CLICK BELOW TO REDISCOVER HUMANITY
A DECADE+ OF STORYTELLING POWERED BY THE BEST WRITERS ON THE PLANET

Thickened Wisdom

Two comments by Harvey Lloyd and then a post by Rached Alimi invoked the idea of this post.

Harvey wrote to meI wanted to say that wisdom alone is really worthless until practiced.  Practical wisdom is the ability to exercise, knowledge, skill critical thinking at the moment it is needed.  Wisdom after the fact or wisdom applied to problems not yet incurred is called armchair quarterbacking or mysticism respectively.”

Quarterbacking refers to someone who gives opinions about a topic without having much knowledge or experience of it.

A post by Rached mentioned the eloquent expression “Thickened Thoughts”, which inspired the word thickened in the title of this post. In mentioned thickened thoughts in the following context “Action is nothing but thickened thought, which has become concrete, obscure, unconscious.”

Combining the two ideas of Harvey and Rached brings new insights. Practical wisdom is acting on it and wisdom comes from thickened thoughts and understanding. That is to say, thicken your thoughts into wisdom and act practically on this wisdom if you do not wish to end up as armchair quarterbacking.

I may add that wisdom with this is like the wisdom teeth that have no real action teeth- called falsely wisdom teeth as they serve no real purpose. In contrast, they may cause harm because they harm the gum and invite for the growth of bacteria and could damage neighboring teeth.

So is non-actionable wisdom. They could be harmful to our thinking and swell thinking with infected wisdom. When we develop a new understanding we need to drop the old ones because if we do not they become of negative value such as wisdom teeth.

The real wisdom is the wisdom that is devoid of the teeth of old wisdom.

How do we thicken our thoughts is the second idea that jumped into my mind. Thickening in the kitchen serves a purpose. Thickening agents using a thickening agent can instantly add a creamy texture; they agents help also in increasing the viscosity of a liquid without substantially changing its other properties. They do so by these thickening agents reacting with themselves and swelling.

This brings the idea that in order to thicken our thoughts and consequently our wisdom we need to improve the flow of our thoughts and their “textures” by adding thinking ideas from what we read and with whom we interact.

Is not this post an example of how ideas thickened in my mind? Please share your thoughts so that we all may thicken our ideas.

Ali Anani
Ali Ananihttps://www.bebee.com/@ali-anani
My name is Ali Anani. I hold a Ph.D. from the University of East Anglia (UK, 1972) Since the early nineties I switched my interests to publish posts and presentations and e-books on different social media platforms.

DO YOU HAVE THE "WRITE" STUFF? If you’re ready to share your wisdom of experience, we’re ready to share it with our massive global audience – by giving you the opportunity to become a published Contributor on our award-winning Site with (your own byline). And who knows? – it may be your first step in discovering your “hidden Hemmingway”. LEARN MORE HERE


10 CONVERSATIONS

  1. Another exemplary article. The metaphor of culinary densification to describe the need to concretely use the flow of ideas (if I have understood the concept correctly), of thoughts is brilliant!
    The search for knowledge and wisdom is, of course, one of the strategies for personal growth. But a person is not wise simply to the extent that he has stored knowledge, but to the extent that he knows how to make use of his knowledge by making it available for his own purposes.
    There is a time for everything: there is a time to act and a time to reflect. Experience, for example, is a precious asset, but it must be analyzed and transformed into something useful for one’s personal growth, extrapolating its main lessons. Great ideas must then be transformed into concrete and excellent results.

    • Hi Aldo- I consider your comment as a gem. Its richness and fulfillment are quite admirable.
      Every line of your comment is wisdom-packed.
      What attracted my attention the most is your writing “But a person is not wise simply to the extent that he has stored knowledge, but to the extent that he knows how to make use of his knowledge by making it available for his own purposes.”
      You remind me of somebody owning a software, but is unable to use it effectively. It is not only what we have, but also what we do with what we have.

      Acquiring knowledge does not indeed lead to wisdom.It is again what we do with this wisdom.

      I celebrate your valuable comment.

  2. In cooking the thickening process involves heat, some transformation of the ingredients through the process of heating them, and a reduction of moisture. So to continue the metaphors – if emotions are fluid and liquidy like water, it seems that this process distills out the “extra emotion” (no all!) but the extra that thins the thoughts, makes them porous and not clear, concise, strong, or substantial.

    • I do not know about your background in chemistry, Laura but I know that your comment removed the extra liquid and is crystal-clear. Simplicity of depth your comment is.

  3. Oh Absolutely this post is a great example of how you thicken your ideas and also on how you transform them in the concise and to the point headliners:
    “That is to say, thicken your thoughts into wisdom and act practically on this wisdom if you do not wish to end up as armchair quarterbacking”.
    I am so glad that you mix and match blogs, reflections, ideas…you could be defined as a ‘thought blender’ producing the most incredible smoothies of wisdom and knowledge.

    • Your comments are heart-boosters and mind-thickeners. Leticia.
      Love the way you summarize a post in few concise lines.
      Thought Blender- do you think such a metaphor with its richness would escape my attention?

    • Few of the comments on the sharing of this post on LI mentioned similar thoughts as yours, Loree.

      The post suggests the ttwo metaphors- hicknenng in cooking as a model for thickening our thoughts as well as wisdom teeth as a metaphor for wisdom that has no value. I am glad that you found the first metaphor appealing, Thank you

    • I am experiencing the value of your comment Glenn on LinkedIn as the comments on this post there are really ideas-thickening. I appreciate greatly your feedback.

TAKE STROLL INSIDE 360° NATION

TIME FOR A "JUST BE." MOMENT?

ENJOY OUR FREE EVENTS

BECAUSE WE'RE BETTER TOGETHER