Move off autopilot

How do you feel about immigration? Do you believe in transgender rights?

Oh, sorry, too loaded. Let’s try another tack.

Do you think parents should stay at home with their children for the first few years, or should they be socialised in daycare? And when I wrote parents did you read mothers?

Eek, sorry guys, still too full on. OK, I'll dial it down again.

Are you a Succession fan? Or do you prefer Stranger Things? Bridgerton, perhaps? Do you think movies are getting better or worse?

Chances are you have a vague answer for most of those things. But where did those opinions come from? Did you come to them from a long process of careful research, thought and reasoning?

Probably not.

Few of your opinions are really yours. They’re a combination of things you’ve heard, beliefs you’ve absorbed and defaults you’ve never questioned.

Daniel Kahneman, Nobel Prize winning author of Thinking, Fast and Slow might say that’s mostly sensible. Our minds seek mental shortcuts to process phenomenal amounts of information and work through 17,000 decisions a day. Most of those decisions doesn't need active thought - what to eat for breakfast, which socks you'll wear, what route you'll drive to work, etc.

Your System 1 brain handles those on autopilot, which is useful and efficient mechanism. In fact, autopilot will take care of as many thoughts as you'll let it. Which is great until it isn't. This efficiency means we tend to accept information and assumptions at face value, unless there's a pressing need to challenge or update them.

With people getting more and more of their thinking from algorithmic rabbit-holes and sycophantic chatbots, I reckon it's more important than ever to take a magnifying glass to our thinking. What do you think? Where did that come from? Who benefits from you thinking like this? What are the consequences of these ideas?

I've been writing heaps about this lately. You might have enjoyed the Opinions are like assholes essay or this take on traditions. Now, I'm bringing this thinking to life. First, I made you the Opinionated Toolkit, packed full of practical resources. But then I thought: wouldn't this be more fun to do live?

So next Monday, March 23, I'm running a live 90-minute workshop. It's free for all paid subscribers.

We'll work through the Opinionated Toolkit and test our opinions together, in real time. You'll bring some opinions you already hold - about work, society, leadership, technology, or whatever annoys you most - and we'll stress-test them, live.

By the end, you’ll understand:

Which of your opinions are earned.
How your opinions affect others.
How to upgrade your thinking.

You’ll leave with a clearer sense of what you actually believe, and why.

If you're a leader or decision-maker, work in policy, media, strategy, or communications - or you're just a curious human who's sick of hot takes and want to put your thinking to the test - this workshop is for you.

I'd love to see you there.