A classroom full of 10-year-old students is asked to solve a problem with children crossing the street on the way to school. The children come up with ideas that have been used successfully in other places: traffic calming devices, overpasses, fluorescent jackets and speed limits. All these ideas are conventional, exactly what the teacher wants to hear.

Except for one. A student recommends that the school board sell the property and move the classroom online. This is not what the teacher was expecting.
This idea may not be practical, popular, or even possible, but when it’s ridiculed by the class it might be the last independent thought that the student dares to express — the death of another independent thinker.

Independent thought is not popular — it is absolutely, pricelessly, rare. Nothing you read about in the papers or see on the television is independent. Whatever we take in from the popular media is regurgitated conventional knowledge. There is nothing independent about most of the world.

This is a tragedy — independent thought is essential for progress. Conventional thinking moves us forward gradually at best (at worst it pushes us backwards). Independent thinking is required to achieve any substantial jump in performance.

Logically, when we think like everyone else is thinking, the best we can expect is to achieve what they’re already achieving. If our aim is to over-achieve, we need to avoid the same banal influences and think impossibly. We need to become independent from conventional wisdom.

Fortunately, you don’t have to be particularly intelligent or well educated to think independently. Consider small children. Conventional wisdom says that shoes are for wearing and bananas are for eating. Independent thinking allows children try eating the shoes and wearing the bananas on their feet. Their lack of conventional wisdom and utter disregard for how others view their decisions allows children to experiment without anxiety. In this case they may be wrong, but in other cases they can be shockingly right.

Using these 5 strategies you can develop your independent thinking ability.

1. Disconnect from sources of conventional thinking

Instead of plugging into your TV, PC, or library for answers, think for yourself first. Without cutting yourself off from the world, you can increase your capacity for independent thought by limiting the conventional opinion you absorb. This means reducing the media you consume and the level of devotion you give to it. Independent thinkers aren’t necessarily contrarian, but they don’t agree with the status quo by default. They devise new criteria for perceiving the world rather than seeing everything through the screen of their computer.

2. Immerse yourself in experiences that conflict with your current perspective

Instead of substituting a new conventional thought for the old one, deliberately seek out experiences that challenge your views. These experiences may exist in foreign cultures, unusual subcultures, or between the pages of a book you disagree with. The point is not to adopt a new train of thought, but to disrupt the conventional railroad.

3. Watch the process from a distance

Leaving your normal life behind can give you the freedom to see issues from another perspective. Watching the world instead of eating it up gives you the peace of mind to think for yourself. Standing still from time to time gives you the opportunity to ridicule your own beliefs and explore new angles.

4. Randomize your sensory inputs

Instead of visiting the same places, eating the same foods, and talking to the same people, you can actively pursue new experiences. Many people cling to the familiar to simplify decisions and create a sense of security. If you truly want to think independently, you need to get outside your comfort zone.

5. Practice disbelief

Without becoming a cynic, you can develop the habit of instinctively distrusting thoughts that rely on conventional wisdom. Instead of assuming that these “truths” are self evident, suspend judgement until you’ve have confirmed that there is reality behind the logiic.

If all of this sounds too difficult, consider what can be gained from independent thought. Even microscopic steps towards thinking independently will increase your contribution to the world. You will see opportunities and solutions that others overlook. You will obtain a competitive advantage over less creative thinkers. Most importantly, your thoughts will be your own and not just recycled media.

Think independently and you create a world of limitless opportunity. But don’t take my word for it…find out for yourself.

10歲的小學生們坐滿了整間教室，他們得按照要求解決一個關于上學途中安全過馬路的問題。那些曾于其他地方成功運用的方法在孩子們的腦海中閃現(xiàn)出來：比如采用交通工具靜音設備、架設天橋、穿上熒光外套及采取限速措施等。所有的觀點都很循規(guī)蹈矩，而這些恰恰也是老師們期望聽到的結(jié)果。

只有一個人很特殊。有個學生建議學校董事會賣掉所有的財產(chǎn)，然后把課堂搬到網(wǎng)絡上面。不過老師們可不希望這樣。

這個想法也許并不成熟或者普遍，甚至是不可能的，于是他成了全班同學的笑柄。但我們應當注意到，那大概是僅有的一個敢被闡述出來的獨立想法-這是又一個獨立思想者之死。

特立獨行的思想決非尋常--它絕對是無價的、獨一無二的。你在報紙或電視上讀到、看到的種種都不是什么獨特的東西，無論我們在主流媒體上學到了什么，那都是生搬硬套的常規(guī)知識。在這個世界上，大多數(shù)情況下，沒有任何一樣事物是與眾不同的。

而這是個悲劇—獨立的思想對于進步來說不可或缺。通常的想法把我們一步步帶向最好（最差就是迫使我們倒退），獨立的思想則要人們表現(xiàn)出實質(zhì)性的跨越。

從邏輯上看，當像別人那樣思考時，我們能夠期望得到的最佳結(jié)果只能是達到他們已經(jīng)達到的。假使我們的目標是超越前人的功績，就要拒絕平庸而不去想什么不可能。我們應當在慣性思維中變得與眾不同。

幸運的是，獨特思維并不需要所謂的過人之智，也不是非得受過良好的教育才能達到，想想小孩子們，慣性思維講鞋是拿來穿在腳上而香蕉是要吃的，獨特思維則使孩子們試著品嘗鞋子然后把香蕉踩在腳下。尚未形成的慣性思維加上無忌的童言，他們在大人眼中就是這樣，于是孩子們可以隨心所欲地把自己的點子付諸實踐。有時候孩子們也許會錯，但某些情況下，他們會正確地叫你大吃一驚。

使用下面這5種策略，你就可以打造出自己的絕世思維。

1.切斷慣性思維的源泉。

在把你的電視、電腦插上電源之前，在鉆進圖書館翻閱資料之前，先自己想想。不斷絕你同現(xiàn)實世界的聯(lián)系，通過限制那些吸引你的常規(guī)思維，你就可以提高自己獨立思考的能力。意思是減少媒體的使用，降低對其投入的程度。獨立的思考者并不一定背道而馳，然而他們對于默認現(xiàn)狀持反對的態(tài)度。為了好好地感知這個世界，而非僅僅透過顯示器去看一切，他們會想出新標準。

2.投身到與你當前愿景相沖突的體驗之中。

與其用一個新的普通想法替換掉那個舊的，不如有意找尋、創(chuàng)造一些挑戰(zhàn)你觀念的體驗。他們可能存在于外族文化、罕見的亞文化之中，也可能就在你不愿茍同的那本書的某一頁上。關鍵不是采用什么全新的思維，而是盡量使那條慣性的軌跡中斷。

3.置身事外，遠處觀之。

先把日常生活拋在腦后，這樣你就能無拘無束地站在另一個角度看待某些問題。旁觀者清，跳出你的小世界，別沉陷于其中，才能心無旁騖地為自己想想。偶爾原地不動能提供給你嘲笑自己愚蠢信念的機會，同時也開拓出了新的視角。

4.隨機化刺激你感覺的事物。

何不抖擻抖擻精神投身到嶄新的體驗當中？別總是去那些相同的地方、吃一成不變的食物，要么就是跟身邊抬頭不見低頭見的那幾個人說話。很多人都固執(zhí)于熟悉的事物，以為能夠簡化問題并且構(gòu)筑心中的安全感。如果你真想要獨立地思考，就需要跳出自我的蜜罐。

5.習慣懷疑。

并非要變得憤世嫉俗或者玩世不恭，你可以開發(fā)一下自己本能的懷疑思維，這種習慣是取決于常規(guī)思維的。相對于假設這些“真相”是不言而喻的，干脆持懷疑態(tài)度，直到你能夠用邏輯確定那就是不爭的事實。

如若上述這些聽上去都過于困難，那就考慮下自己可以從獨立思維中收獲什么。甚至那遺世獨立的思想是只能在顯微鏡下才能依稀看到的一小步，也能增加你對于這個世界的貢獻。你會看到其他人輕易就忽略了的機會和解答；你會比缺乏創(chuàng)造力的人擁有更大的競爭優(yōu)勢；最重要的是，你會造就屬于你自己的思想，而不僅僅是媒體的陳詞濫調(diào)。

獨立地思考，然后給自己創(chuàng)造一個機會無限的世界。但千萬別信我的話......自己去尋找吧。