How to become an independent thinker

Hi {{first name | friend}}

When did you last have a thought that was entirely your own?

I’m asking because I can see many of us are experiencing a similar problem: being so consumed by noise that we can’t work out what we really think.

This week, I’ve attempted to lay out my thoughts on this subject, including:

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We’re drowning in information. Every day, we scroll through hundreds of posts, skim dozens of articles, consume countless videos. AI can churn out more content in an hour than we could read in an entire year. We have access to everything, yet we're paralysed by it.

When I talk to people about thinking or generating ideas or connecting ideas together, they mention the word “focus”.

Our focus has splintered into smaller and smaller pieces and now many of us can barely hold a single thought for more than a few seconds. 

We’re losing something really valuable: our ability to think for ourselves.

We collect information, bookmark articles, save posts for later. When was the last time you looked in your saved folder? (I don’t even think I know where my saved folder is…)

It’s affecting more than just our work. We’re all feeling a strain in connecting with other people too. What I once thought was a lack of confidence in approaching someone or lack of conversation skills to start chatting, I’m now seeing is also lack of independent thought and not actually having much to say. When was the last time you had something truly interesting to say?

Our education was based on us knowing stuff. The more we knew, the higher our grades. But expertise is no longer the information you know. Expertise is being able to synthesise the information you already have, to connect ideas that seem unrelated, to think your way through problems nobody has solved yet.

Right now, many of us are still focussing on the knowing and filling ourselves to the brim with information. And that's a problem. 

I think ideation is a human skill. I define it as the ability to generate and develop new ideas by connecting the dots between unrelated things. I like to think of it as being a curious, experimental, critical thinker. 

We need ideation because brilliant ideas don’t come to us in a quick brainstorm meeting. They come to light after weeks, months, and sometimes years of experience and work. That’s where our strong ideas and our true thoughts and opinions come from.

In the workplace, we’ve become so driven by efficiency that we’re no longer making time to think for ourselves, which funnily enough is inefficient.

Relying on other sources, by which I mean other people and what AI produces, to generate ideas and solve problems might feel efficient when you’re rushing through tasks at work and you just need to get the stuff done, but it’s eroding our ability to think independently.

The people who will succeed at work won’t be those who know the most, but those who connect, challenge, and criticise the most.

Many people’s thinking is actually a regurgitated version of someone else’s thinking.

I’ve seen this happen in different contexts.

The first time I noticed this was at Christmas work drinks a few years ago. My boss said that he didn’t like Coldplay and my coworker responded, “Me neither!”.

He continued with, “I like The Cure though”.

She piped up, “Me too!”

She later told me that she did, in fact, like Coldplay and couldn’t name a single song by The Cure.

She was out to impress the boss and showed no desire to have independent thought or get curious and ask why he didn’t like Coldplay, which could have led to an interesting conversation.

More recently, there was a viral Vogue article titled “Is having a boyfriend embarrassing now?” I saw the article doing the rounds online and days later I was having dinner with a friend. We were talking about her relationship, and she said, “Well, having a boyfriend is embarrassing now, isn’t it?”

To which I replied, “Do you really think that?”

I realised that deep down she didn’t think that at all. She’d gotten swept up in the article’s virality, absorbed the message, and adopted the position that she too was now embarrassed to have a boyfriend. A position that wasn’t hers.

It’s not compulsory to have thoughts on everything or to agree with everyone. But for the topics we do have thoughts on, falling into groupthink is a mistake that’s eroding our ability to think independently.

Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon where people act in the same way due to a desire for group cohesion, harmony and conformity. It happens because a person sees other people behaving in a particular way and is influenced to do the same. 

It’s especially common in the workplace where we look to other people’s words, thoughts, and behaviours to determine what we should say, think, and do. 

I know what it feels like to voice someone else’s thoughts and opinions with conviction while wondering where I stand. I’ve fallen into this trap many times.

Through years of workplace observation, I’ve come to learn that one of the greatest mistakes people make is finding a way to be just like everyone else. Your organisation, your team doesn’t need another person who sounds like everyone else.

They need YOU.

People stand out through their difference. This is more important now than ever, especially as everything is sounding the same. 

I want to help us to build our ideation skills and develop independent thought. As with any skill, the more you practise it, the more it will develop.

Here are five ideas you can choose from:

1. Slow down your consumption

I like to be informed about what’s going on in my environment and the wider world, but it’s not always the healthiest thing to do, especially when I’m consuming the information from my phone where I have access to everyone else’s thoughts via reshares and comment sections.

How can you consume information in a way that allows you to sit with your own thoughts before taking on anyone else’s?

How can you receive information in a slower, healthier way, and have the space to critique it before fully digesting it? 

2. Protect your solo thinking time

Nowadays, we’re bombarded with information and opinions and spend very little time with our own thoughts. In his book Digital Minimalism, Cal Newport calls this “Solitude Deprivation: a state in which you spend close to zero time alone with your own thoughts and free from input from other minds.”

Schedule time each week with no input. No phone, no podcast, no music. I know, it sounds boring, I promise it’s not!

Two weeks ago, I took a 2-hour flight with zero input. Last week, I spent 90 minutes in the gym with zero input. This morning, I sat with my peppermint tea and zero input.

See how easy it is to add to your day to day?

3. Get clear on your reasoning

Many of us have an opinion but don’t know why it’s our opinion.

Pick something you believe strongly, something you'd defend in a conversation. Write it down as a clear statement, then spend time trying to destroy your own argument.

Ask yourself: 

I’m not asking you to abandon your opinions or beliefs. The idea is to hold them more thoughtfully, to know why you believe what you believe, and to spot the holes in your own reasoning.

4. Think before you search

Before you look something up, write down what you already think. For example, before you listen to a podcast on a new subject, write a paragraph of your existing view.

Thinking is a muscle and if you don’t use it without assistance, it gets weaker.

5. Share your unfinished thoughts

Most people wait until they have a polished opinion before they speak. But the act of articulating a half-formed thought is often how it becomes a full one.

You don’t need to have it all figured out before you speak. You could say, “I’ve been thinking about this and I haven’t landed anywhere yet…” then see what comes out.

Developing independent thought isn’t something that happens overnight. It’s putting in the work to make it a daily practice.

Choose from one of the five ideas above and commit to it for seven days.

If you choose to protect your solo thinking time, block it out in your calendar and do it.

If you choose to slow down your consumption, swap a doom scroll for reading the newspaper.

Do it for a week and see what comes up.

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