It started on top of the cliffs.
THINK. is a physical deck of 120 conversation cards across eight categories, created in Farmington, New Mexico, by me, Ryan Rivas, and published by Collective Reason LLC. Here's where it came from.
Ryan Rivas · Founder · Farmington, NM
Questions without easy answers.
Two years of work went into this deck of questions, and it started in an unlikely place: on top of the cliffs near my home in Farmington.
Well, to be truthful, the spirit of these questions started a lot longer ago. As a philosophy student at Hampden-Sydney College, much of my life circled around questions without easy answers. I spent many days (and many hazy nights) talking about morality, meaning and metaphysics with friends and classmates. On the Ethics Bowl team, I lived neck-deep in moral dilemmas for five months of every school year, and I spent my summers on independent research in philosophy.
I craved those conversations: the back-and-forth, the subtle yet profound shifts in understanding. At the center of it all were questions, and they never left me.
The long way to New Mexico.
- VirginiaHampden-Sydney CollegePhilosophy, and the Ethics Bowl team
- VirginiaA wilderness schoolCounseling at-risk teenagers
- ColoradoA farm in BoulderWorking a farm
- Georgia to MaineThe Appalachian TrailAll 2,200 miles, south to north
- VermontA farm in VermontBack on a farm
- New MexicoThe Navajo NationTeaching with Teach for America
- Farmington, NMThe mesaWhere THINK. began
After college I explored all sorts of paths. I worked farms in Colorado and Vermont, counseled at-risk teenagers at a wilderness boarding school in Virginia, and hiked the Appalachian Trail (yes, all 2,200 miles of it). I finally landed in New Mexico, teaching at a school on the Navajo Nation with Teach for America. Through all of it, I kept my love of thinking and talking about big ideas, and I jumped at every good conversation that came up. The problem is, those conversations don't come up all that often.
Which brings me back to the cliffs.
“I didn't want to be a passive listener anymore.”
Like a lot of people who love a good conversation but rarely get one, I turned to podcasts. I couldn't take part, so I settled for listening. Then, on a sunny run across the mesa, it hit me: I didn't want to be a passive listener anymore.
I had my own thoughts, my own opinions, my own reasons, and I wanted to talk them through with other people. I wanted the back-and-forth of a real conversation, and the moment you realize the thought that's been circling your head for weeks is incomplete, or missing the one subtle point that changes your whole perspective. I wanted the kind of conversation that leaves you thinking, and you can't get that by listening to someone else have it.
I couldn't be the only one.
Then came my next realization: I couldn't be the only one. Podcasts have millions of listeners, which means millions of people like me who love exploring ideas and have settled for listening. I had a feeling that, like me, they'd rather be the ones talking.
That's when THINK. was born.
Conversations like these come up by chance every once in a while. What was missing was a way to start them on purpose, and that's what I set out to build.
Tap the card to flip it
Two years later, a deck you can hold.
Two years of designing questions, testing version after version and folding in feedback later, THINK. is a 120-card deck with nearly 500 questions across eight categories, from politics and ethics to technology and medicine. Each card has one question on the front and three follow-ups on the back for when one answer isn't enough.
It's my best attempt to put the most interesting questions of our time in your hands, and to put you and your friends in the driver's seat of the conversation. My only hope is that it gives you the kind of conversations that leave you thinking.
- 120 cards
- 8 categories
- 2–6 players
- No app, no screens
So stop settling for listening.
Join the conversation.
Ryan Rivas, founder of THINK.
Get the deckQuestions or bulk orders? ryan@thinkconversationcards.com