Are You Lazy When It Comes to Critical Thinking?

While it is true the United States has experienced a recent surge in productivity, driven by a combination of factors that have contributed to the rise in output per worker, I believe we have an epidemic of laziness.

I see and experience the epidemic of laziness in critical thinking.

“Critical thinking is the process of analyzing available facts, evidence, observations, and arguments to make sound conclusions or informed choices. It involves recognizing underlying assumptions, providing justifications for ideas and actions, evaluating these justifications through comparisons with varying perspectives, and assessing their rationality and potential consequences. The goal of critical thinking is to form a judgment through the application of rational, skeptical, and unbiased analyses and evaluation.” – Wikipedia

Jumping to conclusions, running people down, pushing conspiracy theories, and sidestepping research seem to be the primary forms of exercise in the United States these days. Fake, false, bogus, and phony information have become so normal that people are offended by truth, facts, and authentic, accurate information.

Daniel Kahneman, Thinking Fast and Slow, writes that 90% of our thinking is fast. While fast thinking can be a lifesaver and has its place in our daily lives, fake, false, bogus, and phony information thrives on fast thinking. Slow thinking requires time, effort, and more energy. Critical thinking is slow thinking. This short YouTube video clip explains the concepts of fast and slow thinking.

Are you curious? Curiosity is the critical tool of critical thinking. Curiosity leads to possibilities and stimulates our imagination, leading to creativity. Pessimism is devoid of critical thinking.  Science relies on critical thinking.

Having returned from my DePauw University 50th college reunion, President White emphasized that a key purpose and desired outcome of a DePauw education is to learn and embrace critical thinking. The studies I took at DePauw, which included anthropology, art, economics, English, foreign languages, history, music, philosophy, religion, and psychology (my major), have influenced my critical thinking and continue to do so today.

Have you engaged in critical thinking to discover your purpose and core values? Critical thinking is at the core of learning and living your life on purpose and in alignment with your core values. Know what you stand for and don’t stand for.

Critical thinking is acknowledging your flawed thinking in terms of bias and logical fallacies. Do you have confirmation bias, belief bias, self-serving bias, groupthink bias, or negativity bias? Do you have logical fallacies like ad hominem, tu quoque, loaded questions, appeal to authority, or black-or-white thinking? If you’re willing to explore your biases and logical fallacies, consider getting a deck of Critical Thinking Cards.

Critical thinking is an essential tool in coaching, counseling, and therapy.

Critical thinking is a vital cognitive process for individuals in leadership roles, including those in Scout troops, civic clubs, organizations, corporations, politics, and the POTUS.

Coaching, counseling, therapy, and leadership are founded on love! Love is a verb. The opposite of love is fear. Unlike fear, love requires critical thinking. 

Mel Robbins defines love as a combination of consideration and admiration. To consider someone is to be mindful and accepting of someone with all their warts, scars, and imperfections. It is a slow, conscious choice not to be controlling or trying to change someone. Consideration involves recognizing when and where someone needs you and your help, from something as simple as opening a door when their hands are full, to being with them during a challenging experience, and refraining from trying to fix or heal them. Admiration is about respect, approval, and wonder. This requires slow thinking, as it involves admiring people with whom you may disagree on beliefs and opinions, recognizing that you have more in common than you are uncommon.

Are you lazy when it comes to love? Are you lazy in loving your neighbor, your leadership followers, your teammates, members of your commUNITY who look different and believe differently? Are you lazy in loving yourself just as you are, with all your imperfections and failures?

My next blog will focus on the laziness of understanding, building, and maintaining trust.

 

 

 

 

Fifty Years Later… The Boulder Got Moved and So Did I!

Returned to my Alma Mater, DePauw University, for my 50th class reunion. As I walked past the infamous boulder at East College, I noticed it had been moved since my previous visit in 2015! This was a foreshadowing of other changes I would discover!

2015 DePauw University Boulder at East College

The Lows…

Remembering over 70 classmates who have died.

Meeting international students at my Delta Upsilon fraternity and learning about their concerns about ICE and deportations.

At the Saturday morning Convocation of Alumni, an opinion was shared that the one word that best described our class was apathy. Here we were, sitting in the beautiful Judson and Joyce Green Center for the Performing Arts, specifically in Kresge Auditorium. The lead benefactor of this $29 million facility was Joyce Green, a member of our class, and her late husband, Judson, Class of ’74. Their gift was one of empathy and compassion, stemming from their experience at DePauw and their desire for future DePauw students to have an incredible learning experience. In surveying some members of our class after the convocation, I heard better one-word summaries of our class: concern, uncertainty, change, and gratitude. A lot happened in 1975, including the end of the Vietnam War, the release of Jaws in theaters, the signing of the Helsinki Accords, the United Nations’ declaration of 1975 as International Women’s Year, the premiere of Saturday Night Live, and the first email being sent.

The highs…

It was great to connect with classmates and learn about their life journeys over the past 50 years. Lots of connections leading to a lot of smiles, “me, too,” and “WOW!”

One special highlight was sipping Old Pogue bourbon from Old Pogue Distillery.  Classmate Paul Pogue’s family revived its family’s distilling tradition, which had been shut down during Prohibition, dating back to 1876. The 5th and 6th generation Pogues created easy-sipping bourbon. Thank you, Paul Pogue! (The check is in the mail!)

Our class broke bread, sipped adult beverages, and connected at Bridges – Craft Pizza & Wine Bar rooftop on Friday evening, located off Greencastle Square. (Five stars!) It was there that I met classmate Holbrook Hankinson, PhD, Executive Director of the Center for Diversity and Inclusion at DePauw. As a white, heterosexual, privileged facilitator of diversity, equity, and inclusion, it was great to connect with Holbrook and visit the Center for Diversity and Inclusion. He gave me a tour! One of the many highlights of the tour was discovering a second-floor library filled with “banned” books.

When I graduated from DePauw University in 1975, it was primarily a white institution run by white males. While I do credit DePauw with challenging my critical thinking, it is a bold initiative today.

“We will be an institution where all students—regardless of background, identity, or ideology—who desire to learn with us are welcomed, supported, and have access to DePauw’s rich academic and social opportunities.”– DePauw Bold and Gold 2027 Strategic Plan.

The core values of DePauw University are:

  • Student Focus
  • Collaboration
  • Curiosity
  • Diversity
  • Inclusion

Today, DePauw University is led by President Dr. Lori S. White. She is a strong, bold, visionary! She shared during her breakfast remarks about a key question she was asked during her interview process. Could she learn to love DePauw? Her answer resonates not just in her one word, “YES!” but in her actions! Her leadership team is diverse, as are the faculty, staff, and students

I am prouder of DePauw University today than I was 50 years ago! If I had an upcoming high school graduate or knew of one, I would encourage them to put DePauw University at the top of their college list.

To my ’75 DePauw classmates, if you are coming to Asheville, NC, please reach out and let’s connect! We love sharing our guest bedroom!

 

 

 

 

What If There Were a Project 2026?

​Liz Cheney challenges Democrats with A Remarkable Message.

As a registered independent voter, I pay attention to both parties in the news, podcasts, and streaming.

It is obvious the Democratic Party is a “ship without a rudder.” If the Democrats want my opinion, they need to create Project 2026 – clearly state who they represent, stand for, and don’t stand for, plans of action for creating a better world for tomorrow’s child, and save the United States and Planet Earth from destruction.

Project 2026 needs to commit to compassion for the most vulnerable among us and demand inclusivity. It needs to challenge elected officials to represent constituents and not corporations, oligarchs, and the wealthy.

Project 2026 needs to recognize our past ugly behavior and history, and demonstrate the need for change, including how to overcome white-male-heterosexual-Christian Nationalism. Turn shame into a promise to be better.

Project 2026 needs to draw inspiration from John F. Kennedy’s 1961 challenge to put a person on the moon by 1969. It needs to rally us to find common ground and commUNITY we experienced after 9/11. I want democracy and accountability, as outlined in the U.S. Constitution, to be a reason to get up in the morning and work towards.  It needs to be based on love, giving hope rather than fear, and individualism.

Tuesday, June 24, 2025, NYC Democratic Primary shows a crack in the stodgy-old-white-man-elitist mentality plaguing the Democrats. It’s a start!

After attending and reflecting on an address to my DePauw 50th Class Reunion, I have concluded that if I could summarize in one word the description of the United States today, it would be lazy.

I am going to write a blog series, Are You Lazy? beginning with Are You Lazy at Critical Thinking?

I welcome your thoughts, suggestions, and ideas.

 

NOTE: Someone emailed me, “I love this idea! Where do we start?”

Let’s begin just as they did with Project 2025, in collaboration with the Heritage Foundation. We identify think tanks, such as the Brookings Institution, the Roosevelt Institute, and the Institute for Policy Studies, and reach out to them. Perhaps we start a letter, email, or phone call campaign!?

What If We All Practiced Kintsugi?

The story of kintsugi (golden repair)—this style of pottery—may be the most perfect embodiment of all our trauma-shattered lives… Instead of throwing away the broken beloved pottery, we’ll fix it in a way that doesn’t pretend it hasn’t been broken but honors the breaking—and more so, the surviving—by highlighting those repaired seams with gold lacquer. Now the object is functional once again and dignified, not discarded. It’s stronger and even more valuable because of its reinforced, golden scars.                                                                                                                                                     – Jay Wolf, Suffer Strong

We all get broken in some way in our lives. Brokenness is part of the human experience. Vienna Pharaon, in The Origins of You: How Breaking Family Patterns Can Liberate the Way We Live and Love, writes about the five origin wounds: worthless wound, belonging wound, prioritization wound, trust wound, and safety wound. (Take the quiz to discover your origin wound.) Understanding your wound and managing your wound reveals a pattern, perhaps a habit, and your relation to that wound.

We can choose how to handle our wounds and brokenness. Pretending the brokenness is not there is unhealthy. It feeds our shadow self.

I experienced a lot of grief and brokenness after Hurricane Helene devastated Western North Carolina and our 2024 political election. I found an article about how practicing Kintsugi was a pathway to healing, and started practicing it. I get Kintsugi pieces from the Asheville Habitat ReStore.

The Kintsugi practice has retaught me patience, mindfulness, focus, pondering, and wonder! It has reminded me to stay curious. It has also given me joy and hope. Kintsugi is about embracing our healing and finding the “gold” in our wounds and brokenness so that we can use that “gold” to aid the healing of the world around us.

Kintsugii has also made me aware of the shadow self – the repressed things about myself that I do not want others to perceive. By protecting a chosen persona, we create a life of delusion. Kintsugi invites breaking open the shadow self. You have to become vulnerable and humble.

The world breaks everyone, then some become strong at the broken places.  ~Ernest Hemingway

A couple of things I practice in the ritual of breaking and repairing a piece of pottery…

I look at the piece of pottery and try to imagine the shadow self – how it was made and by whom. Why was it made? Who purchased it? Why? What did they use the piece for? How long did they own it? Was it passed down to others? How many hands touched this piece of pottery? Did the pottery bring joy? Did it have a special meaning? Why was it donated to Asheville Habitat ReStore?

Before I break it, I bless the piece: “Let the actions of my hands, mind, and heart be acceptable, help heal the wound I am about to inflict, and find the beauty in the broken.”

As I am repairing, I think about what I need to do to heal my wounds, fix my brokenness, and reflect on the worthiness of brokenness. How is my shadow self revealing itself to me? Like the scars and tattoos on our bodies, our wounds and brokenness are treasure maps of stories of our lives. Our wounds and brokenness offer strength and wisdom to become better versions of ourselves.

After the piece is finished, I hold it in gratitude and think about whom I can give it to! I’ve probably broken, repaired, and given away over 50 pieces, and I have about a dozen pieces to break and repair at my table!

What if we find the “gold” in our wounds and brokenness and use that “gold” to aid the healing of the world around us? What if we treated one another, especially those we disagree with, whose opinions and beliefs differ from ours, like pieces of kintsugi, broken, but worthy? What if we helped one another to repair each other’s brokenness by being there for one another, suspending judgment, and being curious?

I challenge you to examine your brokenness. Find your worthiness in your brokenness and use it to help others with their brokenness. Become fully functional once again and dignified, not discarded. Becomes more substantial and more valuable because of your reinforced golden scars.

 

DePauw University 50th Class Reunion Reflections

I volunteer at the Asheville, NC, Habitat Restore. I was working the cash register recently, and a woman checking out remarked about my wedding band. She said, “That is an unusual design!” I told her I designed this and my wife’s wedding bands in lost wax 45 years ago.

I learned lost wax jewelry design from DePauw University Art professor Bing Davis during the winter term 1972. This experience made me think about returning to DePauw this June 2025 for my 50th college reunion.

DePauw University had a significant impact on my life.

Some professors challenged my thinking, my beliefs, and my values. Anthropology professor Robert Fornaro taught me critical thinking. Psychology professor Harry Hawkins challenged me to examine my childhood and how it shaped me. Econ professor Ralph Gray taught me the economics of crime! Music professor John Sox opened my eyes and ears to opera! Religion professor Robert Eccles introduced me to my core values of compassion, justice, and humility, which I still hold myself accountable to, and one of my tattoos! I spent a week in the infirmary during my freshman year under the care of Dr. Roger Roof, who was treating me for mono! My first computer interaction was in 1974 at the Computer Center.

I recall Margaret Mead, Abby Hoffman, William F. Buckley, and Tina Turner coming to DePauw and listening to them.

DePauw is where I learned to live in a community with 60 other men who shared common space, showers, meals, and beer! Delta Upsilon fraternity brothers still call me by my nickname, “Austin,” given to me the first day I moved in after rush.

I fell in love at DePauw, and while it didn’t last, it taught me a lot more about myself so that I could be in a committed relationship.

I remember a significant conversation while walking with Bob Geising just before our graduation, who pointed out that we had been solving the world’s problems for the past four years, and we were about to graduate and start solving our problems! I am now trying to do both!

I am at the point in my life where I have become mindful that this may be the last time I experience something or someone, including returning to the DePauw campus. I look forward to returning to DePauw and thinking, “Remember when…”

The Death of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)?

The owner of Montford Deli, Asheville, NC, David Sweeting, apologized for comments about Anne Frank that generated controversy. “I want to apologize to the Asheville community… because of my stupidity.” Sweeting said that as a 9th-grade dropout, he had never heard the story of Anne Frank. After witnessing the hurt caused by his remarks, Sweeting decided to change that. “I bought the book yesterday,” Sweeting said. “I went into Barnes & Noble. I said, hey man, where is this book at? And they were like, it’s in the burned, banned book area, and I was like, burned, banned book area? What do you mean? They were like, these books were literally being burnt because they didn’t want you to know the atrocities that truly happened.”

A fact is information without emotion. An opinion is information shaped by experience. Ignorance is an opinion without knowledge. Stupidity is an opinion that rejects facts. – Anonymous

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) include people of various ethnicities and genders, including LGBTQ+, education, religious beliefs, and socioeconomic backgrounds. DEIB aims to ensure fair treatment, access, opportunity, and advancement for all while striving to identify and eliminate barriers.

Diversity is where everyone is invited to the party; Equity means everyone gets to contribute to the playlist, and Inclusion means everyone can dance. Businesses prioritizing DEI encourage a more innovative, positive environment, creating a more profitable company. And most importantly, it means we all get to dance! – Dr. Robert Sellers, University of Michigan

DEIB is entrenched and protected by the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech. DEIB exposes the untold, untaught, ugly history of the United States. DEIB does reveal pain, shame, and discomfort.

On January 21, 2025, Trump issued an executive order directing federal agencies to terminate all federal DEIB programs, describing them as “public waste.” The order also encouraged private companies to follow suit, leading to a reevaluation of DEIB initiatives in both public and private organizations. The U.S.  continues to pressure the U.N. to change its language and approach to DEIB.

The Conservative campaign against DEIB is so vague, ambiguous, and broad-based that it has come to mean many different things to many people. For some, it’s a forced mandate, required training, a bitter pill to swallow, and unnecessary shame. DEIB exposes privilege, especially if you are a white, heterosexual, Christian male. Affirmative Action, BIPOC, and LGBTQ+ are subtitles, triggers, and “woke” distract and undermine capitalism and the myth that America is the greatest nation on earth.

Citigroup, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Pepsi, Disney, Deloitte, PBS, Google, Amazon, Meta, GE, GM, Ford, Accenture, Amtrak, Chipotle, The Smithsonian Institution, The Wall Street Journal, Target, Walmart, and the FBI have either eliminated, ended, scrubbed, or cut back on DEIB initiatives, offices, or observances.

GM removed the statement in their annual report, “At GM, we are committed to fostering a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion.” Disney removed “for amplifying underrepresented voices” from their website and annual report. Pepsi removed all references to diversity a year after telling investors that “our culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion is a competitive advantage.” As I watched Super Bowl LIX, I saw the NFL announce the removal of the end zone message “End Racism” for this year’s Super Bowl and the replacement of “Choose Love.” If you are part of an organization that has decided to Un-DEIB, this YouTube video can help.

What does it say about you when you purchase goods and services from companies that no longer support DEIB?

If you are not a white, heterosexual, Christian male, you may need to keep looking over your shoulder to see what is coming. Your stress and anxiety have just gone up.

Got faith? All the major religions are founded upon DEIB.

In the Gospel, according to MAGA, embracing “DEIB” is the work of Satan and the enemy of all things American. DEIB is to blame for everything bad happening in America – airplane tragedies, military weakness, males turning into females, your pet becoming someone’s dinner.

Read the Jewish prophet Isaiah from Isaiah 61:1.

Jesus recalls Isaiah’s call in Luke 4:18, “…God’s Spirit is on me; he’s chosen me to preach the Message of good news to the poor, sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to set the burdened and battered free, to announce, “This is God’s time to shine!”

White Christian nationalism is a white-Christians-living-in-America-who-care-about-the-teachings-of-Jesus problem.   – John Pavlovitz

From the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, “No Arab has any superiority over a non-Arab, nor does a non-Arab have any superiority over an Arab. Nor does a white man have any superiority over a black man, or the black man have any superiority over the white man. You are all the children of Adam, and Adam was created from clay” (al-Bayhaqi and al-Bazzaz). In this manner, Islam established equality for the entire human race and struck at the very root of all distinctions based on color, race, language, or nationality. According to Islam, God has given man this right of equality as a birthright. Therefore no man should be discriminated against on the ground of the colour of his skin, his place of birth, the race or the nation in which he was born.”

DEIB is an act of love founded on consideration and admiration. The opposite of love is fear. Could it be that fear drives the stopping of DEIB initiatives and work? Hate is rooted in fear.

I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain. – James Baldwin

Diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) lean into compassion, justice, and humility. The work of DEIB requires you to desire to be human and recognize others, especially those whose gender, age, ethnicity, education, socio-economic status, physical and mental well-being, and beliefs are different from yours, are fully human as well. DEIB explores that our differences are our greatest strength and that multiculturalism is a powerful asset.

The work of DEIB begins by getting out of your comfort zone and confronting your ignorance, denial, bias, and privilege.

Ignorance. Do you know the untold history of the United States? Learning the untold history of the United States can help you understand why Black infant mortality is 2.5 times greater than white infant mortality. It will help you to understand why the average wealth of a white family in America is ten times greater than the average wealth of a Black family and why the average white male will live 5 years longer than the average Black male.

Bias. Unconscious and confirmation bias promote the more an individual is “white-passing,” the less interesting they become. Unconscious and confirmation bias nurture stereotypes that Asians are successful because their culture uniformly pressures them to perform well. We judge by visual and auditory cues rather than by character.

Asian Americans face DEIB issues as racial and ethnic minorities are considered overrepresented in higher education. A common comment I have encountered is that Asian Americans “would be nowhere without black people.” Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are often underrepresented in DEIB conversations and in the very positions that might advocate for better representation.

“When I hear the phrase, ‘Asians are next in line to be white,’” she writes, “I replace the word ‘white’ with ‘disappear.’ Asians are next in line to disappear.” – Cathy Park Hong, Minor Feelings

DEIB’s work has created restrooms for families and men’s restrooms with baby changing tables and ADA. DEIB stimulates creativity and innovation. Creativity can exceed expectations when a diverse group of people with diverse skills, backgrounds, and outlooks on life work together. DEIB has led to infrastructure that mirrors the community. A 2017 study found that businesses that invested in DEI also saw increased sales and reduced employee turnover.

DEIB asks us to look in the mirror and ask tough questions like:

Why do I put up with monuments, buildings, streets, and military bases named after traitors to the U.S. Constitution?

What am I doing for others who are different from me?

Why only read and follow people who look, think, believe, and act like me?

What is the difference between Black Lives Matter and All Lives Matter? (Consider this: If Black Lives Matter bothers you because it doesn’t say ALL Lives Matter and it doesn’t say Blue Lives Matter doesn’t bother you, then what bothers you is the word Black.)

If my significant other, feeling low, comes to me and asks, “Do you love me?” an answer of “I love everyone” would be truthful, but it would also be hurtful and cruel at the moment. If a cohort comes to me upset and says, “My father just died,” a response of
“Everyone’s parents die” would be truthful but hurtful and cruel in the moment. So when a friend speaks up in a time of obvious pain and hurt and says, “Black lives matter,” a response of “All lives matter” is truthful. But it’s hurtful and cruel at the moment.

Here is what I know for sure: We are imperfect, flawed, and “cracked.” The ancient Japanese art of kintsugi (joining with gold) acknowledges and embraces the imperfection of missteps in life. It is a philosophy of embracing human flaws. DEIB is a form of kintsugi. It exposes the human frailty of life. DEIB asks us to accept our scars and imperfections, a powerful lesson in humanity and sustainability.