So, It Turns Out I have Opinions about Stuff!

The gut feeling. “This is good/bad.” It’s emotional, shallow, and instantly forgettable. This, sadly, is pretty much most of the internet - I am going to assume here that you don’t really disagree? This has become the white noise of our days - the snack food for our intellect. We feel it should be filling us up, but it leaves us unsatisfied and seeking real food instead.

This consists of merely parroting what other, smarter people have said (often with well-feigned authority) “As (Expert) says …” It’s informed, but it’s by no means original. This - well, this is most AI content. These are the pretty, clever words that should help us feel better educated, but instead make us feel shallow, ill-equipped, and afraid to jump into the debate for fear of being found out as a shallow dilettante.

This is where the magic happens. It’s the unique connection you make between different fields, ideas, and your own lived experiences. This is your original thought, born from processing information through your own unique lens. This is the opinion that changes minds and builds your authority. This is where you are systematically building interlocking matrices of understanding that you carry for a lifetime.

Revel in your research to your heart’s content. Devour the diverse inputs (books, podcasts, contrary views). Set yourself a time limit and go wide - go deep - go diverse. Suck in as much knowledge from as many different sources as you can.

Break the core components from your research down into your Mind Map - the distillation of your research. The deeper you go in your research, the more you will realise that there are just a few common core components. Get them logged!

Now you begin to shape these connections into a uniquely coherent, valuable point of view. A viewpoint formed from research, synthesis, intelligence, and critical thinking, which face it is as far as possible from the Level One (Hot Take) that you can get.

You begin to speak with clarity, with informed authority. You see, an opinion isn’t something you “have,” it’s something you “build.” And to craft those opinions, I think you need to equip yourself with the right tools - and those are not a phone full of Apps that clutter your screen, but a handful of Mind Maps that broaden your horizons and expand your mind.

No longer do you hide your intelligence under feigned shyness, believing that you don’t have enough learning to take a full part in conversations and debates.

Imposter Syndrome falls away. You don’t just “feel” that you have a right to speak; you “know” you have put in the work and completed your research.

You are transformed in meetings, on stages, in your content, from someone who reacts to someone who “guides the conversation.”

You become the leader!

You become the antidote to the banality of AI. Of course, it can summarise Layer 2 better than any human can. However, it cannot, and will never, create the unique, quirky, humorous, human connections that form a Layer 3 opinion. From now on, quality opinion becomes your sovereign territory!