Thinking about thinking is a fascinating topic, and the heart of true critical thinking. At the same time, it's easy to get wrapped up in our own inventions and hubris if not careful. When approaching "truth" check out the following as an added sanity check :)
It’s not a particular book, but nothing has more radically altered the way I think about thinking than the work of Theodor Adorno (and to a certain extent, Horkheimer). I had, prior to reading their work, a tendency to think of thinking as an activity that occurs with quite a definite shape, in quite a well-circumscirbed space. They really exploded the concept for me and broadened my considerations about thought, how it works, what different forms it can take, and that most of the time, it’s more like a peice of music than it is a rational or practical sequence of arguments, and that the societal patterns and forces that attempt to fix your thought into a limited sequence of statements are in fact instances of control impinging itself upon you. This is not to say “don’t be rational” but it is to say there are definte thresholds upon which thought crosses over from the plane of a genuine “thinking through” into an “idiomaticity” or a “thinking about” — a preconception, a repetition, a bias.
What book or books would you recommend as a starting place for someone wishing to explore these concepts? Is there one Adorno ir Horkeimer I should start with?
'Dialectic of Enlightenment' might be a good place to start when it comes to thinking about thinking. If you want something a bit more fragmented/playful/debatable, then 'Minima Moralia' would be interesting. 'The Culture Industry' is well worth reading too.
Barry Ritholtz has a great business and finance podcast called “Masters in Business” and frequently discusses favorite books and book recommendations in context of the dialogue.
“MiB was originally conceived by its creator, Barry Ritholtz, as a deep dive into the minds of the most influential, savvy and successful people in the world of business & finance. The podcast explores how these folks became the professionals they are today: Who their mentors and influences were, what their personal work history is like, what books they read, even what their daily routines and thought processes are like. A listener wrote: “The show is like eavesdropping two very smart market professionals having a deep discussion over a cup of coffee.””
so, thinking fast and slow has received a fair amount of criticism, both here on HN and elsewhere. Some previous threads & links that may be of interest (and perhaps value!) to you. Start with this:
For thinking about thinking, I can highly recommend Eliezer Yudkowski's "Rationality: AI to Zombies". While mildly obnoxious at times, it's very thorough and full of interesting as well as practical information.
I got stuck in a loop starting on the thinking of whether I wanted to click on that link.
Dangerous thoughts. Should we really think about thinking. There is no easy break. It's rather breaking any functional thinking and slow down actual thoughts. Any tip on scoping this effort would be appreciated.
But I couldn't find the manual anywhere in the study paper and by googling it. I wonder if dr Wells would share it if someone kindly asks, but I haven't tried it.
Wells (2009). Metacognitive Therapy for Anxiety and Depression is a guide for therapists but I am using it to learn techniques myself. Not sure if psychologists would approve
I have not read all the books on this list, but I would add The Drunkard’s Walk (How Randomness Rules Our Lives) to great books related to thinking about thinking. It breaks down how probability actually works in the real world in an easily understandable way. And how our intuition about the world is, generally, woefully off the mark.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fallacies
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases
BUT also not allowing these to limit blazing a new path forward!