next reason, pricing is very competitive for similarly spec’ed machines.
• Switching to Intel Chips - When Apple in 2006 announced the reasons (price and performance) they were switching to Intel chips, that really piqued my interest. Aware of the EAS (Early Adopters Syndrome), I patiently bided my time while paying close attention to each and every announcement of new models. Knowing I wasn’t going to buy one right away allowed me to simply take in all the hoopla surrounding each model, and read the subsequent (positive) reviews on Mac performances. I paid attention to PC emulating software (Parallels and later Fusion), and knew then that my time was coming. The couple of crucial PC software that I use can now be run on the Mac.
• Ease of Maintenance - Thanks to a lot of tutorial videos, both on the Apple site and sites like YouTube and MacSales.com, I was definitely looking forward to having an easy-to-maintain desktop (as I’ll explain below). I was not to be disappointed.

I made the switch, and bought a Quad-Core MacPro tower late last summer.

6 Months Later…

I’m as happy as can be.

For me, it wasn’t like, “What took me so long?” but rather, “I’m so glad I waited and now I got one!”

So, in my limited experience so far, the things that jump out are:

• Simplicity - For years I’ve admired the design of Apple products. Sleek, elegant, clean, simple are all words that come to mind, and now that I own one, those same words still arrive! From the way the machine comes packed, to the way the designers managed the wire-handling, there’s a rhyme and reason to how everything works. My Mac is the most beautiful thing to look at — I only wish those designers would come and clean up my office!
• Ease of Upgrading - The MacPro can hold 4 hard drives. How long did it take me to install one hard drive? 5 minutes. I undo one latch, open the case, slide out a metal frame, screw on the new drive to the frame, slide it back in (no connector, wires, or power supply to fool with), close the case, push the latch to the closed position, and I’m done. Boot up the Mac, and it tells me there’s a new drive, and asks what should I do with it (format it).

Contrast this with my last experience adding a drive to my PC. I open up the case and locate a free spot to install the drive. I need to knock out one of the small panels in the front of the case so that I can put the drive through. I secure the drive with the screws. Now I connect the data cable from the motherboard to the drive. For the power cable, I need to free one of the extra cables that the manufacturer has secured together with a cable tie, attach the power cable to the drive, and then tie up the remaining cables with a new tie. Now I massage all the wires back into place so that the case can be closed. I boot up the PC. The monitor is blank. What the?! After a couple of retries with the same result, I boot into Setup, and find out that there’s no boot drive. Hmmm. I open up the case again, and find that during my installation of the new drive, I had loosened the data cable to my boot drive. Okay, reattach that. Reboot. Okay, it finally works. Format the new drive, proceed with life (after I’ve wasted an hour and a half). Which brings me to the next discovery about my Mac:

• It Really Just Works - I’ve been hearing in ads and from users about how Macs just works. And it’s all true. The operating system is very stable. Some programs still crash, yes, but those are far and few in between, and certainly at a much, much smaller rate than Windows programs. I can probably count on one hand the number of times I’ve had to shut down the computer due to a rogue program. Compare this with my PC, when a cold reboot was necessary at least once a week. Many of the bundle applications on the Mac are quite robust: iTunes, iPhotos, iDVD are all programs I use on a regular basis. (I use Gmail instead of Mail.) Updates are easy and painless. Do I need to mention the PC equivalents? I thought not.
• I am Much More Productive - And because I spend less time needing to reboot the computer, or tinkering with upgrades, etc., I have more time to spend writing blog pos–I mean, being productive, like complete work for my clients, spend time with family, etc.

I’m happy with my computer. Are you?

Excellence Comes from Training

Michael Jordan. Jerry Rice. Fred Astaire. Gene Kelly.

What do they have in common?

Yes, they’re all guys, and yes, they were all considered the best in their profession. They were also known for their incredible commitment and dedication to practice, training, and/or rehearsing.

Practice Critical Thinking

Critical thinking, like any worthwhile ability, is also a skill that needs to be nurtured, developed, and practiced on a regular, constant basis in order for it to be effective.

So here are 5 ways to improve one’s critical thinking skills:

1. Learn to Listen First - We often start thinking the moment someone starts talking to us, thinking to such an extent that we actually fail to listen. If we fail to listen, how can we get all the facts that are crucial to correct decision-making?
2. Set Aside Time to Practice - Just as with an exercise regimen, critical thinking should be practiced at regular times. Fit the activity within one of your routine habits, tasks, or chores. See my post on The Best Times to Think for tips.
3. Be Open Minded - Someone once said, “The mind is like a parachute; it functions only when open.” An open mind will be amendable to accepting new data and ideas that can be used to form new opinions and decisions, or modify old ones.
4. Practice Cause and Effect - Be observant of people’s behavior, and work backwards to speculate how they may have arrived at that behavior.
5. Ask Questions - Be inquisitive and ask questions, look things up in the dictionary. Learning new things will keep the brain stimulated.

Hopefully, these will be useful exercises.

Since we’re observing the birth of Dr. Martin Luthor King, Jr. today, I thought I’d list a few of my favorite quotes from this influential man.

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

– I see this as a universal truth on how we should deal with setbacks and failures, when the going gets rough, when we feel overwhelmed and stress.

Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.”

– this one hits home, and is one of the underlying reasons for this blog, and why I chose to focus this blog’s theme on Critical Thinking.

“One who breaks an unjust law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.”

– Inspiring. Of course, Dr. King must have been referring to Rosa Parks.

If you’re interested in more quotes, check out Brainyquote.

“Many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own points of view.” — Obi Wan Kenobi

I love this Star Wars quote, one of many, actually.

Universal Truth about Points of View

But in this case, it really struck me as a universal truth. As author Dale Carnegie explains in How to Win Friends and Influence People, people do not normally do things because they think they are wrong, but rather because they think they are in the right because, from their point of view, they are.

We know that a cup with liquid taking up half the volume can be viewed as half-full, or half-empty — we often use that phrase to illustrate optimism versus pessimism. However, if we just analyze the phrase for its inherent logic, we can see that both statements ARE true, but only from a certain point of view.

A cup can be half-full of liquid, from the frame of reference of how much “content” we have. At the same time, a half-filled cup is also a half-empty, from the frame of reference of the total cup volume.

How I Apply the Points of View Principle

• Personal and Professional - When I hear a complaint from either a client, or even my honey, I bite my tongue from wanting to respond right away. Instead, I take the stance that they are right, from their point of view. And from there, I try to arrive at a resolution that will be satisfactory for all parties involved.
• Parenting - When the kids are voicing their wants, I listen and I think of why they feel so strongly about whatever it is they want, and how I can leverage that to guide them to, and teach them things I feel is important.
• World/Current Events - When I listen to politicians on the news, be it the local city supervisors, or the U.S. President, or foreign powers, I take into account their points of view. As such, I can understand why foreign terrorists feel the need to do what they do — I don’t condone it, but I understand, but I also know there has to be a better way to peace. On a local level, I can understand why we have developers versus environmentalists, renters versus landlords, etc.

Important Component to Critical Thinking

Anyway, I just wanted to point out that understanding points of view is an important, critical component to critical thinking.

I hope you see my point.

If you’ve been in a memorable situation where you’ve seen valid points of view, I’d love to hear them.

I lead a busy life being a self-employed professional, and we live in such a fast-paced, media-dense society that we often let others make decisions for us. A maelstrom of messages — radio, print and television ads, social websites, packaging, etc. — all tell us what to buy, what to wear, what to eat, what to watch, etc., but sometimes following those messages is not really to our benefit.

The Need to Think

I think it’s very important to think for ourselves lest we get taken advantage of by others. Think of your email spam — why is there so much of it, unless…somehow…it works?

I’m guessing somewhere, somehow, despite what common sense says, someone is being taken by a spam because they did not take the time to think, or even follow the simple mantra: If it’s too good to be true, it probably is.

When we stop thinking for ourselves, that’s when we can become manipulated, both on an individual level, like a spam victim, and on a collective level — ever hear of the mob mentality?

I live in a society with “freedom of speech” and “freedom of the press”, but if we choose not to make decisions on our own, then why should this country’s forefathers have fought for its freedom?

Practice To Keep Sharp

In order to start thinking for ourselves — to employ the practices of critical thinking — I think it’s just as important to exercise our brain’s mental acuity as much as it is to exercise our bodies for physical health. Only then can we make the proper decisions to put us on the path positive living.

As such, here are my ideas for when to flex our mental muscles:

• Driving - I practice driving efficiently, so I often find my driving times to be perfect opportunities to think. To do this, though, I leave the radio or tape deck (people still have those? yeah, I do) off. It also helps to not have kids in the car the same time you want to do your thinking.
• Showering - I still try to keep my showers short, in order to conserve water (and money), but every once in a while I’ll let myself go and enjoy a longer shower. Instead of singing the latest teen hit (not that I know any), I use that time to think.
• Lying in bed at 4am in the morning awake - This may actually be the worst time, as I am actually depriving myself of much needed sleep — so this suggestion is with a caveat. But in any case, sometimes it’s actually the best time as it’s dark and quiet, that is, if your bedmate exhibits a low-snoring quotient.
• Walking - This one is one of those Two Birds with One Stone bits: a little cardiovascular exercise while thinking of the things I need to do.
• Waiting in line at the grocer’s - Do I pick the longest line to wait in, so that I have more time to think? Nah, but still, instead of being distracted by tabloids or candies, I use that time to ponder.

By continually practicing critical thinking: analyzing, conceptualizing, forecasting, etc., we gain a better understanding of everything around us: TV commercials and infomercials, product packaging, politicians, even bosses and clients.

Most importantly, we gain a better understanding of ourselves.

Critical Thinking is explained in depth here on Wikipedia while Dictionary.com defines it as thus:

“The mental process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating information to reach an answer or conclusion.”

I was formally introduced to the subject in a college English course, where one of the main texts was Carl Sagan’s The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark.

What I recall from the book was the Sagan’s plea for us to really think and use logic to employ a healthy skepticism to ideas, products and entities out there that may or may not be all they seem.

Critical Thinking from Star Trek

It was a really good eye-opening course, even though, when I think about it, the concept was not foreign. It wasn’t as if I had never practiced critical/analytical/deep thinking. I would say one of my earliest influences was the character of Spock from Star Trek: The Original Series (in re-runs, though — I’m not that old), a show which often used the cold logic of Spock and the emotion and intuition of Captain Kirk as points of contention in deciding courses of action.

It ultimately introduced to me the idea of finding a balance between logic and emotion in decision-making.

The Crux of Critical Thinking

The way I see it, critical thinking is:

• the ability to see the big picture (Seeing the forest for the tree)
• the ability to predict consequences (envisioning the domino effect of one action)
• the use of logic to confirm or refute a statement that sounds factual
• the ability to weigh multiple points of view

Healthy Skepticism

By regularly practicing critical thinking, one will learn to be open-minded, but yet ready to ask:

• Is what I’m seeing/hearing really possible or make sense?
• Would there be an ulterior motive for x’s claim?
• Is a statement made with a certain bias that skews the true facts?
• Is my own bias and emotions coloring my own decision about xyz subject?
• Am I privy to all the information that is available to make a true judgment?

Critical Thinking is Learning

In the end, it’s about learning the “truth” about something. Hopefully, most of the time the truth that you conclude after using critical thinking is really true.

In future posts, I will touch on topics that affect people on a daily basis, as many bloggers do, but hopefully with a well-thought out, bigger-picture-view that many may not have noticed. And, by no means am I an expert — I just think I think a lot — so I will welcome comments and discussion.

Hope you’ll join in!