They’re seeing into life in a way most people can’t even see

Even if I don’t like someone, I can still respect their depth of thought.

It’s more important to me how people think than what they think.

If someone believes something I disagree with, that’s fine. I don’t need to reflexively hate them, just to make my ideological allies feel good about themselves. I am more curious about the path they took to arrive at their ideas.

Process is more meaningful than content. What we think is dynamic. People evolve and do change their minds based on new information and experiences, despite their best attempts to preserve the status quo.

On the other hand, how people think, that is static. Cognitive style is relatively stable over time. The mental orientation we have is certainly not written in stone, but people’s thought patterns do persist from a very young age. We all have consistent patterns in how we process information and solve problems.

When I first started my publishing company out of college, I moved back in with my parents for a few years. During the mornings when I wrote my books, I always listened to talk radio. Didn’t matter which deejay was on, or what side of the political aisle they supported.

Letting their words wash over me was all I cared about. Hearing them make compelling and articulate arguments about, well, anything, was fascinating. Even if was I totally lost intellectually, or disagreed with them morally, I didn’t change that dial.

Because they wouldn’t have a nationally syndicated daily talkshow if they didn’t possess depth of thought. There was a richness to their thinking that captured my imagination. These guys analyzed information carefully, made connections between disparate ideas, and came up with original and insightful conclusions.

No wonder they made so much money. A lot of the time I was half listening, but their words embedded themselves into my subconscious. I would find myself reflecting on their ideas for days, sometimes even longer.

Whether or not I agreed with them was irrelevant. All I cared about was being trapped into doing my own thinking. Moving up the cognitive hierarchy. Getting to a place where I was no longer merely remembering, understanding and applying ideas; but also analyzing, evaluating, synthesizing and creating them as well.

That’s depth of thought I aspired to. Seemed like a noble pursuit.

Whose depth of thought do you respect?