To learn to think like Sherlock Holmes, nothing better than to enter his mind, one of the most lucid in the history of literature. Has Conan Doyle endowed his character with a method of thinking that requires a lot of attention and discipline, a few drops of natural skepticism, a curious, curious, and energetic gaze that we can all train effectively?
Joseph Bell, the forensic pathologist Doyle inspired to create his famous creature Baker Street, said any diagnosis that can be made, whether forensic, scientific or in any other context, should be based on three basic steps: carefully monitoring, inferring and cunningly. Confirm the evidence. Learning this strategy is not done in a day or two, but through a thorough routine to train the mind, to get to know a little better the “basements of our brain”.
- “On the day Sherlock Holmes specialized in forensic medicine.
- The theater lost a magnificent actor and a scientist a passionate thinker.
- John Watson?.
This Scottish doctor, who Conan Doyle was lucky enough to meet, was always very proud that his student took it as a reference for his work, in fact, preface to some of his books, it can also be said that he was not only inspired by Dr. Bell’s analytical method, but also attracted by the personality and reasoning of another famous detective C. Auguste Dupin, created by Edgar Allan Poe in “The Murders on Morgue Street”.
Arthur Conan Doyle knew very well what he wanted when he drew the characteristics of his character’s fascinating personality: he should not be an easy man, he did not want the classical hero, he had to have dark and contradictory nuances, a very particular sense of personality. justice and, above all, must have the brightest mind of all time. And he did, is there any doubt?
Learn how Sherlock Holmes is within our reach if we follow the following strategies?
There is nothing worse than to stop questioning ideas or thoughts, than to adopt a passive attitude to every fact, information or event around us; Moreover, if we do not learn to question even our own thoughts and attitudes, we will rarely see beyond a smokescreen. .
To learn to think like Sherlock Holmes it is necessary to go through a phase of preparation aimed at forgetting prejudices, oneself and others, and not assuming as true the opinions or reasoning that others defend, as if they were irrefutable universal truths. Learn how to put filters, our filters; be skeptical, curious, stimulating and able to see beyond our own nose, controlling above all the automatic reasoning that sometimes appears.
When Sherlock Holmes receives a message, he not only reads the message, in fact, the text is the least important thing. The Jay Holmesian method? It involves the development of inclusive thinking, where everything goes, where everything provides information, to think like Sherlock Holmes you have to keep in mind that every object, every face, every tone of voice, an insignificant gesture or a seemingly common scenario, provides much more information than one imagines.
Do you remember, for example, the adventure of “The Blue Carbuncle”? And, like through an old hat and an oca, Holmes knew how to skillfully uncover one of the most complex and original cases that Conan Doyle created.
Anyone who has read all the cases and adventures of Sherlock Holmes has certainly noticed an essential aspect: the Baker Street tenant ranges from inactivity and deeper lethargy to emotion and movement when something attracts their interest, that is, when their mind concentrates and stops rambling. idle and sad.
Holmes rejects cases that are not stimulating or clients that do not inspire trust, his mind is selective, which saves him time and energy to focus only on what corresponds to his values, his interests, in this sense only accepts the cases that motivate him, which he believes can be a real challenge to his abilities.
To learn to think like Sherlock Holmes, it will be very useful to apply one of his techniques: imaginative thinking. In those moments when his mind had a lot of information, spare parts, testimonies, inaccurate sensations and contradictory images, Holmes needed to organize himself. them to analyze them and develop plausible theories to explain what had happened.
To carry out this process, he did not hesitate to isolate himself from the world of his room, use a good pipe, play the violin and immerse himself in his mental palate to adjust his deductions. Sometimes, to think better, you can ideal. es away from the central problem; relax and work with the information we already have.
We are often wrong on the trust side and believe that our mind will not forget important information, details or data, but not quite. We can write our thoughts and ideas on paper not only to remember information, but also to think better, channel more ideas, and compare concepts.
Similarly, we cannot ignore the fact that Holmes himself and ampere scientist André-Marie had something in common: they always had pencil and paper, ideas are free, come and go in the most implausible moments, so nothing better than being ready to write them.
Is there a curious fact that we must take into account about the character of Sherlock Holmes, his deductive gifts, his analytical ability, his genius to link seemingly divergent facts to prove a theory, are not aspects that come from it?Factory??? in your head.
The one who really had exceptional intelligence was his brother Mycroft, whom everyone described as the best brain in England, yet his fabulous brain contrasted with his passive attitude. Was he a man of rigorous routines and an enemy of action and research on the ground, those tasks that left his younger brother with pleasure, for this spirit always restless and lacking stimuli, challenges and riddles to feed?And, in turn, train your mind, your skills and your “smell” as a private investigator.
“I’m a brain, Watson, the rest is just an appendix. “Sherlock Holmes?
One detail Dr. Watson has often pointed out about his beloved roommate and adventure is the fact that Holmes used his splendid skills to do good. We can see this hero/villain showdown in this extraordinary criminal case: That of Professor Moriarty.
All this makes us think of an idea: the concept of intelligence, as well as our cognitive abilities, also need a purpose, a motivating goal that will help us continue to train, to be more effective in our reasoning, reflections and areas of action. .
Thinking without motivation and without inspiration is useless. In fact, Holmes himself was discouraged as the days passed and there were no cases, where time passed slowly like the fog of London without his mind having anything to solve, for no purpose.
Learning to think like Sherlock Holmes is undoubtedly an excellent goal that we can put into practice on a daily basis, however, we will always have at our disposal Doyle’s stories to inspire us, with dozens of adventures, where we can learn. a little more about the methods and strategies of one of the most beloved and admired characters in the history of literature, he was also one of the few characters resurrected by popular will, even against the will of the author.