How to think THEN what to think

I read a blog recently by Dave Trott. He discussed a college in the US called Shimer in Chicago and their motto, ‘It’s how to think, not what to think’.

At Shimer they didn’t do textbooks.

They were encouraged to read and opine on the ACTUAL works of Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, et al. rather than other people’s opinions on the works like you’d find in said textbooks.

Dave went on to discuss how Shimer was regarded as the worst college in the US because they didn’t have fraternities, sports or leisure facilities but merely focused on educating students in how to think for themselves.

Giving this more thought, I looked at advertising and what we aim to do.

More often than not it’s to sell a clients products or services to a consumer by telling them ‘what to think’ about their brand.

So where does ‘how to think’ come into it?

Looking at the motto of Shimer again. “It’s how to think, not what to think”. Surely one cannot come without the other.

When a creative brief is developed and we draw on all of our knowledge and learning to land that killer idea, we’re not thinking about people opinions on the insights we use. We take that insight and we create a story. No textbook needed.

This makes Shimer the ad agency. We are the people required to know ‘how to think’.

In turn this makes other colleges and universities the media channels we use to tell people ‘what to think’. The students of which become the consumers we talk to.

Those original works of philosophers past are like an original idea coming out of an agency. We need our media channels to tell people what to think. And, we need our consumers to buy. It’s a never-ending cycle of agency to media to consumer.

New agency motto: “How to think THEN what to think”.