Recent Read: If They Give You Lined Paper, Write Sideways

Author: Daniel Quinn

Best quote: “You never change things by fighting the existing reality.” Original quote by Buckminster Fuller. p 134.

Summary: Groundbreaking anthropologist Daniel Quinn is known for his unique way of seeing and understanding human behavior, history, and our future. The book is a simple transcript of several days of interviews in which Quinn not only helps his interviewer understand Quinn’s way of thinking, but teaches her to how to think for herself in a similar manner.

What I liked: Quinn doesn’t take any statement at face value. He’s always probing deeper into the “common knowledge” that the rest of us easily accept. By the end of the book, I found my critical thinking skills sharpened, excited to put them to use.

He summarizes his ability to think critically:

1. Be Alert to Nonsense. While the rest of us are happy to accept “facts” handed down to us. He sniffs out the nonsense in our cultural beliefs.

2. Examine the Assumptions. When presented with a question or problem, he rarely tries to answer. Instead, he asks “Why has this person asked this question? What assumptions are driving their reasoning?”

3. Explore the Broader Assumptions. “If so-and-so assumes this is true, he is also likely to assume this and think this.”

4. See Where the Assumptions Lead. Our assumptions about the world are what drive us to certain actions. By examining the way we think (our assumptions), he can predict with accuracy how we’ll behave as individuals and a collective.

(The above steps are my summation of Quinn’s process, not at all a quote. The concepts are presented on pp 115-116 of his book.)

He portrays humans as “a species of being, which, while supposedly rational, are destroying the very planet they live on.” I resonate with Quinn’s insight and am saddened that Christians seem to be the most reluctant one’s to care.

Probably the biggest takeaway for me is the simple idea that when presented with a social problem, most of us are quick to push for some action to overcome it, as if legislation, protesting, boycotting, etc. will work. We don’t really care if it works as long as we’re busy trying. Far better, Quinn says, to aim our efforts not at changing people’s actions, but by changing their thinking. Seems obvious, but we don’t try it that way.

What I disliked: I don’t mind at all that Quinn isn’t a Christian, or at least my variety of one. Or that he doesn’t believe in the same kind of God that I do. It bothered me that reason he gave for his departure from mainstream Christianity was based on what I consider to be a faulty assumption—that Agriculture was a result of the curse God put upon Adam. I contend that God gave Adam that task from the very beginning in the garden and that the curse only made the job toilsome and difficult. Quinn makes a faulty assumption, the very thing he warns us not to do.