“Far too often I see people (pretending to) think in bi-polar, preset, two-choice opposites. You have to do this, or that happens. If you do this, that won’t happen. And so on. They collapse billions of possibilities to -two-, oppose these and presume them distinct (which they usually cannot possibly be), and then perform a kind of two-valued stupidity dance which is, from outside, more like an absurd ritual than thinking.

In their defense, there are contexts where that kind of game is valuable or even priceless. But not many. And this thinking escapes those contexts like a rabid monster and attempts to consume anything and everything in its path.

And nearly everyone I meet is doing this, nearly all the time. If you suggest something novel, they collapse it into one of their two broken polarities, dismiss it, and go on to the next opportunity to flush their intelligence down the toiled with the same relish as if they were about to be elected eternal hero for all time.

They do not, in general, have any idea how to even begin to think creatively, or believe they can innovate. They live in a world of experts who tell them what and how to think, and what the outcomes will be.

Bluntly, this isn’t thinking: it’s religion.

Me¿ I like to think. Or so I like to think.”

— someone who is learning