INTELLECTUALLY LAZY PEOPLE

Recently in a discussion on the NLP Leadership Summit group, Lucas Derks spoke about a subject and in his comments, he wrote the following. Because Lucas is a clear thinker and excellent researcher, I always pay special attention to what he writes.

“[This term] obscures what is really going on there ... it satisfies intellectually lazy people; now they believe they know something, but what they believe is only a substitute for real understanding. ... Using this term in this manner discriminates nothing from everything.”

I have separated this statement from the specific discussion in which it occurred (e.g., which was on “energy” psychologies) because it strikes me that this description can be applied to a great many things. Given the nature of language, and the way most people use language, the terms, phrases, and descriptions that we use all too often does not promote clarity or understanding. Instead it “obscures what is really going on.” We all know that this occurs a lot among politicians— they have the ability to seemingly say something meaningful, but which can be interpreted by people on all sides of an issue as supporting what they think. It also tends to be the language of news commentators— especially those involved in “fake news,” the end result of their reporting is that they have obscured what’s really going on.

Even more dangerous, however, is that such languaging “satisfies intellectually lazy people” yet all the while it deceives them. The deception? Now they think they “know” something when, in fact, they don’t. To know the subject under discussion would require the effort of seeking to understand, of critically thinking by examining the hidden assumptions, to examining the language being used, and asking hard questions. But they do none of this. They are content to embrace a term or phrase that sounds intelligible, but which actually communicates nothing.

This fits the most common bias in human nature, the bias that affects us all. This is the bias that “we think we understand.” In my newest book on critical thinking, I put this as the first cognitive bias. As many of the thinkers and researchers in Critical Thinking have noted, this is actually an amazing bias. That’s because, given that the more research and science opens up so many new areas of exploration and informs us of how little we do know— you would think that there would be a hunger in most people’s minds for learning more, understanding more. But no. Most people are pretty satisfied and feel that they basically “understand” things. As a result, they are not intensely curious. They do not constantly check books out of the library or buy books to discover what they don’t know. They are content. They feel comfortable.

What explains this? They think they understand things! Now this bias is particularly dangerous because it invites all of us to either stop thinking or at least to avoid thinking. “Oh I know about that!” We dismiss even the possibility of learning something new. Thinking we know, it is a small step to thinking we know “all about it.” For anyone intellectually lazy, this feels intuitively right—it feels comfortable. And it makes a person feel self-confident. It closes the “search” program in the person’s mind so one can sleep more soundly. It is the structure of being a human zombie!

To do otherwise requires effort— maybe even struggle— and for many that isn’t fun, it’s uncomfortable. It creates stress, and not the stress of excitement (eustress). It is also—for some— threatening. It threatens their sense of identity— who am I if I don’t know? Am I stupid? Unintelligent?

Again, that’s another indication of the lack of real understanding. Here people confuse their “self” with their thoughts and make their personal value based on knowing or in being right. Yet when they do that, they completely mis-use their intellectual powers and think that “knowing” makes you a somebody. The truth is that you were born a somebody, because you are a somebody, you can now use your intellectual powers for the exciting adventure of discovering. Now you can boldly declare that you don’t know and begin the human journey of finding out.

The very presence of intellectual laziness amazes me. I don’t understand it at all! There is so much that we do not know. Everyday I keep discovering more things that I do not know, that I’m fascinated about and that I want to explore. I hope you do too.