The Importance of Clarifying Your Thinking With Language

3min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

So much of what we think has to be converted to language to communicate it. Even when you're talking about preparing a lecture, that's actually the example I was searching for but didn't find until you mentioned it. That is often even though, again, you are presented with like language based thing that you have to interpret and then in language describe it to other people give your kind of interpretation. We probably way overemphasize it when it comes to making decisions for ourselves.

The Summer of Cormac McCarthy continues – this time we dive into his one piece of non-fiction, the short essay “The Kekulé Problem.” How does our unconscious mind solve problems that conscious deliberation can’t crack? Why does it often work elliptically, in code, rather than giving us the answer directly in language? Is McCarthy right that the unconscious doesn’t trust language because it’s such a newcomer to the human brain?

Plus we select the finalists for our listener selected episode – thanks to our beloved patrons for all their terrific suggestions!

"The Kekulé Problem" by Cormac McCarthy

Pinker & Bloom 1990

Dijksterhuis & Strick 2016