On a Tuesday evening, faced with the usual wall of mind-numbing television, there is only one sensible response: turn off the screen and attempt some thinking.
I need to open this out straight away. Because thinking about thinking, or meta-thinking, is where I got to. And shortly after that, thought experiments. Which are considered nerdy but they aren’t. Not if you open up how you use them.
Being honest, I like thought experiments. They let you think through all sorts of bonkers situations without spending any money or doing anything dangerous.
You can push the logic of the situation to the extreme and see what breaks. But, without actually breaking anything.
The experiment runs in your mind. Meaning you can start again as often as you want. It means you can mess up, wander down random paths and come back again with no risks.
But the kicker for me is: you can use thought experiments for normal life without getting all nerdy about it. There’s nothing wrong with clever people using them the way they do. What I’m saying is: ordinary people like me can use them, too.
The first question is, how? There are several ways. One of my favourites is the Inversion Test.
It means thinking backwards. Let’s say I was planning a trip to the beach. What I’d do is, think of all the things that would make it a disaster. Everything, right down to forgetting the sunscreen.
I go for a list of around five things. Once I’ve got at least five, I make sure we don’t do any of those things. The reason it works? It’s easier to spot pitfalls than to try and map out perfection.
Here’s another one. It’s called the Pre-Mortem or Testing Decisions. You’re about to make a decision, like, say, a job change. You think like you’re six months ahead. And you pretend your decision ended in regret.
The job ended up not being for you. The commute is killing you etc. the point of this is to expose blind spots before you make the decision.
This is not meant to be a tutorial. But I’ll go through one more because I love this one.
It’s the 10-10-10 rule. How it works is dead simple. Fast-forward your life to measure the actual weight of a current dilemma you are facing.
It might be a mistake at work, an awkward family conversation, something like that.
You ask, How much will this matter in 10 minutes? 10 months? 10 years? You’ll be amazed at how much apparent high drama stuff is gone in the space of an afternoon.
The point here is, these tools are all thought experiments. You can do them sitting in your favourite armchair. They cost nothing and are easy to run multiple scenarios through.
I accept that some folk will feel like these tools are leaning on the side of woo-woo. It’s a case of weighing the facts, picking the best option and going from there. Admirable. But not always possible.
Here’s an example. I thought about writing this column with examples taken from philosophy. But then I thought: Hang on, how would that read? What if I don’t include anything from philosophy? Could I still make it work?
I guess you’ll be the judge of that. But the point remains, thought experiments are a useful way to get through solving problems with thinking.
There’s still sod all on the telly. But I’ve done some thinking so I’m calling that a result.