Practicality
Empathy
Conciseness
I recently ran into an old acquaintance at a bookstore in Namba. He was flipping through yet another psychology book – his third this month, as it turned out. I asked him what stuck with him from the previous ones. He thought for a moment, then hesitantly named a couple of terms. I asked a different question: what had changed in his life after reading them? The silence dragged on.
This isn’t a criticism. It’s a problem I observe constantly – and one I’ve noticed in myself, too. We confuse knowing with understanding. We think that if we’ve memorized information, we’ve learned to think. But memory and thinking are different skills. The first is the hard drive. The second is the processor.
The difference is simple but critical. Memory stores. Thinking processes, connects, and applies. You can know a thousand facts and be unable to solve a single problem. You can remember all the rules of the game and still lose every match. Because remembering does not mean thinking.
What «Thinking» Means
When I was at university, I had a classmate named Hiroshi. He memorized lectures almost verbatim. He could retell the material a week later with the exact phrasing the professor used. On exams, he got high scores – if the questions matched what we had covered in class.
But as soon as a problem changed slightly, or a single unfamiliar element was added, he got lost. This was because he memorized solutions rather than learning to solve. He was training his memory, not his thinking.
Thinking is the ability to work with information: not just to store it, but to analyze, compare, build connections, find patterns, and draw conclusions. It is the skill of taking several scattered facts and assembling them into something new. It is the skill of seeing not only what is written but also what follows from what is written.
Imagine you need to get from Point A to Point B. Memory is when you’ve learned the route by heart: three stops on the subway, then right, then straight. It works perfectly as long as everything goes according to plan. But what if the line is closed for repairs? What if you need to get to Point C, where you’ve never been?
Thinking is when you understand the principle: how the transport system works, how to read a map, how to estimate distance and choose an alternative. Then you can handle any navigation task, even if the route is new.
This is the key difference. Memory works by template. Thinking works with novelty.
Why School Teaches Memorization
The education system we grew up in was geared toward memory. Learn the paragraph. Retell the text. Memorize the dates. Repeat the formula. Pass the test where you have to choose the correct option out of four.
This wasn’t malicious intent – it was historical logic. When information was scarce, the primary skill was accumulation. Encyclopedias were expensive, libraries were far away, and the internet didn’t exist. The person who knew a lot by heart had the advantage.
Now, information has become excessive. Any fact can be found in three seconds. Value has shifted: it’s not about what you remember, but what you can do with it. Can you verify the information, compare sources, identify contradictions, and apply knowledge to a new situation?
But the habit remains. We still study as if information were a rarity. We read an article and think, «I’ll remember this.» We write down quotes, save bookmarks, take notes on lectures – and rarely return to them. Because subconsciously, we believe: accumulation is learning.
This is an illusion of progress. We feel productive when we read a book. But if after reading we cannot explain the essence in our own words, cannot connect the new with the old, cannot apply the idea to our own life – we just flipped through pages. The information passed us by.
Exercise One: Learn to Explain
The simplest way to understand whether you are thinking or just remembering is to try explaining the topic to someone else. Or to yourself, out loud. Without peeking at the text. In your own words.
If you cannot explain it, you haven’t understood it. Even if you think you have. Even if you remember the terms and can repeat them.
I test this on myself constantly. Read an article – retold it to a friend over tea. Studied a new workflow method – explained to a colleague how it works. If I can’t explain it simply, it means I haven’t figured it out myself. I go back, read it again, and look for where I lost the thread.
This is called the «Feynman Technique», though I learned the name later than I started applying the principle. The essence is simple: if you can explain a complex thing in simple words, you understood it. If you can’t, you just memorized the phrasing.
Try it right now. Take the last book or article you read. Try to explain the main idea in two minutes – out loud or in writing, but without peeking.
If it was easy – great, you truly understood the material. If you got stuck, started getting confused, or searching for the right words – that’s normal. You found the boundary of your understanding. Now you know where to work.
Do this regularly. After every chapter, every lecture, every new skill. Just sit down and explain – to yourself, an imaginary conversation partner, or a journal. Don’t retell; explain: in your own words, using your own examples and connections.
This is the first step from memory to thinking. Explanation requires understanding structure, logic, and cause-and-effect relationships. You aren’t just reproducing information – you are rebuilding it, rethinking it, making it yours.
Connections Are More Important Than Facts
My mom worked as a librarian. In their library, there was a card catalog – wooden drawers with cards where every book was described by several parameters: author, title, publication year, subject, keywords. You could find the right book in a dozen ways – via the author, genre, or topic.
Thinking works the same way. Information isn’t valuable in itself, but through its connections to other information. The more connections, the deeper the understanding and the easier it is to apply knowledge in a new situation.
When you read something new, your brain tries to figure out where to put it. What to attach it to. What to compare it with. If there are no connections, the information remains isolated. You remember it, but you don’t understand why it’s needed.
For example, you learned that Japan has one of the highest life expectancies. That’s a fact. You can remember it – and forget it. Or you can ask questions: Why is that? What factors influence it? How does this relate to what I know about my own health? Can I change something in my habits?
One fact turns into a web of questions. Every «why»? is a new connection. Every connection makes the information more useful.
Therefore, the second exercise I recommend is this: after any material you study, ask yourself three questions:
- What is this connected to from what I already know?
- Where can I apply this?
- What conclusions follow from this?
You don’t need to write long answers. A few phrases are enough. The main thing is to force your brain to look for connections, not just stockpile facts.
I do this in a regular notebook. Read a chapter – wrote down three questions and short answers. It takes two minutes, but it changes everything. Now the information isn’t just sitting there like dead weight: it has context and application.
Over time, connections begin to emerge automatically. You read a text – and see how it echoes what you studied a month ago. You hear an idea – and understand how it works in your situation. This is thinking: the ability to see patterns, transfer principles, and find applications.
Critical Thinking Starts with Doubt
Another difference between memory and thinking is the attitude toward information. Memory accepts everything as a given. Thinking asks questions.
This doesn’t mean you need to doubt everything for the sake of doubting. It means verifying. Comparing. Looking for alternative views. Not swallowing information whole, but taking it apart.
I felt this particularly strongly when I was studying productivity methods. Every author assured me that their approach was the most effective. Everyone provided examples, research, success stories. And all the methods differed – sometimes radically.
If I had just been memorizing, I would have gotten confused. But I started asking: Why does the author think this? What data is this claim based on? Does this suit me, with my tasks and conditions? What here actually works, and what is just pretty packaging?
Critical thinking is not skepticism for the sake of skepticism. It is the skill of distinguishing quality information from noise. Seeing where there is logic and where there is manipulation. Not taking things on faith, but checking.
Exercise three: when reading something assertive, look for three points that raise questions. Not necessarily errors – just places where you want to clarify, verify, or compare with other sources.
For example, an article claims: «People who wake up at 5 AM are more successful.» Questions: What does «successful» mean? How was this measured? Are they confusing cause and effect? Is this applicable to people with different chronotypes?
You don’t have to answer everything. But the very fact that you asked questions is already thinking. You didn’t just accept the information. You analyzed it.
Do this regularly. With every article, book, piece of advice. Not out of mistrust for the author – out of respect for your own understanding. You have the right to figure it out before you accept.
Practice Is More Important Than Theory
One of the most frequent learning traps is thinking that understanding equals the ability to act. You read about how to communicate correctly – and it seems like you’ve learned. You studied a productivity methodology – and you believe you’ve become productive.
But knowing the algorithm does not equal the skill of applying it. You can learn the rules of Shogi and lose every game. You can read ten books on leadership and fail to organize a team of three people.
Thinking is trained through action. Not through reading about action, but through the action itself. With mistakes, adjustments, and repetitions.
When I was learning to cook, I read recipes and thought I understood the process. But at the stove, it turned out: I didn’t know how to determine if the oil was hot enough. I didn’t feel when it was time to flip. I didn’t understand what «cook over medium heat» meant – every stove has its own.
The recipe is memory. Cooking is thinking. Feeling the temperature, adjusting the time, adapting the process to the ingredients – this is a skill that appears only through experience.
It is the same with any knowledge. Want to develop critical thinking? Verify information, look for primary sources, compare data. Want to improve logic? Solve problems, analyze arguments, build lines of reasoning. Want to develop creativity? Create, even if it turns out poorly at first.
Exercise four: every week, choose one idea and apply it in practice. Not ten – one. Not «someday», but on a specific day.
Read about the importance of pauses in work? Plan three breaks for tomorrow and note how your concentration changes. Learned about active listening? Apply it in your next conversation and watch the other person’s reaction. Studied the method of task decomposition? Break one of your tasks into steps and start doing it.
Don’t wait for perfect understanding. Act with what you have. If you make a mistake, you’ll correct it. This is learning: not the accumulation of knowledge, but turning it into a skill through practice.
Record the results: what worked, what didn’t, what surprised you, what is worth changing. This isn’t for reporting – it’s for reflection. So that the brain doesn’t just perform an action and forget, but comprehends the experience and builds it into understanding.
How to Cement the New Approach
The transition from memory to thinking is a change of habit. And any habit takes time. You can’t read this article and immediately start thinking differently. But you can start small and move gradually.
Here is the structure I recommend:
Daily: after any learning (article, video, book chapter), spend two minutes explaining the main idea in your own words – out loud or in writing.
Weekly: choose one idea and apply it in practice.
Monthly: reread your notes and find three connections between different topics. What complements what? Where does a contradiction arise that requires analysis?
This is the minimum structure. If you want to move faster, add more practice. But even this is enough to notice the difference in six months: you won’t just know more – you will think differently.
I don’t promise it’s easy. Thinking is harder than memorizing. Applying is more difficult than reading. But this is exactly what turns information into understanding, and understanding into change.
Instead of a Conclusion
Let me return to the beginning. My acquaintance from the bookstore never could recall what the books he read gave him. But that doesn’t mean he wasted his time. It means he used it inefficiently.
If, after every book, he had stopped and asked himself: What did I understand? How is this connected to my life? What can I try tomorrow? – the result would have been different. He would remember not terms, but applications. Not quotes, but changes.
Being smart isn’t about the quantity of knowledge. It’s about the ability to use it. To think, not repeat. To create, not copy. To adapt, not get stuck in templates.
Thinking is trained just like any skill: through understanding the principle and repetition. You have already taken the first step – you read this article. Now take the second: explain its main idea to yourself. And then the third: apply one thing this week.
Not tomorrow. Not «someday». This week. Because thinking doesn’t appear after reading – it appears after acting.
