First Line Thinking

The five senses are critical parts of the people survival system. Humans would not have made it much pass the Genesis bush without keen senses. The senses are subjective instruments being called upon to perform objective tasks. Subjective in the sense that they are no where near perfect in their role as data gatherers. Children are taught to "stop at the street corner and look both ways." But, who has not followed this procedure only to "pull out or walk out" in front of someone or something, or at least almost do so? However, the senses can usually be counted on to adequate enough information about any particular situation. The old saying that "two heads are better than one" is never more true than when it comes to compiling data for decision making. Four eyes and four ears are, in most cases, better than two.

First Line Thinking (FLT) deals with the facts as presented by the senses. There is no interpretation, no opinion or assumption involved in first line thinking. Joe Friday, television's Dragnet detective would say to the informant trying to add an opinion as to what happened at the scene would chide, "Just the facts Mister, Just the facts!" FLT takes what the five senses provide and stop at that.

FLT is an essential part of thought management. It is a way of preventing worrisome thoghts related to what could have happened or probably happened. Mental imagery can get very sophisticated when it comes to assumptions and presumptions. Borrowed trouble or elaborate "probably's" can be avoided when first line thinking is allowed to stand on it's own. A friend's wife left him. She told him that she was "leaving and that she would not be coming back."
In the days ahead his tendency was to make more out of what she said than was there. He was reminded of what his wife had said and, since there was no more information, was cautioned to limit his thinking to that information alone. Speculations about where she was, what she was doing, why she left and what she was going to do only dug his mental and emotional hole deeper.
She said she was leaving and she did. She said that she would not be coming back, which she did not. Stop! That's all the information that the woman provided upon her departure.

FLT can ease the burden of obsessive thinking. The mind can begin to formulate elaborate story lines and plots involving a host of assumptions and probabilities. This kind of thinking is a gamble with the facts and usually prove to be false. A more productive method involves a thought management called "First Line Thinking." As Joe Friday would say, "Just the facts mister, just the facts."