The Zen Kitchen

Philosophic waxing inspired by film and work

When people ask me what position I hold at my job, I often answer "communal brain" when I'm in a sarcastic mood. The number of lazy questions I get in a day baffles me. A lazy question is one I define as something anyone with an IQ above 25 could figure out in 5 seconds if they just bothered to look around them and put 2 and 2 together. Tonight, for instance, I was asked which color toner you used when the black toner ran out in the copier, then was asked which was the black toner. When I responded black is the one that says "black" on it, the person proceeded to grab yellow.

Years back I worked the midnight shift. I only worked with one other person most nights, and this particular night I had a trainee whom was anxious to learn, but just seemed incapable of doing so. At one point he turned to me and said, "I just ran a book with 36 pages. I made 2 copies of the book. How do I figure out how many total pages I ran?" I was minorly baffled by the question, but responded with, "What's 36 times 2?" Without missing a beat my trainee responded with "72." I then saw his eyes light up as he figured out what he'd just done. I suppose he could have had a momentary brain fart on a massive scale, but I don't think so. I think that he just honestly had no idea why he was taught how to multiply. He knew his tables, and how to put the numbers together, but was never taught why he would need to do so.

What has happened that causes so many people (I was going to say Americans, but the more I think about it, I've seen it in all races and cultures I've encountered) to lose the ability to critically think? Or did they ever really know in the first place? I blame a large portion of the problem on the current focus in our educational system on the standardized test. This, of course, isn't a new idea. I don't pretend I just thought of it. But, it is a large problem. I've talked to many students who have no idea why they learn what they learn, they just memorize because they are told to. Teachers have told me that they feel their hands are tied because the "system" tells them they have to do things a certain way, and if their scores aren't high enough they could lose their jobs.

But, laziness is also a huge contributor. Why think for yourself when others can do it for you? People you work with, your television, your pastor/rabbi/guru/astrologist or whichever path you follow. Thinking not only means you have to work, it means you have to take some responsibility. If you do well, you can take credit, if you fail, you can say, "S/he told me to do it that way." I see this mindset more and more each day amongst all walks of life, and it is scaring me. Perhaps things have always been this way and I'm just noticing it more and more as I gain more responsibility in life. In way, I hope so, because it would mean we as a people are not getting dumber and lazier, but I suspect due to many of the culprits I mentioned above and too many others to list here we are in fact becoming a more stupid and lazy thinking people.

I recently watched the film "Christmas in July" by Preston Sturgess (I picked up the Preston Sturgess collection recently, you will be seeing his films mention often in this blog in the near future, I imagine). In it, a man dreams of winning a $25,000 prize by coming up with a new catchphrase for a coffee company. His coworkers learn of this, and decide to pull a prank on him by sending him a fake telegram stating that he has won to see how he will react. I won't spoil the movie's plot beyond that, but watching the man's transformation throughout the movie is fascinating. The theme to the film is that you don't have to honestly succeed to be a success, you merely have to convince yourself that you are, and others will follow suit. I know this is an awkward topic shift from my "lazy thoughts" rant, but the two do somewhat go hand in hand.

The power of the mind is an amazing thing. I've said for a long time that intelligence (meaning raw IQ) and book smarts mean very little without also having some other trait that allows you to put them into practice. That trait could be discipline, common sense, wisdom, or compassion, or I'm sure many others. But, you need to have something else. If you've memorized your multiplication tables - fantastic - but what good does that do if you don't understand why? Use a little common sense. You can know how to do everything at your workplace, but so what if you don't have ambition and responsibility to use that knowledge to its best effect?

Just my simple thoughts for the day.

Until next time....

posted by Shaun @ 4:56 AM