Device of the Devil

One of the ways that I think things through is to look at something at face value. Learn everything about it. Describe it.

Then I look at what it does for me. What does it make me feel? What does it make me think?

Then I consider what the creator or person responsible for whatever I'm dissecting might have intended on doing with it. Did they accomplish this goal? How effective was it?

I like to think of it as looking at things through a scope(I like to think of either a microscope or a sniper rifle scope lol). At first, I look at the entire body of work. This is like looking at it without magnifying anything at all.

Then I pick something in particular, narrow the scope, hone in on that one thing, and again, go through that same process I described above. Face value, describe, what does it do for me, what was the person's intentions.

When I'm done with that, I widen the scope back out so I can see everything again. Now that I know what I know after honing in on that one section, what does it tell me about the whole body of work? Usually, I'll gain more of an understanding about the whole body of work this way.

I continue this process until I've gotten through multiple aspects of the whole body of work. Most of the time, I'll be interested enough to pick through most all of the aspects of the body of work. Sometimes, boredom will overcome me and I'll only learn a little bit about whatever it is I'm thinking about. Either way, this "scoping in" and "scoping out" method works wonders for me, in my honest and humble opinion.