Public Thinking

For me, the most relatable part of Thompson’s, “Public Thinking,” is when he discussed the idea of audience effect.  An example that stood out to me and I related to was the idea of the movie Moneyball and how there is a shift in our performance when we know people are watching.  I feel this on a personal level because this movie was about baseball, and when I used to play sports, I would psych myself out sometimes because I felt nervous with the audience and disappointing my coach.  Sometimes, when there was a large audience at my games, it would actually make me more excited and I felt like that is when I played my best. Other times, the idea of not doing well in front of an audience, especially my coach, would allow me to psych myself out and I would do worse.  I did not want to perform bad and lose playing time, but by worrying so much about my audience, it actually caused me to play bad anyway. For example, Thompson even mentions in the text that, “in live, face-to-face situations, like sports or live music, the audience effect often makes runners or musicians perform better, but it can sometimes psych them out and make them choke, too.”  This is how I felt many of times when playing sports, and I have experience the audience effect a lot.

Thompson’s main argument is that writing has an effect on our cognitive behavior.  One of Thompson’s main claims is that writing can help clarify our thinking. Thompson asserts that reading has always been focused on, but writing should also become a major focus.  According to Thompson, the act of writing forces writers to create clear ideas. For example, Thompson states that, “by putting half-formed thoughts on the page, we externalize them and are able to evaluate them much more objectively.”  What he means by this is that writers figure out easier what they want to say only once they have started writing. In other words, writing is very beneficial to not only professional writers, but everyone to improve their ways of thinking and speaking.  Another one of Thompson’s main claims is that all writing online is almost always done for the audience. Thompson claims that when you write something online, no matter what it is, you’re doing it with the expectation that someone may read it. According to Thompson, the “audience effect” causes us to have a shift in our performance when we know people are watching.  For example, Thompson states that, “in live, face-to-face situations, like sports or live music, the audience effect often makes runners or musicians perform better, but it can sometimes psych them out and make them choke, too.” What he means by this is that this is an example of a moment in life where the audience effect has taken place, and it also occurs often with writing, especially online.  In other words, people naturally want to perform for the audience, and it could go either good of bad. Lastly, Thompson’s main claim is that writing improves your memory. Thompson claims that when you write about something, you will remember it better. According to Thompson, this concept is known as the “generation effect”, and the effort put into writing increases memory. For example, Thompson states that, “when two psychologists tested people to see how well they remembered words that they’d written down compared to words they’d merely read, writing won out.”  What he means by this is that generating something like a written text yourself, requires more cognitive effort than reading does. In other words, you’re better able to retain information when you write it out, rather than just reading it.

Two rebuttals I noticed in this article was when Thompson brought up the point of hand waving and when he discussed audience effect.  The rebuttal with hand waving occurred when he said, “when you walk around meditating on an idea quietly to yourself, you do a lot of hand waving. It’s easy to win an argument inside your head. But when you face a real audience, as Weinberg points out, the hand waving has to end.”  Another rebuttal was with audience effect when he said the audience will cause people to perform better, but could also psych someone out. In both situations, he points out the opposite view, but still was able to stay strong to his point. Even if writing has some weaknesses in always helping someone improve, he was still able to keep his argument strong and persuasive.