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When Michael Pollan traveled to a cave in New Mexico to try to understand consciousness, he learned what good meditation is really made of. “The recipe was simpler (and much less appetizing) than I would have imagined,” he writes: “To transcend the self, force yourself to be alone with it long enough to get so bored and exhausted that you are happy to let it go.”
As Pollan intuits, this practice isn’t all that fun at first. But by the end, you get somewhere that makes it all worth it. Deep, existential thinking is a little like exercise, Arthur C. Brooks wrote in 2024: We might avoid contemplating big questions because of the short-term discomfort, but in doing so we ignore the bigger payoff. You can schedule deep thinking into your life in the same way you would a workout, Brooks argues: Take time out of the day to meditate and consider meaningful ideas, or go for a morning walk without your devices to spark contemplation. Today’s newsletter explores these and other ways of turning deep thought into a habit.
On Thinking More Deeply
Three Ways to Become a Deeper Thinker
By Arthur C. Brooks
You don’t have to become a Buddhist monk to realize the value of contemplating hard questions without clear answers. (From 2024)
How to Have a ‘Don’t-Know Mind’
By Michael Pollan
My quest to understand consciousness took me to a cave in New Mexico and then deep into the cosmos.
Don’t Make Small Talk. Think Big Talk.
By Arthur C. Brooks
Discover the rewards of discussing deep things.
Still Curious?
- A philosopher gets fed up with profundity: There are better ways to communicate, Agnes Callard argued in 2023.
- The age of de-skilling: Will AI stretch our minds—or stunt them?
Other Diversions
- The father-daughter divide
- You’ve never seen Super Bowl betting like this before.
- American milk has changed.
PS
I recently asked readers to share a photo of something that sparks their sense of awe in the world. “Have you ever seen a sound wave in the shoreline? I delight every time,” Lisa C.K. from Sarasota, Florida, writes.
I’ll continue to feature your responses in the coming weeks.
— Isabel
The post The Payoff of Deep Contemplation appeared first on The Atlantic.
