“Thinking about thinking? That sounds a bit weird!” said my daughters. So much for the open minds of the young. For the last month I’ve been fulfilling a long term desire to lubricate my mind with the oil of philosophy. Along the way I’ve tried to explain to my offspring (clearly with limited success) what I’ve learnt and why it’s important.

Of course I can understand why the idea of thinking about thinking seems a bit bizarre. In the age of Go! Go! Go! even a pause for thought is likely to get you an impatient push from behind.

Australia’s new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd recently announced a summit of 1000 citizens to ‘harness the best ideas across the nation’. 

The summit was dubbed a ‘talkfest’ while the media announcement was still warm. Commentators demanded to know how it would lead to concrete action. The idea that there could be any value in a group of smart people simply sharing ideas, in the hope of catalyzing further, even better ideas, is anathema to 21st century society.

Which is why even a small smear of philosophy could give you an edge. It will help you, to borrow from Rudyard Kipling, keep your head while all about you are losing theirs.

Here are three things I’ve learnt to do better in the last month.

First, question your questions. For instance, instead of asking, ‘what am I trying to do?’, go a level deeper and ask ‘why am I trying to do what I’m trying to do?’. Sounds circular? Most philosophical questions do at first, but give it a try. The first answer might be ‘sell lots of product’. Same old same old. The second answer might be ‘give myself more time, better balance’. This answer forces you to consider much broader options

Second, embrace uncertainty. There is a current tendency to believe that certainty once existed and will again, that uncertainty is somehow an temporary feature of our time. Philosophers (most of them - they will never all agree on anything!) see change as part of the nature of our world. Expecting certainty will only lead to inevitable disappointment.

Third, celebrate being wrong. A challenge and a joy in studying philosophy is getting comfortable with the notion that there are very few absolutely right, or wrong, answers to the way things should be. This contrasts with the way we normally think in our culture. It frees the mind to be much more creative than we traditionally allow ourselves.

Being philosophical doesn’t mean growing a long beard and staring endlessly into the middle distance. It doesn’t have to mean endlessly reading either. It does mean energizing the neurons in your brain and liberating your mind. What that might lead to only you can guess, but it will probably give you a head start over the next guy or girl.

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