Thinking In Spite Of The Algorithm

I’m starting to believe that there was a time when curiosity meant something very different.

You’d read a book and let it linger.
You’d stumble across a footnote and it would become your next two weeks.
You’d hear a word for the first time and feel the need to chase it across dictionaries, articles, conversations.
You’d read an article and couldn’t shake what was written for a month.

Now, curiosity feels… transactional?

One search… one click… answer delivered… next!
We’ve built systems (social, digital, cognitive) that reward speed… just speed.
But not sense-making… and definitely not wonder.

In my conversation this week with Bob Goodson (author of Like – The Button That Changed The World) on Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast, that shift came into sharp focus. 

And Bob would know (he didn’t just write the book but may have been the first person to design the like button).
For those who remember these more innocent times, the like button started as a way to say, “I see this… I appreciate this.”
But it evolved into something much more powerful… and dangerous.

It became a proxy for attention.

A shortcut for consensus.
A micro-currency for content.
And a vast source of behavioral data for the platforms that profit from our preferences.

Suddenly, curiosity got flattened into performance.

AI makes this worse… and better.
Worse, because it feeds us conclusions without inviting us into the process (you know this if you’ve done a search on Google lately… or completely switched over to Perplexity).
Better, because when used well it can surface connections we’d never have noticed alone.

But Bob reminded me: the real shift we need isn’t about storing more information… it’s about creating more meaning.

That requires different muscles.
Pattern recognition over memorization.
Synthesis over summaries.
Deep reading over fast scanning.
Interpretation over reaction.

And maybe the biggest one:

The ability to sit with a question longer than it takes to answer it.
We used to call that thinking.
Now, it might look like slowing down… pausing before we press “like”… resisting the urge to always be first, loudest, fastest.

Speed is now always mistaken for insight. 

Maybe it’s time to rediscover the quiet discipline of slow curiosity?
To question what we click on… and why (even if it is just a simple “like” button).
To ask whether our ideas are being shaped by intention… or by algorithm.
If you’ve been feeling like I do… like everything is too fast… too shallow… too synthetic…

This all reminded me of what thinking used to feel like… and (maybe) what it could feel like again.

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