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To be a better thinker, one needs to train their mind to be able to manipulate different concepts, consider ideas from different angles, and accept only those that make the most logical sense. This is a difficult task. One does not just wake up one morning, decide to be a better thinker, and go to bed having achieved that goal. It is a lifelong pursuit, one with very few outward markers of progress. Such progress requires a lot of reading, many conversations, and a lot of writing. One has to find their voice first—a feat that is reached after taking a thousand steps but only counts as the first step.
The question then remains: why strive to be a better thinker, considering the inherent difficulty in pursuing it, the high likelihood for social alienation, and the deep loneliness that commonly comes with it? Part of the answer is to be found in Arthur Schaupenhauer's The Wisdom of Life, in which he emphasises the importance of the subjective over the objective element in life for our happiness. Our internal world—the subjective element, consisting of our thoughts, conceptions, feelings, emotions, motivations, personality, inclinations, etc.—is at the centre of the experience of meaning in life. On the other hand, the objective outer world, consisting generally of physical possessions and reputation suffers from being profoundly temporary and unreliable as it is sensitive to the presence or absence of external stimuli. Yet even possessions and reputation must be felt internally, i.e. subjectively, to provide the sense of accomplishment that accompanies them.
Having considered these factors, the outer world can be viewed as a distraction insofar as the internal world has not been developed. To be a better thinker, therefore, means developing the internal world by magnifying one's powers of judgement, discernment, and world representation. This directly impacts what one considers most important to oneself and in life. Attaining possessions and reputation can be, and often is, exciting, enjoyable, and even thrilling. However, it is tragically short-lived. Its permanence is always in question, as it is tethered to events, to others' opinions—i.e. to the presence or absence of something other than oneself—such that it cannot immediately be accessed at will. Attaining possessions requires constant momentum and novelty to maintain a sense of excitement, pleasure, and fulfilment.
Novelty is always neutralised by experience, by familiarity, and one's threshold for it increases in direct proportion to the frequency at which one attains possessions. It takes more to feel more. Sooner or later, one becomes bored and unsatisfied despite having many possessions.
When one is a better thinker, however, one can find fulfilment in merely sitting down, thinking, reading, conversing etc. One can sit with oneself and ruminate on the heights of human experience, on the deep questions that plague human existence and find fulfilment in that. One can dedicate themselves to their task, deepen their experience with their craft, and enrich their very existence in the moment. Life becomes relatively clearer and less about momentum. One can stop, one is allowed to stop, and sit with himself. This mere act of not running away from oneself alone is a significant achievement, as many people cannot even stand their own company for more than a few minutes before the contents of the will start seeking something to pick up the momentum—something to distract the self from learning more about itself.
A thinker finds pleasure and meaning in thinking. Like a challenging puzzle, they enjoy searching for that elusive piece that will tie everything together. The joy of finding it cannot be purchased with anything in the objective world. It cannot be translated. It is felt, lived. It is meaning. Being a good thinker creates meaning and is always available wherever the person goes. When they are naked in the desert, when they have no devices near them, when they have no possessions, they always rely on what they possess within themselves. They rely not on what they have but on who they are. This is something to strive for. What else is better than being the source of your own life's meaning? Possessions and reputation can be attained later, and they will mean more when the self has been actualised. Thinking is the base, the foundation. Strive to be a better thinker.
←1. Suffering from aggression and empathy
←4. Science sucks and why that is a good thing
←5. Lying from a self-centred point of view
7. Terrence Howard's Genius: Redefined→
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