Sixty minutes of thinking of any kind is bound to lead to confusion and unhappiness.

For various reasons (most long since forgotten), I have spent a great deal of time engaged in situations where there has been a lot of talking about thinking about thinking about reading about thinking about thinking.

The thing that strikes me most is that – underneath the discourse – if all we are doing is thinking about thinking, are we actually thinking? Or does, perhaps, thinking about thinking equate to a form of intellectual masturbation, pleasurable, entertaining (for a time), but in all probability not honing our skills in any useful manner?

Moreover, if we think too much about thinking, might we not affect our ability to think? If it does, is this effect to enhance our thinking, or might it actually degrade our ability to think?

Now, I’m not suggesting that we all just at once stop reflecting critically upon the processes that underlie and inform the way that we go about our thinking (or even our thinking about our thinking).

Maybe my beef is not with thinking about thinking. Maybe it is with the talking about thinking about thinking, rather than the actual thinking (about thinking) itself.

Wait a second; I think that I’ve just started talking about thinking about thinking.

Bugger!