For the Love of Independent Thinking

There are contrarian thinkers and then there are independent thinkers, and while the two often get confused, they are wholly distinct in how they evaluate thoughts and draw conclusions.

A contrarian thinker is one who opposes or rejects popular opinion.

Independent thinkers work to free themselves from outside control. They seek to detach themselves from the opinions and social authority of others.

While consensus thinking is extremely dangerous, whereby most believe what they believe only because everyone else believes it, contrarian thinking does not necessarily bring anyone closer to the truth.

When it comes to seeking truth, making informed decisions, finding new and better ways to operate your business, and understanding why people believe what they believe, independent thinking is what one should aim for.

Here are five ways to recognize and embrace true, as it was intended and created, independent thinking rather than just contrarian thinking.

The Simple Math:?The inherent flaw of contrarianism is that it rejects popular opinion because it’s popular opinion. This means the popular opinion (whether correct or incorrect) becomes a factor in the contrarian’s thought equation, thereby making the equation as flawed as the consensus thought. While inevitably, by today's interpretation, contrarian thinkers will usually come to a different conclusion than the consensus thinkers, the process is flawed for it is still based on the consensus thought foundation. While the contrarian may very well arrive closer to the truth than the consensus thinkers, it is by sheer randomness, because the truth is merely a byproduct (the opposite of) the consensus thinker’s conclusion. One could argue that there’s no value in contrarian thinking and that it’s just a logical extension to consensus thinking or group thought, and that it even further exacerbates group thought by its mere existence.

Perspectives: Benjamin Franklin said, “If everyone is thinking alike then no one is thinking.” To break free from both consensus and contrarian thinking one must view his or her thoughts from multiple perspectives. This requires a deep dive into why the consensus thinkers believe what they believe, and why the contrarian thinkers believe what they believe. It requires asking oneself if there are other perspectives to be considered. ?Occam’s razor is a problem-solving principle that states that the simplest explanation is usually the best one. Thus, consensus thinkers tend to believe that every problem is fundamentally simple and thus the simplest explanation or answer to the problem is also simple. Wouldn’t that just be wonderful? The unnecessary risk, however, is that the majority of problems are extremely complex with the seen and most importantly the unknown factors, and thus errors are made when simple explanations and answers are applied to these very complex issues and problems. True independent thinkers seek, absorb, and exchange feedback, opinions, ideas, and facts from multiple sources and from multiple perspectives before forming their own thoughts about a problem or situation.

Inherent Bias: Independent thinkers fundamentally possess a high self-awareness index around their own inherent biases. German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche recognized this as one of the underlying issues when it comes to our ability to think about everything. Where we ere born, when we were born, who our parents are, our peer groups, our early education, genetic predispositions and illnesses, and our cultural training, are those unseen and seen obstacles, referred to previously in this article, that impugn one’s ability (willingness?) and desire to formulate independent thoughts and opinions. These same inherent biases favor consensus thinking, whereby people born at the same time and who have similar familial backgrounds, and education will inherently think similarly. The true independent thinkers remain mindful of their own inherent biases and factor such preconceptions in when forming new independent thoughts.

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Questioning Assumptions: At the foundation of every thought, there are assumptions, and as Albert Einstein rightly quipped, “most assumptions are wrong.” Independent thinkers examine the assumptions that comprise of the foundation of their thoughts as well as the opinions and ideas of those around them. The secret is to know the difference. Not only do independent thinkers acknowledge these assumptions, they examine their thoughts and beliefs by changing out assumptions to see how thoughts, opinions, and beliefs do change where the assumptions are different.

Falsifiability – It is not the grim reaper: It is, in fact, the cornerstone of all free and independent thought. It’s the meritorious acknowledgment that thoughts, beliefs, and opinions must be recalibrated in light of new information. Falsifiability is the gold standard of science. It is the footnote of every proven theory and yet to be proven theory. ?Falsifiability is the principle that a proposition or theory cannot be considered scientific if it does not admit the possibility (this does not mean it IS possible, but rather admits the possibility) of being shown false. Falsifiable does not mean false. For a proposition to be falsifiable, it must be possible to make an observation that would show the proposition to be false. For example, the proposition that “all male cardinals are red” would be falsified by observing a white male cardinal. That doesn’t mean that there are male cardinals that are any other color than red, but rather acknowledges that there may be facts that present later, which would thereby disprove the theory. Independent thinkers live with a similar level of falsifiability embedded into their beliefs and thereby will allow for expanding their beliefs or opinion in light of new information.

Consensus thinking = potentially very dangerous.

Contrarian thinking = also potentially very dangerous.

True independent thinking = A better quality of life. More happiness and greater success both personally and professionally.