Episode 72: 4 Simple Tools for Brain Surgery: Part 3
* Hey guys, what’s up?! Welcome back for Part 3 of our mini-series titled 4 Simple Tools for Brain Surgery.
* Before we dive into the 3rd tool today, I wanted to share a quick review…well this one is more of a comment that someone gave on Facebook. This is from a friend named Lara: “Put this fun, short, simple, and highly educational (and much needed!) show on your podcast to-go list. A fellow homeschool mama/friend who is helping to fill a very big void for my generation, and those to follow - teaching critical thinking skills. She leads you along in very easy to understand and logical succession of lessons to listen to on your own and/or with your children Designed to help us all learn HOW to think rather than WHAT to think.” Thank you so much, Lara, for your kind words, your support & encouragement! I can’t tell you guys how much it means to me when you leave messages & reviews like that! If you haven’t yet, would you leave one now?
* Ok, let’s pick up on part 3 today by doing a quick review of the first 2 tools or questions that you can use to get someone to think about why they believe what they believe. Question 1 was, “What do you mean by ___? Or What do you mean by that?” It’s to help you (& maybe them) get a definition of what they’re talking about. Questions #2 is “How do you know it’s true?” And this question is designed to get to or reveal their authority as it relates to the idea or belief. Whose word are they taking to be true on this? Are they credible? And remember, these questions aren’t mine - they’re questions I learned from Bill Jack of Worldview Academy and he gave me permission to share these questions with you! Check the show notes to find out where you can learn more about Worldview Academy and Bill Jack.
* Now, let me just say, that while the first question is often a good question to start with, questions 2-4 don’t have to be asked in any particular order. Just ask them in whatever order makes sense for the conversation. And remember, these questions aren’t designed to be used like a hammer to hit people over the head & try to convince them that they’re wrong & you’re right! No, these questions are to be used more like a gentle crowbar to open their minds by simply getting them to think. It should be a conversation, not a confrontation.
* Ok, so the 3rd simple tool or question for brain surgery is this:
* “So what? So what?” Or, another way to say it is this: “What difference does that make in your life? What difference does that make in your life?”
* Ok, why do we ask this question? The “So What?” question helps us establish a couple of different things. The first thing is relevance. Is this topic, idea or belief even important? Does this even matter? Are we really going to argue over what we think the color of my notebook is or is this really so unimportant that it’s not worth the time & energy to have this conversation? Right? So it helps us get to the issue of relevance.
* Another thing this question helps to get them thinking about is: What are the ramifications? Remember, ideas have consequences and this question helps us walk down the path to see what the consequences of a particular idea are. B/c you don’t have to just stop with, “What difference does that make in YOUR life?” You could also ask, “What difference does this make in the life of this certain group of people group? Or in the life of unborn babies? Or in the life of women? Or in the life of Muslims? Whoever the idea or belief is affecting, you can & I would say, you should ask the question that leads to the discovery of whatever the consequences of that particular idea might be.
* Why do we need to walk the path to discover the consequences of an idea? B/c so often, people throw out ideas based on one isolated thought or belief but they fail to fully look at what the true consequences of that idea would be. As a silly example, kids at school may say, “Students should be allowed to listen to music during class” And that’s based on the idea that they enjoy listening to music. But if you were to ask the question: What difference does this make in your life, you’d eventually get to the point that, yes, they’d enjoy it, but they wouldn’t be able to hear anything the teacher is saying, they would miss out on conversation & assignments and it would lead to them likely not doing well in class. Silly example, right? But it shows the reality that just b/c an idea “sounds good” doesn’t mean that the consequences of that idea may not be good, and in some instances may be downright harmful to themselves & to others.
* So, just to recap, b/c repetition helps us learn!
* Question 1: “What do you mean by that?”
* Question 2: “How do you know it’s true?”
* Question 3: “So What? Or What difference does it make?”
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* Ok, join me in the next episode to get Question #4, and then hopefully I’ll have a fun surprise for you: I’m trying to get my 15-year-old daughter to come on the podcast with me to talk about these 4 questions and how she sees them as being usable and applicable to her as she’s learning to have these conversations.
* Remember: When you learn HOW to think, you will no longer fall prey to those who are trying to tell you what THEY want you to think and it all starts with asking one simple question: “Is that really true?”
