Abraham Adams is a fictional character from the novel (Joseph Andrews, written in 1742). Despite being extremely educated and kind hearted,he still remains a fool. The Adam's effect is my modern day version of this character. In our day and age we have all the information we need at the click of a button. The Internet has made us all scholars, but do we have the wisdom to cultivate this knowledge into action? The quest for knowledge has been drastically changed. There is no longer a lack of knowledge, but an abundance of it!
Sadly we have not dealt with this change adequately. We still teach the same way we have always taught and think the same way we have always thought. It is my belief that we are squandering a lot of time and effort on a system long out of date. This opinion is not mine alone. Many prominent scholars like Sir Ken Robinson and Edward De Bono have written amazing books and given enlightening talks on this issue. I highly recommend looking them both up if you have not heard or read about them. The current system of education and thinking is a self-fulfilling prophecy. It is too big to change and too important to "mess with". So what can we do?
The good thing about thinking is that it never stops. We never stop thinking. Yes, we do have lapses of judgment and can make one bad decision after another. But that is not lack of thinking its simply bad thinking. Thinking is something that can be evolved, regardless of age, gender, race, social status. Unlike the traditional notion of intelligence and the silly notion of IQ. Great thinking can be achieved. All it takes is a will and a little soul searching. All it takes is the ability to challenge the unchallenged. By this I do not mean to simply blindly argue and second guess everything. I simply mean consider other options and circumstances. let me give an example taken from Edward De Bono's "Think Before its Too Late". Lying is always bad, a person should never lie. However, lying can be a very moral choice in a very narrow and extreme circumstance; A boy is being chased by a murderer. The boy runs into an ally, the ally forks and the boy goes right. The murderer comes in the ally seconds after the boy has taken the turn. He asks you "Which way did the boy go?". Now in this very extreme example what do you do? tell the truth? lie? say nothing?
We have become so obsessed with science, math, technology and other "modern" forms of intelligence, to the point where we have forgotten the importance of simplicity and everyday things. Language is by far superior to any science. Without it all communication breaks down. Even in your own head. When confused and unable to explain your feelings (to yourself) one becomes frustrated. I may write a separate article about this later. Back to the main topic. Thinking is an art. The more you consciously work on it the better you become at it. Schools and colleges are not enough. They are focused on judgment and evaluation. They have set categories and people must fit into one or the other (A+, A, B+, B ...and so on). However, these categories are not accurate when it comes to how well people can think. It has been proven that sometimes the brightest of students fail at multi-choice questions, because they are able to think of situations where more than one of the choices may be applicable (like the example above about lying).
In the end I believe that if we just take a little more time out of our day to really think and improve our thinking we can achieve so much more. Knowledge is power, however, power is useless without the wisdom to wield it.
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