Do you ever hear a statement or phrase that immediately conjures a mind-travelling journey down an ideological road that you have crafted for yourself? Do you hear words or phrases that lead you to analyze and explore, to intemplate, a fact and its relation to you. Do you read books, listen to morning shows or talk shows, or watch the news and find your mind exploring the ideas that they present, under your own terms. I hope you do! This is what I call nit-picking the nerds.
Nit-picking is when you hear a phrase or read a portion of some literature, only to immediately take that information, and the moments of enlightenment or curiosity, and analyze and explore their every facet. In a way, I guess it is accustomed to analytical reading. But, it is more than just reading to learn. Nit-picking is analyzing, but also exploring, discovering, and understanding. In short, it is introspective interaction with information you come in contact with, both printed literature and audio/visual sources. Nit-picking is Intemplation! Nit-picking is fun!
But, you may be asking, how do I do that? How do I nit-pick? Here is my suggestion.
1) Analyze: Read, watch, or listen with an engaged mind to whatever mode of information is available. Interact with that information at your own pace, and explore the sudden burst of inspiration (thoughts) you receive. In short, these are seed thoughts. And, with a little water and the proper care, they could turn into all sorts of beautiful things (poems, journal entries, and books, recordings, maybe even teaching lessons or sermons).
2) Explore: Once you have received a seed thought of inspiration and enlightenment, explore it. DO NOT LET IT GO! That means, do not continue watching or reading and tell yourself that you will come back to it later. You won’t! You will FORGET it! WRITE IT DOWN or talk it out into a voice recorder. Do something so you don’t lose it. Then, once you have written it down, think about it. Turn it over. Look underneath it. Poke it, rub it, and hold it. In short, get to know the idea. (Intemplate) Why did I think of this? What should I do with it? How does this relate to me? Can I help other people with this?
3) Discover: I have already alluded to this. Try and discern what you can do with this thought you have. For some of you, you might want to keep it for yourself. Maybe a journal entry or poem. For others, you want to share it with someone so you write a song, a blog, maybe even a book! Do what you want to with it. Be productive. So… if that means that you do nothing other than think more critically about how this idea has affected you, that’s OK. You may find that in discovering what to do with this information, you yourself have become a better person for it.
4) Understand: This is the crucial part of the exercise. At this juncture, you should have some idea of what prompted you to think the thought/s that you did. Maybe you have been studying philosophy and a certain thought alerted you to an undertone in a TV show. Perhaps you are an artist, and you saw something in the world in a different way for the first time which left you inspired and excited. Possibly, you are getting older and life seems to be different now than it ever has been before. In other words, you have made an effort to understand the idea you had and its effect upon you. At this point, you have successfully nit-picked your mode of information.
