Different ways of thinking

[SegwayDan]

Thinking has its place and purpose, of course. But there are actually different levels or qualities of such: identification, association, differentiation.

Identification is the lowest: e.g. "Steve Jobs is the Devil!"; "Macs are too expensive!"; "Segways are toys!"; etc. Rather irrational, no?

Association is better: e.g. "Red is a warm color."; "Blue is a cool color."; "Pink is for girls."; "That guy owns a Segway. He must be rich."; etc. More on the order of opinions than of facts.

Differentiation is the highest: e.g. "Sodium is poisonous to humans; Sodium chloride is NOT!"; "He LOOKS Chinese, but he's over six feet tall and speaks with a Russian accent. He's Khazakstani."; "He rides a Segway around town all the time. Some say he's lazy. Some say he must be rich. But he actually had a bit of a hard time keeping up with the payments on it. And he's been saving a lot of money over the years by gliding instead of driving and covering the expenses of his second car, which he got rid of when he got the Segway."

We had a conversation with an acquaintance in town in which he told us that he always thought we were rich, didn't have to work, and just glided around town for fun. It's ironic that the fact that a person is more visible while gliding and usually relaxed and smiling seems to equate with being rich and idle.

We of course brought him up to speed on the facts.

This got me to realizing just how much idle, stupid "thought" there is still swimming around out in the world--about not only Segways, but so many other subjects!