What is life? Such a profound question cannot be answered with absolute certainty because there is no right or wrong answer. If you were to ask one hundred people this question, you very well may receive one hundred different answers. This is because the answer lies within the individual, determined by their way of thinking. It is easy to see why the meaning of life does not have one particular answer. Realistically, people have choices on how they view things. This can determine their attitude towards specific people, places and ideas. In addition, others may be influenced by someone's views and choose to follow a similar lifestyle. Wallace explains that every experience can be viewed from a variety of perspectives in "This is Water." By looking at page 2 in David Foster Wallace's  speech "This is Water," we can see that Wallace's use of anecdote and his word choice support his underlying concern that people have the ability to make conscious decisions on how to think, but choose not to exercise this ability because of their predisposed ways of thinking.

People's ways of thinking can inhibit them from considering unfamiliar opinions. In the beginning of Wallace's speech, he states that "important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about."(1) This is not because the realities are too difficult to understand, but rather because people's set-in-stone beliefs make it hard for them to discuss and reconsider positions on topics. Wallace presents an anecdote of an atheist and religious man having a conversation in the Alaskan wilderness, discussing the validity of God: "...'Oh, God, if there is a God, I'm lost in this blizzard, and I'm gonna die if you don't help me.' And now, in the bar, the religious guy looks at the atheist all puzzled. 'Well then you must believe now,' he says, 'After all, here you are, alive.' The atheist just rolls his eyes. 'No, man, all that was was a couple Eskimos happened to come wandering by and showed me the way back to camp.'"(2) If the two men are both resolute in their opinions on religion, then perhaps the conversation was pointless from its initiation. The men's predisposed mindsets are making it impossible for one another to reconsider each other's points of view.

Wallace answers the question of why people think a certain way with thought-provoking word choice. Most people derive beliefs and develop mindsets from the people around them. For example, if you are born in America, you are likely to become a Christian because of your family, teachers, and friends. Likewise, if you’re born in Saudi Arabia, you are likely to become a Muslim for the same reasons. Wallace describes the development of one’s ideas when he says that people's morals and beliefs "are absorbed from culture, like language" (2). The word "absorb" implies that beliefs are acquired from familiar culture without rejection, like a sponge. He metaphorically calls the absorption "belief templates" which suggests that people set unconscious boundaries for themselves when they think about something. This stresses the fact that people do not go outside of their templates, or in other words, their pre-determined opinions. Belief templates cause people to reject opposing mindsets, while they qualify mindsets that make them feel good, or ones they can relate to. For example, the cliché sayings "There is a reason for everything" or "Karma will get them in the end" or "You must fulfill your destiny" are all sayings that enforce some form of positive viewpoint on life.  These assumptions all have the same problem. These ideas fail to take into consideration that life can be painful, depressing, and evil. People fall into various categories when it comes to their thoughts and beliefs about life. The categories apply to any opinionated situation such as religion, politics, debates, controversy. People’s belief systems are relevant to how they develop character and form relationships with others. It is important to be aware of your bias because ignoring foreign thoughts might limit your choices of what to think. A person who is not aware of their stance may waste much time, or choose to ignore critical details that could affect their well-being. This is apparent in Wallace’s Alaskan wilderness anecdote because the atheist refuses to consider the religious man’s point of view. The person with a critical mind has a closed mind. He does not take an opposite point of view into consideration, and follows a similar belief template as the religious man. The overly critical mind, or atheist antagonist, suffers the same fate of the protagonist.

Wallace explains how the way we think affects our attitudes in another anecdote. He explains that our outlook on life could be different if we avoid our natural default setting to let negativity depress us. Wallace asserts the significance of choice by saying,

"...petty, frustrating crap like this is exactly where the work of choosing is gonna come in. Because the traffic jams and crowded aisles and long checkout lines give me time to think, and if I don't make a conscious decision about how to think and what to pay attention to, I'm gonna be pissed and miserable every time I have to shop. Because my natural default setting is the certainty that situations like this are really all about me."  

The last sentence in this section is most intriguing when he describes his thought choice as a “natural default setting.” By doing this, he explains how self-centeredness influences one's choice on how to view situations in everyday life. At the end of a long day in the everyday adult life, Wallace still needs groceries and he naturally becomes selfish. In this case, being selfish, and choosing to let the boring and dreary aspects of life bother him causes him to be angry. This is interesting because even without cultural influences, we have a natural force that causes us to think one way without considering our other choices.

Wallace questioned the idea of thought itself, and challenged the graduating class of 2005 at Kenyon College to reevaluate how they think, explaining that each situation can be viewed from a variety of perspectives. Those perspectives can either improve or worsen your overall well-being whether or not they are positive. He also showed through anecdotes that the way that people think is a result of cultural influence and self-centeredness. In addition, he used many metaphors and used selective word choice to keep the audience's attention. While Wallace isn't trying to convince anyone what to think, he does present the point that people have a choice of what to think about.