The way we speak reflects associated thoughts and the too-often applied "to be" verbs push little need for critical, deep thinking. E-Prime (for English-Prime) helps to counter this by simply eliminating any "to be" verbs (e.g. am, is, are, was, were, be... etc.).
Popular shallow thinking
It requires little thought to say something as incredibly ambiguous as “The market is down…” What does the speaker wish to actually convey; that the said instruments have dropped below fair value and present a buying opportunity, or perhaps he/she has lost/made a fortune betting long/short and looks for sympathy/envy? Nobody knows, nor cares to ask in fears of even more convoluted statements.
Deeper thinking with E-Prime
Speaking, writing in E-Prime forces us to adapt a novel mode of thoughts. Instead of expressing “this problem is hard,” E-Prime thinking compels the speaker to explore various aspects of “the problem” to only express it in clarified language, and all of sudden they may experience an “Aha!” moment, and a solution becomes known.
You know why? Most of our life problems only appear “difficult” due to uncertainties, vagueness. Once understood and demystified through some critical thinking, options (along with necessary sacrifices) surface; and life goes on.
Apply E-Prime, and the mind will follow.
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