【陳慧珊】有一種教育，叫學習做決定 (21) 不要停止「質疑」

「我們不能用製造問題時的思維來解決同一個問題。」 — 愛因斯坦

例如一個無容置疑的事實：生理學上，人類只可以透過一男一女結合而來。兩個男人、兩個女人，或單靠一個人，都不可能孕育出一個生命。我們基本上都接受這個悠來已久的常識，不會提出質疑。可是，我們其實應該質疑的。

事實上，有些基因學家就質疑過。他們發現，有些兩棲類、爬行類，甚至是鳥類動物，可以不經交配繁殖。他們認為探究箇中的原因十分重要，所以曾在實驗室裏，嘗試以老鼠作單性繁殖，惟失敗告終。

然而，當中的得著是，至少有科學家不停地嘗試去質疑這個看似牢不可破的事情。

在日常生活中，若以失敗過的方式再應對同一個問題，當然無濟於事。我們雖然不是科學家，但大部分情況下都應該明白，不需要去做實驗，都知道同一思維會帶來同一個行為，同樣解決不了問題。

同樣，多少次，當被別人觸怒後，我們是出於本能地咆哮，不斷口出狂言，而非停下來喘息一下？然後又沉溺於生氣的想法，讓怒火重燃。這個情況在我們焦慮時同樣出現，不停重複想法，愈演愈烈。不改變心態，繼續生氣或焦慮，我們又怎能解決相關的問題呢？

解決問題時，我們是否應該相信自己的判斷能力？大部分人都傾向遵守「看見就是相信」的原則，認為自己看見和感受到的，就是唯一的事實；先不要說許多人都只喜歡「看見」自己想看到的事情。

相當諷刺的是，視覺觀感本身就可以很虛幻。例如，在視覺世界中，即使兩件物品與我們的距離是一樣，我們卻會覺得較大、較光的那一件距離較近；另一例子，當我們將熟悉與不熟悉的物件，一起放在相同距離的位置時，我們通常能感覺到熟悉物品之真實距離。既然大自然給予我們空間去思考，包括質疑那些「無容置疑」的事，為何我們不就自己的慣性行為和想法作出反思？ 

因為我們太習慣相信自己的看法了。就算面對更嚴重、更複雜的問題，大部分人仍然抱持同樣的觀感，在問題上兜圈。我們都忘記，自己對事情的觀感，不過是個人對世界的偏見。換句話來說，我們放過了可以質疑的事情，給它們「放假」去。 

進一步去想，我們平日又是如何辨別真偽？其實我們都分辨不到。我們不過是透過自己對事件的觀感，得出的個人見解，從而去斷定一件事情的真假。但這觀感因信念、價值、態度、取向等個人經驗而異，在今天影響著我們對事情的看法。 

更糟的是，我們所身處的環境，所面對的人都不斷改變。我們在理解事情的同時，往往會因其他事情而分心，混雜著人際關係。這些都可能混淆視聽，影響判斷力，迫使著我們根據習慣作決定。因為跟從既有的方法與想法，能給予我們一定的舒適感。 

穩定與慣性都給予我們舒適感，即使它們可能根本已經失效。我們寧可迎合，加大可容忍的程度，也不願意去承認問題，不去質疑過往的做法與想法。我們寧願接受固定的做法，任何有抵觸，或者疑似自己範圍以外的事，一概都不接受。 

可是，保持學習新方法與新思維，或者更加可取。因為它可以將我們從困局中解放。講到底，沒有人喜歡停滯不前的無力感。只要推動自己去學習，我們就能減輕為世所迫，前無去路的感覺與壓力。 

以一個失明人士為例，他可以依靠自己對世界的理解好好生活，不過若他突然能夠看見，他亦可以重新理解出一個「真實的」世界 — 好好學習便可。如果他繼續保持昔日對「看不見的世界」的認知，就不能順利過渡到現實生活。相比對抗，他更應該努力找尋新方法應對，令這趟旅程更順暢。他或會自動自覺這樣去做，因為隨著學習新知識，捨棄舊習慣和觀念更令人充實及興奮。 

我們不需像科學家般細緻和嚴謹，但同樣需要刻意、有系統地對過去的決定，以及其他沒有建設性的行為提出質疑。只要有足夠的推能力，新舊的過渡將會是流暢的。 

到最後，我們會發現，事情不一定要是既定那樣子；他人不一定理解到真正的我們，事情不一定要跟特定的方法完成；所謂事實都可以只是個故事，反之亦然。事實上，這個世界比我們想像中的更明亮，更有希望。

作者：陳慧珊

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Decision Making is Educational

Give ‘Questioning’ – No School Break

“You cannot solve a problem
with the same mind that created it.”
-Albert Einstein

Let’s begin with an unassailable fact. Biologically, a human being can only be created with a male and a female. We cannot create a child by two men, two women, nor by one individual woman or man. We’ve basically accepted this mundane piece of fact throughout history and do not question it. However, we should.

And some genetic scientists did. They thought it was important to question why some species of amphibians, reptiles, and even birds can create live young without mating but that humans can’t. Therefore, researchers have tried in the lab (on specimens of mice) to recreate a virgin birth of sorts, but have failed.

However, the lesson learned is, at least some scientists have tried to question the unquestionable – by giving questioning “no school breaks”.

In our daily living, when problems arise and we approach them with the same failed decisions, why does it surprise us when the problems don’t go away? We’re not scientists but in most cases we’re knowledgeable enough to know that we don’t need a lab experiment to prove that we can’t solve a problem using the same state of mind, or the same perceptions, which result in the same forms of behavior.

In a similar vein, when someone has made us angry, how many times have we resorted to a knee-jerk reaction of ranting and raving nonstop only to be exhausted enough to take a moment’s breath, and then to re-trigger our anger by self-indulging in the same angry thought? The same holds true for when we’re in a state of anxiety and we exacerbate it by repeating the same thoughts over and over again in our minds. How could we, by remaining in the same state of mind, help solve the problems associated with our anger or anxiety?

When it comes to trusting our perception in evaluating and making decisions towards a problem, most people like to abide by the law of ‘Seeing is Believing’; we like to think that what we see and feel is the only reality. Not to mention, most people only like to “see” what they want to see.
The irony is that visual perception in itself can be illusive. For example, in the visual world, given two objects at the same distance, we may perceive the larger and brighter object to be closer. Another example is that familiar objects are usually perceived at their true distance when placed alongside unfamiliar objects of the same distance. Therefore, if even nature gives us room to question even the “unquestionable”, why is it that we don’t question our habitual ways of doing and thinking?
Because we’re so used to trusting our perception of things, that when faced with more serious and complex problems most of us just keep circling in the same perception of the problem. We forget that our perception of the problem is really just… our individual, biased way of looking at the world. In other words, we give the questionable “a school break”.
Further to this thought, how do we know if something is real or true? We don’t really, 100% of time, because (facts aside?) what is real or true depends on our own interpretation of that event through our perception. And this perception is partially caused by all the beliefs, values, attitudes and preferences that we accumulated in the past which cause us to see things the way we do in the present.
To make matters worse, our environment and the things and people we deal with are never static, so we interpret situations amid the complexities of distractions and relationships which could confuse us and cloud our judgment, and force us to take actions based on our habits because old ways of doing and thinking give us some level of comfort.

Stability and habit give us comfort, even when stability and habit does not work. Rather than to admit to, sometimes conform to, or stretch our tolerance level, we would rather not question how things were done or perceived in the past. We would much rather accept what is stable and exclude anything contradictory or seemingly out of our reach.

But it may help to keep in mind that by engaging in learning new ways of thinking and doing, that this behavior may eventually liberate us from feeling bound by dead ends. After all, no one likes to feel the stress of hitting a brick wall countless times. Simply by motivating ourselves to learn, we could alleviate our stress of feeling like the world is grim with little or no alternatives or solutions.

Take for example the situation of a blind man. A blind man functions well in his own perception of the world, but if he is suddenly granted sight he would know how to manipulate the “real” world – simply by learning how to do it. If he kept using his old sensory perception of his past sightless world, he could not possibly make a transition into reality. Rather than fight it, he must not only go with the flow, but search for strategies to make his journey smoother and faster. He would be self-motivated to do so because he would discover along the way of learning, that discarding old habits and perceptions are much more fulfilling and exciting.

We may not need to be as meticulous or rigorous as scientists, but we will need to make a deliberate and systematic effort in order to question past decision-making and other unproductive behaviors. We could, however, expect a smooth transition from old to new as long as we motivate ourselves enough to do it.

In the “end”, we could be enlightened by the “reality” that things don’t have to be the way they are, that people don’t really feel that way about us, that things don’t have to be done in a particular way, that fact can become fiction and vice versa, and that the world is really brighter and more hopeful than we once envisaged.

Text by Flora Chan