The Fog of Everyday Life: Reclaiming Your Power to Think Clearly

Critical thinking is your flashlight through the fog of everyday life. We explore why most people stay stuck in reactive mode when consuming information, and how analytical thinking techniques can help you reclaim the power to think clearly.

• Introduction to "The Fog of Everyday Life" and the importance of questioning what we read and hear
• The difference between emotional reactions and logical analysis when processing information
• This week's challenge: keep a reaction journal of content that emotionally triggers you
• How analytical thinking applies to understanding current economic policies like tariffs
• Preview of upcoming episodes exploring principles from the book "Think Like an Analyst"
• The importance of consulting multiple sources rather than relying on single news outlets
• Why clarity of thought is power in a world full of noise and confusion

In a world full of noise, clarity is power. Subscribe, share with someone you care about, and join us for more insights on thinking like an analyst.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to The Fog of Everyday Life
• 0:55 The Reaction Journal Challenge
• 2:38 Origins of Think Like an Analyst
• 4:22 Analyzing Tariffs and Economic Impact
• 9:41 Book Preview and Episode Closing

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to Think Like the Enemy. I am Frankie Aviles and today we're launching a special series inspired by my new book, thinking Like an Analyst. This is episode one the Fog of Everyday Life. Let me ask you, when was the last time you stopped to think about what you were thinking? Every day, we're hit with headlines, hot takes and hashtags. The volume is high and the thinking is slow. Most people react. They scroll, they share, but they don't stop to ask is this true? Who's benefiting from the message? This is what I call fog of everyday life and critical thinking. That's your flashlight.

Speaker 1: 0:47

In today's episode, we're going to talk about why we're stuck in reactive mode and how to reclaim your power to think clearly. This week's challenge keep a reaction journal. Every time you feel emotionally triggered by a piece of information, pause and write down what it was, how it made you feel emotionally triggered by a piece of information. Pause and write down what it was, how it made you feel and whether you verified it by the end of the week. You'll be amazed at what you've learned about your thinking. This is a very interesting notion, right? Because a lot of times that when we're actually looking at a piece of information or we're thinking about a piece of information. We don't necessarily look at who's actually giving us a set piece of information, and it is not because we're not necessarily thinking about it, it's not because we're not prepared to do it. Everybody has the rationale to actually come back and say, hmm, maybe, just maybe this is not exactly what I should be thinking about, or this is not exactly what I should be reading about, or this is something that needs to be explored a little bit further.

Speaker 1: 1:57

I sat down and I was talking to some people, some friends of mine, and I was like, okay, we're like dude, we don't, we don't get exactly how. You come back and you go like, oh, we're going to, I'm just going to do this and I'm just going to write it, or whatever. And I was like, well, pretty simple, I just go back to critical thinking and I just do my due diligence, right. So I look at the source, I look at several things, I try to put in, ponder ideas in a better light, so that way, when I come to an educated guess, the guess is not emotional, the guess is actually logical, because, at the end of the day, that's what it really, it really matters for me. And they were like, well, well, I don't, I don't get it exactly, or I don't necessarily understand where you're coming from, or that, that, that, that, that, that. And I was like okay, I have have to be, I have to be better at this. So what is the easiest way to help somebody understand the way that you're thinking or the way that you're necessarily pushing, the way that you're portraying yourself or the way that you're making your mind work for you? Well, the easiest way to? To teach him. So that's what I did. I sat down and I wrote a very small, very user-friendly guide to how to think like an analyst.

Speaker 1: 3:12

As you know, I used to be an analyst and I am very proud of that particular role, but I would be a lot more more efficient in my life if I help others to pretty much be able to do the same that I am. There's nothing about education or the knowledges that we have, or the knowledge that we have and the experiences we have, but we don't share them with others. So this particular experience, I can share it with y'all, because it is not something that is deemed by the government to be classified. It's just information. It's just the way that I look at information and open source content, and we have financial analysts, we have pretty much policy analysts, we have analysts of every sort. So it is just putting the perspective of how I do things into a different light, and that's what I'm here to do and that's what we're going to be doing.

Speaker 1: 4:05

For the next couple episodes. We're going to come back and forth with the espionage and the propaganda and everything else that we have going on, but for this one, we're just going to be talking about analysis and the fog of everyday life. So now that we have that down, let's talk about what's going on currently with the tariffs. Tariffs are not necessarily something that a lot of people are agreeing or in agreeance with, and I feel that, as somebody that is thinking logically, I think that the tariffs are good, but they're missing something, and I use the book that I'm telling you about, which is coming out soon. Use the book that I'm telling you about, which is coming out soon, think like an analyst to pretty much go back and seeing why the tariffs are so important.

Speaker 1: 4:53

Why is the actual decline of the current economic outcome for the country and the dow everything else is going on, why is it important? And the five trillions that we've lost when it comes to since the tariffs came out until today. That's something that I checked. It was about five trillion dollars. Why is it important? Well, there's something happening right now within our government, which is that they're cutting cost, and the cost cutting is something that needs to happen. We can all agree with that. Not only that doesn't need to happen, it needs to also be effective in a way that is going to bring our debt down somehow, or we need to restructure it. Well, funny enough, coming up, we have a restructuring of our debt about $9 trillion string of our debt about $9 trillion.

Speaker 1: 5:48

So what happens when people lose faith with our current mode of governance, or our current economic ideals, for that matter? People go back to something that is safe Things, normally gold or bonds. Bonds is debt. So let's say that you have $5 trillion to just change hands. Let's say that at least five trillion dollars went into actual bonds, because nobody's buying gold and keeping them safe in their house, right? Not a whole lot of people, unless they're preppers or unless they're people that actually want to have a diversified portfolio when it comes to gold, and it depends on where they are in their life.

Speaker 1: 6:20

So let's say they went back and they said okay, we're going to buy bonds, perfect, so bonds, they buy them right now and let's say you get a hundred dollars, you get 101, you're going to get a one percent on those bonds. Well, they feel safe for the time being. Let's keep it that way, so that way I don't lose my money. I don't go with this crazy conundrum that is happening within the market and there's that. So now that when you go to actually restructure the debt and the payment that we have an interest, maybe the interest is going to be lower because people are believing in the system, in the mode of bonds. So the move might be a little bit different, might not be orthodox, for that matter. Day, it actually brings the market down, which, in time, actually gives you people, or give people the opportunity to buy bonds which help us with our current debt payments when they get restructured and the country save some money.

Speaker 1: 7:20

That's what I was able to do with the principles that I'm teaching in this book, which so think like an analyst. It's not about the emotional response. Yeah, you're going to pay a little bit more for about a year or so. Absolutely, can you afford it? More than likely not. No, does it suck? Yeah, but will it be better in the end? Yeah, absolutely, because in time, when we're actually bringing that, let's say, production, back to the united states in the form of industry or in the form of agriculture, so people are actually incentivized for selling here in the united states in the form of industry or in the form of agriculture, so people are actually incentivized for selling here in the united states, like it's happening with the eggs. Again, that we don't have a bird flu right. Riddle me that now we can say safely, that we can move forward, hopefully within the actual mindset, and within the mind not necessarily the mindset, but the framework that is being implemented into our actual government. So that's what I was able to do with this book For the next chapters, and so we're going to talk about it very briefly, because the book is not up, I'm not going to give that much information and I also want people to get in and support you know, know the cause and support everything that we're trying to do.

Speaker 1: 8:30

I hope that that you like it and it gives you some tools so you can actually look at everything that's happening and not just stop and look at it, be emotional and move on. Now I want you to actually look at it, think, write it down, look at more sources, not just look at cnn and say, well, cnn's told me that. Well, cnn is a news outlet that has been bought and sold by pretty much everybody and their mother out there and it's not me saying it, is pretty much everybody because we have seen the lies, we have seen the misinformation, we have seen the disinformation that they have put out. Every new solid in one shape or form has done it. So, at the end of the day, it is for you to dissect and discern said information.

Speaker 1: 9:18

So if you found this content, you know, informative, I hope that you like it. I hope that you share, that you bring more people in, and this has been episode one of think or thinking like an analyst. If you found value to today's actual episode, subscribe, share and share not just with everybody, share with somebody that you care and remember. In a world full of noise, clarity is power. Thank you for watching. Thank you for listening. I know this was a very short video, just doing something sweet, simple and short so we can get in the rhythm of things and we can come back Friday with the actual principles from the book and talk about how we're looking at the news and how we're going to react to them. Again, god bless you, god bless America, and remember to always think like the enemy. Thank you for watching everybody. I appreciate each and every one of you. See you in the next one.