The Philosophy of Thinking

talking selfie ERIC KIM

The closest link to the word ‘think‘ comes from the Proto-Indo-European ‘*teng-‘ which means to think, to know, and to feel. Some thoughts:

First of all, why think? What is the critical importance of thinking?

Two — is it useful to think for thinking sake?

There — how can we think more?

My ideas:

1. What is the critical importance of thinking?

I think there is a great joy on thinking. For me, thinking is one of the greatest joys in life. So there is certainly just a hedonistic joy of enjoying thinking.

However from a more pragmatic and practical perspective … to be able to think, judge, and discern things on your own is essential to *NOT* get suckered by others and by modern society.

You’re the Judge

2. Is it useful to think for thinking sake?

It can be a fun joy. Perhaps thinking for thinking sake is superior than just playing video games. But the importance of thinking:

Ultimately it comes down to thinking *IN ORDER* to share your thoughts with others.

I know for myself there is a personal hierarchy of my own thoughts. Some of my thoughts interest me, some don’t. Regardless whenever I have ideas I always write them down in iA writer on my Mac or iPad. Or I write a draft post in my wordpress blog:

I’ve published 9,000+ blog posts, but interestingly enough … I actually got around 2,400+ draft posts. Ideas which I thought were initially interesting, but didn’t give me enough zest and gusto to proceed to flesh out the idea.

Therefore contrary to popular knowledge, I don’t actually publish everything. I publish a lot… but not *everything*.

How do I decide? Simple:

If the idea interest me enough (autotelic purposes), I then write it and publish it. If it doesn’t interest me that much … I don’t.

3. To think more

This is the meat. To think more is simple:

  1. Walk more outdoors in the sun
  2. Walk in the sun as much as humanly possible
  3. Talk to strangers
  4. Walk without your phone or headphones and don’t listen to music or podcasts or whatever
  5. Workout frequently (every day or several times a day) without music. You can lift weights (bodybuilding style) or ‘one rep max‘ (powerlifting style) or do bodyweight calisthenics stuff or yoga or whatever.

Or give ZEN OF ERIC (The ‘Why’? app) a shot:

And learn *why* I wanted this thing to come into fruition.

PHILOSOPHY by KIM

Dictate your meaning and purpose in your life with ZEN OF ERIC:


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