THINKING: how to

Teaching How To Think isn’t the same as
teaching literature or chemistry, the Goddess
Tradition, instrumental ensemble, research methods
or bio-psychology (“the neuro-physiological
underpinnings of complex behavior”)… etc.

An open class: so many subjects & topics
that can be listed in a catalogue and none
are the same as how-to-think not to mention
how-to-think-for-one’s SELF; and any one
might say how-to-think can’t be taught but
consider it an emerging phenomenon rising
up from engagement with any of these
offerings.

Google-Up how-to-think and you’ll see
instruction on how to think like a genius,
how to think like Leonardo da Vinci,
how to think like a Georgetown
student:

The single most important skill you should
take away from your college years is how
to think and think well—how to look at
an argument, evaluate it, decide on how
reasonable it is, and make one of your own.




1. Look at problems in many different
ways, and find new perspectives that
no one else has taken (or no one else has
publicized!) 2. Visualize! 3. Produce! A
distinguishing characteristic of genius is
productivity. 4. Make novel combinations.
Combine, and recombine, ideas, images,
and thoughts into different combinations
no matter how incongruent or unusual.
5. Form relationships; make connections
between dissimilar subjects. 6. Think in
opposites. 7. Think metaphorically.
8. Prepare yourself for chance.



A retro-list of genius-ingredients collected
after the fact of composing any composition,
any act of creativity, sporting life or otherwise:
a Monday Morning Quarterbacking review of
any Saturday Afternoon’s Game in language
typical of the Critical Thinking fashion of the
mid 90’s and industrialized writing programs;
something like E.A. Poe’s description of
How-I-Wrote-THE RAVEN
after it had succeeded so well (esp. in France)
& he decided to make a “Making of The Raven”
follow-up calling it
“The Philosophy of Composition”
giving a step-by-step full monty rationalistic
after-the-fact account of Living Process and
to this day people miss the hoax, one of Poe’s
many; and read it as Just So the way others
study The Republic as if it were actually a
political treatise & consider Howard Cosell
expertise on pugilistic choreography, descriptive
of a Cassius Clay or a Muhammed Ali prowess
in the ring.


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Thinking: how-to.