In defense of thinking: why original cognition is worth reclaiming

Executive overview

Knowledge work is quietly devaluing human thinking by replacing original cognition with computation-custodian roles — people who manage tools rather than generate ideas. This mirrors what assembly lines did to craft in manufacturing. Aristotle and von Neumann both point to the same conclusion: deep thinking is the core of human flourishing, not a productivity nice-to-have.

Reclaiming thinking as a deliberate practice — not a byproduct of information management — is the most human response to an economy that prefers custodians over thinkers.

Why thinking is being devalued

• Knowledge work firms find human thinking unpredictable, unmeasurable, and hard to manage
• Computation-centred workflows are more orderly: humans point software at problems, interpret outputs, attend meetings
• This mirrors the industrial shift from craftsmen to assembly-line bolt-turners — all intelligence moves into the process
• Tech companies benefit: if cognition is outsourced to software, a small number of platforms capture most of the value
• Workers become interchangeable; "availability" and "busyness" replace "depth of thought" as performance signals
• Superstar dynamics in thinking-heavy fields (academia) show why businesses fear raw cognitive competition

The case for thinking as a core human activity

• Aristotle's Ethics Book 10: contemplative reason is the highest human activity, pleasurable for its own sake
• Von Neumann didn't just think fast — he enjoyed thinking; Edward Teller's 1966 observation: "what you like, you do well"
• Thinking defined here: synthesising existing information to create new information useful for understanding or action
• The ability to do this is what separates humans from other species and from their own tools

How to reclaim thinking individually

• Treat thinking as a trainable skill, not a rarefied state — Arnold Bennett's 1910 advice applies directly
• Bennett's method: pick a subject on your commute, drag your attention back every time it wanders — this is productive meditation
• Raise your baseline: as thinking becomes habitual, what once felt demanding becomes default mode (Maria Popova reads 8 hours a day)
• Practical levers: avoid cheap digital distraction as the default response to boredom; read hard books; embrace ambiguous leisure; simplify life to create space for open thought
• High-quality leisure (art, beauty, difficult ideas) is not indulgence — it trains the mind

Deep work, reading, and the stamina question

• Arnold Bennett's claim: the brain is either sleeping or capable of high-quality thought — likely overstated, but directionally right
• Training raises the floor: a fit runner can jog when too tired to sprint; a trained thinker can read demanding material when too tired for deep work
• The distinction between "I need to be in the right mood to think" and "thinking is just what my brain does" is a function of exposure and habit
• Good films and novels are genuine thinking practice — they require the viewer to construct meaning, not just receive it
• Passive entertainment (Pacific Rim) is not training; slow cinema (Paul Schrader's First Reformed) demands active mental construction

Second brains and the primacy of the first brain

• Tiago Forte's "second brain" concept: external digital system to capture, organise, and surface insights
• The deeper issue: most people have not yet saturated the capabilities of their primary brain
• Serious thinkers invest in the first brain — slow intake, deliberate integration of new ideas into existing schemas
• Digital tools earn their place as appendices: capturing citations, retrieving specific details quickly
• The second brain is most useful as an index to support the primary brain, not as a replacement for cognition
• Almost every major thinker in history produced original work by developing the primary brain, not by offloading thinking

Note-taking: corner marking vs. full annotation

• Maria Popova's method: highlight passages, index key ideas on blank front/back pages — fast retrieval, high upfront effort
• Cal's corner-marking method: fold the corner of any page with something relevant, annotate in the margin — lower friction during reading
• Corner marking means more books finished; retrieval takes longer but is rarely the bottleneck
• Method should match use case: Popova writes book summaries, so front-of-book indexing pays off; a researcher recalling a specific example just needs the marked pages
• Reducing friction during reading is more valuable than optimising retrieval when the primary brain retains the conceptual structure

Books read in April

• The Real Work — Adam Gopnik; reflective, philosophical exploration of mastery through encounters with practitioners; well-written but not a Gladwell-style framework book
• Levels of the Game — John McPhee; 1960s narrative nonfiction masterclass built around a single US Open tennis match (Ashe vs. Graebner); interweaves backstory and match play without section breaks; McPhee's simple-language, complicated-structure approach as a contrast to modern lyrical nonfiction
• The Transcendent Brain — Alan Lightman; materialist account of spiritual experience; Darwinian explanation for awe and connection; characteristically short and provocative
• Finding the Mother Tree — Suzanne Simard; memoir-science hybrid on fungal networks connecting trees and redistributing resources; surprisingly well-written self-portrait intertwined with scientific discovery