“There are three elements necessary to correct reasoning, first, the correctness of facts or conclusions that I start from, secondly, the completeness as well as accuracy of the data I start from, thirdly, the elimination of other possible or impossible conclusions from the same facts.”
— Sri Aurobindo
In our minds, we see ourselves as logical creatures who consider all aspects while forming an opinion. But research shows we are ‘cognitive misers,’ taking shortcuts in thinking and perceiving to build working but oversimplified models of the world.
The problem with taking too many shortcuts is that we turn into idiots who form half-baked opinions and cling to them like a child to its mother. In doing so, we don’t just do a disservice to ourselves by degrading our intelligence. We also add to the ignorance out there in the world.
We can know about anything but not about everything; our brains simply don’t have as much capacity. To understand things better, writer Gurwinder Singh suggests we divide issues into tertiary, secondary, and primary:
“Tertiary issues are those you don’t need to care about: the overwhelming majority of things. Consider what difference it will make whether or not you know something, and if it won’t make a difference, resolve to not have an opinion on that thing. Don’t even take a shortcut to beliefs about it. Just accept that you don’t know.
“Secondary issues are things that interest you, but which you don’t need to get exactly right. On these issues you must take shortcuts, so take the best shortcut there is: adversarial learning. Seek out the best advocates of each side, and believe whoever is most convincing.
“Primary issues are the ones you care about most, the ones you’re determined to get right. Use the time you’ve saved from ignoring tertiary things and taking shortcuts to secondary things to learn everything there is to know about primary things.
“When you’re about to have an opinion, first ask yourself whether it’s on a primary, secondary, or tertiary issue. On tertiary issues, be silent. On secondary issues, be humble. On primary issues, be passionate.”
Work on the primary issues, don’t just talk about them. That’s how you understand things—how they function, what factors influence them, and which actions yield the desired results.