In this age of information, when we’re curious about something it can be easy to pull out a smartphone and search for what we’d like to know. The ease of access to information means we don’t always have to stop to think any more.
There are many things that are valuable to figure out for ourselves, without the use of Google. We can engage our memory, our logic, and our creativity to fill those gaps in our knowledge. Whether we’re right or wrong, we have pumped juice into those forgotten parts of our brains, again awakening that potential.
For example, a beginner guitarist might wonder how to add a seventh note to a G chord. He could look it up, or he could stop and think about which notes are being played on which strings, and which fret he might finger to add that F note to form the seventh chord.
Then there are things which an Internet search won’t yield easy answers. For example, the feeling of a chord progression going from the first chord to the fourth, and back to the first. Nobody else can tell us exactly how that feels. We must feel it for ourselves, noticing with attention and purpose.