Which things influence or determine the "quality" of a thought?

[Human Mint]

@Carl-Richard Do you mean particular things like a drug or things like that? Or more general situations?

A good family will determine a better quality of thoughts.

[Willie]

The quality of information intake has a large effect on thought output. Garbage in, garbage out. 

[Davino]

For me a key factor is the distinction between unconscious thoughts thinking themselves and consciously thinking thoughts.

All high quality stream of thoughts are generated by conscious will. Something like this: imagine a crystalline empty, spacious, awake mind. That's it state.

Now this mind gets consciously in movement to cognise some aspect of reality, you are aware of all the jumps the mind does, like a heart beat. Each thought is unique by itself, it may be original or not but it's not influenced by the background tapestry and structure of itself but is working freely, unconditioned and on the fly. Of course it can access its background reservoir and so it does but this is a conscious choice and not unconscious bias or systematic pattern-thinking but again an autonomous and sovereign mind working.

This is a key factor, which I define as necessary but maybe not sufficient for high quality thoughts.

Other key factors are intelligence, experience, fearlessness, open-mindedness, unbiased, interconnected, holistic and mature.

 

 

[NewKidOnTheBlock]

It's not so clear to me what even a thought is. What is thinking? How can you really define or determine a quality of something you can't even describe? The so called visual thoughts or visualizations I can grasp, but the rest of them is something purely abstract. It seems to me that most of our actions don't really require any kind of thinking, and the only time you need to really think is when you are working on solving a problem. Other than that, you are using your memory and the ability to recall, but you are not consciously generating original thoughts.

I would say that the quality of a thought is determined by it's proximity to actuality and it's complexity, ability to cover nuances. Maybe it'd even be possible to mathematically quantify these 2 variables in a simple graph with X and Y axis, somehow

[Carl-Richard]

@NewKidOnTheBlock What quality in a human best predicts high-quality thoughts?

[Carl-Richard]

On 25.10.2025 at 9:18 PM, Davino said:

For me a key factor is the distinction between unconscious thoughts thinking themselves and consciously thinking thoughts.

Rumination vs conscious problemsolving. It's the difference between an unenlightened mind and an enlightened mind. I think enlightenment can definitely dial in your thoughts. It reduces the oscillations of the wave and produces pristine, silent, clear sight. If avoiding substances and glucose-unstable/spiking foods is the biological side of reducing the oscillations, transcending cyclical and emotionally charged/spiking throughts would be the psychological side.

Edited October 27 by Carl-Richard

[UnbornTao]

What makes thought possible? 

[gettoefl]

Human is an antenna for the thought totality which is dependent on the collective consciousness. Namely you can receive a thought that the collective humanity has birthed if and only if you conscious enough. When you are ready then you will receive. There are quality thoughts that reflect  truth such as I am whole and inferior thoughts that deepen illusion such as I am limited. Purify yourself to gain access to higher calibre thoughts. In short be still and know the I am is God.

[NewKidOnTheBlock]

14 hours ago, Carl-Richard said:

@NewKidOnTheBlock What quality in a human best predicts high-quality thoughts?

That's actually an interesting question because the answer to that is not as clear as in the case of the original question. I don't think it would be possible to reduce that predictor to a single quality, as there is a plurality of types of thinking. Depending on what you are trying to think about. Have too much of one quality and you'll become stupid in other areas, have too little and you'll be stupid in general.

[Princess Arabia]

4 minutes ago, NewKidOnTheBlock said:

have too little and you'll be stupid in general.

Then you'll just have high-quality stupid thoughts.😏

[NewKidOnTheBlock]

4 minutes ago, Princess Arabia said:

Then you'll just have high-quality stupid thoughts.😏

Well I'd clasify by stupid as, fundamentally not being aligned with the actuality i.e. the truth. But if you wanna go crazy with it all, be my guest.

Actually I think all types of thinking are alied and simultaneously enemies to each other, like often times they synergize together, but sometimes one makes the other one worse. That's just a theory off the top of my mind anyway.

There are also external influences obviously, the quality of information that goes into the system matters

[Princess Arabia]

Just now, NewKidOnTheBlock said:

Well I'd clasify by stupid as, fundamentally not being aligned with the actuality i.e. the truth. But if you wanna go crazy with it all, be my guest.

Actually I think all types of thinking are alied and simultaneously enemies to each other, like often times they synergize together, but sometimes one makes the other one worse. That's just a theory off the top of my mind anyway.

There are also external influences obviously, the quality of information that goes into the system matters

Yes, thoughts are just communicating with thoughts, that's all, but we won't go there as that'll lead to a dead end thought.

[Joshe]

What even is a good-quality thought? It would depend on your goals and the context in which the thought arises. If you're an artist, "good thoughts" would be different from good thoughts of a philosopher. So, what is meant by "good"? 

If my goal is to rest, the thought that I shouldn't have any thoughts is a good thought. "Good thought" is not static because context is not static. 

If you specifically mean what is a good thought in the context of intellectual pursuits, insights, etc., then the quality of thought depends on the system producing them. Maybe a better question would be: what most affects the quality of the thinking process that leads to good thoughts in situation X with the goal of Y. 

Given this, maybe the answer would be something like the ability to select and apply the thinking process most pertinent to a specific goal.

Strategic metacognition.

 

 

[Miguel1]

State of consciousness.

[Yimpa]

24 minutes ago, Miguel1 said:

State of consciousness.

 

[Carl-Richard]

@Joshe @NewKidOnTheBlock

Abstracting a general term is not hard. You do it all the time.

[Joshe]

4 hours ago, Carl-Richard said:

Abstracting a general term is not hard. You do it all the time.

There are prerequisites for producing good thoughts. Quality thoughts emerge from quality processes. 

But to bring it down a level, what makes thoughts better in the truth-seeking domain? Self-correction and calibration.

It's how willing, honestly, and flexible a mind can update itself. Iterative self-correction. A good thinker tests their knowledge and intuitions through internal trial and error and they are very sensitive to previous errors they've made. They loop between intuition, reasoning, and reality-testing and update as needed. This pays compounding interest.

This is how I produce my amazing thoughts. 😆

Also, this would not be applicable to all thought, which is what I was trying to explain in my previous post. 

Maybe you've answered already, but what are your top contenders? 

Edited October 28 by Joshe

[Ramasta9]

As above, so below, as within so without, as the soul so the universe.