Critical Thinking: The Beginners Guide (Audiobook)

critical thinking beginner's guide to Advanced critical thinking concepts for problem solving decisionmaking and goal achievement authored by Steven West read by Terry Christensen the six stages of critical thinkers think back to when you were in school do you remember how to think critically you were probably taught these skills in your English class while learning how to read and comprehend information and well now you may do it automatically at the time it was a process a sometimes slow painful process why is that because unfortunately many Educators do not know how to properly teach critical thinking skills

because they weren't taught either the improved intellectual quality of work happens when critical thinking is taught and nurtured in developmental stages that is to say that the concept of critical thinking is not one linear path but preferably several steps to achieve a deep understanding and comprehension of a particular concept if any of these stages are skipped or overlooked it can lead to a disconnect between thought and Analysis when this disconnect happens gaps are created in the brain which makes it difficult to move into a deeper thinking pattern this book intends to approach the concept of

critical thinking from an intellectual standpoint not a psychological one so when exploring each stage of intellectual development we will be focusing on six variables one defining feature this variable will describe what separates one thinking pattern from another it will also provide a detailed description of each feature that reinforces its individuality and calls out what the variable is and is not two principal challenge the first and most prominent challenge that a thinker has to overcome to get to full critical thinking clarity if there are any challenges in overcoming poor thinking the principal challenge will Define it

three knowledge of thinking this variable will describe the level of self-awareness thinking capacity The Thinker has it will also measure the reflective awareness The Thinker has when considering their own level of thinking from complete unawareness to Total Clarity this variable will attempt to diagnose where the Thinker is on the scale four skill in thinking this variable will pinpoint where the Thinker resides on the scale of thinking from being completely unaware of their thinking capabilities to overlooking it it will also describe how a thinker uses their understanding of the critical thinking process to think critically five

relevant intellectual traits this variable will elaborate on the fundamental intellectual trait that allows a thinker to think critically six some implications for instruction this variable will describe the next steps to becoming a better critical thinker and what to do to start that Journey this is by no means an exhaustive list nor will it cover every question raised regarding the development reliability or validity of the stages however it will delve deeper into each one of these stages and provide a guideline for the proper execution of each developmental stage chapter 1 the six stages of critical thinkers

think back to when you were in school do you remember how to think critically you were probably taught these skills in your English class while learning how to read and comprehend information and well now you may do it automatically at the time it was a process a sometimes slow painful process why is that because unfortunately many Educators do not know how to properly teach critical thinking skills because they weren't taught either the improved intellectual quality of work happens when critical thinking is taught and nurtured in developmental stages that is to say that the concept of

critical thinking is not one linear path but preferably several steps to achieve a deep understanding and comprehension of a particular concept if any of these stages are skipped or overlooked it can lead to a disconnect between thought and Analysis when this disconnect happens gaps are created in the brain which makes it difficult to move into a deeper thinking pattern this book intends to approach the concept of critical thinking from an intellectual standpoint not a psychological one so when exploring each stage of intellectual development we will be focusing on six variables one defining feature this variable

will describe what separates one thinking pattern from another it will also provide a detailed description of each feature that reinforces its individuality and calls out what the variable is and is not two principal challenge the first and most prominent challenge that a thinker has to overcome to get to full critical thinking Clarity if there are any challenges in overcoming poor thinking the principal challenge will Define it three knowledge of thinking this variable will describe the level of self-awareness thinking capacity The Thinker has it will also measure the reflective awareness The Thinker has when considering their

own level of thinking from complete unawareness to Total Clarity this variable will attempt to diagnose where the Thinker is on the scale four skill in thinking this variable will pinpoint where the Thinker resides on the scale of thinking from being completely unaware of their thinking capabilities to overlooking it it will also describe how a thinker uses their understanding of the critical thinking process to think critically five relevant intellectual traits this variable will elaborate on the fundamental intellectual trait that allows a thinker to think critically six some implications for instruction this variable will describe the next

steps to becoming a better critical thinker and what to do to start that Journey this is by no means an exhaustive list nor will it cover every question raised regarding the de elment reliability or validity of the stages however it will delve deeper into each one of these stages and provide a guideline for the proper execution of each developmental stage what is critical thinking the definition used in this book to base the premise on everything else we will be discussing is as follows the ability to improve one's critical thinking by implementing intellectual self assessment systematically

the reason it's essential to Define this level of critical thinking is that people in general are critical thinkers what we will be focusing on are those thinkers who use critical thinking in almost all categories of their lives EG business life personal life Family Life friendships and law-abiding citizens we will not be referring to those thinkers who only use critical thinking in one area of their lives the reason for this is that the level of a person's quality of life is determined by a multi-dimensional approach to their life and applying critical thinking to each area not

just in one area assumptions there are four assumptions made about critical thinking in this book one every person who develops as a critical thinker passes through predictable stages two there is a required level of commitment that an individual must give to develop as a critical thinker to move on between each stage this is a conscious effort not automatic so the Thinker must make each of these steps intentional three the intellectual quality of student learning is firmly connected to the success of the instruction the student receives four When developing these skills the possibility of regression is

present developing your thinking is a process that takes years not weeks or months it's hard work and you cannot shortcut your way around it by taking a course this is a habit inducing a long-term Journey here are the stages as we develop as critical thinkers stage one The unreflective Thinker we have no idea or awareness that there are problems in our thinking stage two the challenged thinker we become aware of problems in our thinking but we don't know what to do about it stage three the beginning thinker we Implement some techniques to try to improve

ourselves but we don't do it consistently stage four the practicing thinker we realize that it's necessary to implement consistent habits if we want lasting change stage five the advanced thinker we get better the more we practice stage six the master thinker we are insightful and our thinking becomes automatic most people will live and die as unreflective thinkers never knowing that they've had a problem much less how to fix it it requires consistent daily practice and a commitment to establishing new habits to improve our thinking critical thinking advantages critical thinking skills can prove highly valuable in

the workplace social situations relationships and your bank account being able to effectively problem solve is a lucrative skill the people would pay you for but beyond that it makes you a well-rounded person approach the type of approach to a problem varies from person to person being able to approach a problem the right way and solve it is what critical thinking prepares you to do you can learn how to identify variables approaches and other factors to increase the likelihood of your success saves time when you're trained in critical thinking you know which information you can immediately

discard and which information is essential to hold on to you have a clean filter from which to Source in your effort to find the information you need critical thinking teaches you how to prioritize your time and resources by analyzing what's essential an appreciation of a variety of cultures and viewpoints this is a direct effect of learning how to empathize with other people in their point of view critical thinking allows you to see the bigger picture without judgment and learn how to understand these things that are forign to you this makes for a well-rounded decision-making process

empathy and understanding in are critical to making good decisions more effective communication by learning how to analyze and build evidence for anything critical thinking can help make you a more effective Communicator being able to convey relevant points to support your position is extremely valuable when communicating an idea or proposal adequately when you know what you're talking about they'll believe you making decisions critical thinking allows you to make better decision ISS faster and a lot easier you began to rely Less on Intuition or guessing and began to work based on evidence and analytical results reasoning with

critical thinking you'll learn two types of reasoning inductive and deductive and win the appropriate time to use each your decisions will be grounded in logic over emotion and rooted in evidence stage one The unreflective Thinker we are born unreflective thinkers we don't know that thinking plays a role in our lives we have no concept of it and we don't notice that we're making assumptions based on the environment around us we have no clue about how to analyze and assess our thinking and we don't know how to determine our purpose or assumptions based on critical thinking

because we are unaware of it we are not striving to improve it unfortunately this causes a lot of problems in our lives but we don't make the connection we see what we believe as being true we think that the decisions made are solid we don't have any kind of intellectual standards to follow and we have no clue what those would look like if we had them we deceive ourselves in several ways while creating Illusions to allow us to believe that we have a broader grasp of the bigger picture than we actually do we walk around

believing that we know more than what we do and that we are confident about what the world looks like to us judge other people on their goodness or Badness depending on how we perceive the world our egocentric Tendencies are in the Forefront leading the way but we don't realize it we don't have the skills or the inclination to notice our self-centeredness and our prejudices the bad news here is that unreflective thinkers go on to raise future unreflective thinkers the cycle continues and goes on and on until someone questions their thinking how however once you realize

this then you can move on to stage two when you do that you get closer to Breaking the old bad habits of unreflective thinking this is when we start to realize that there are some problems in our thinking that need to be corrected and that we realize we've been irrational in many ways and egocentric when you reflect honestly it leads to a healthy curiosity to change your thinking it's not enough to see that you have problems with thinking you also need to find out how to fix those you might be able to articulate the problems

you have but nothing will change if you don't have the motivation to figure out the solutions defining feature unreflective thinkers for the most part don't know how thinking plays a part in their lives more importantly they don't realize the extent to which thinking is causing problems in their lives unreflective thinkers don't have the capacity to step outside of themselves and assess their thinking so that they can improve it knowledge of thinking unreflective thinkers don't have the background knowledge to be able to think and take part in their thinking highquality thinking is required and they don't

have that nor do they have the ability to assess it or implement it accurately unreflective thinkers for the most part don't even know that thinking directly correlates to making assumptions inferences and implications in their point of view they are utterly oblivious to all of these there are appropriate standards for assessment of thinking these are Clarity accuracy precision relevance logicalness Etc unreflective thinkers have no concept that these standards exist skills and thinking unreflective thinkers may have a variety of skills and thinking without being aware that they have them that is to say that they have no

idea how they pick them up or even that they exist as a result these skills aren't implemented consistently because of the lack of awareness that they exist The unreflective Thinker will be easily misdirected based on their prejudices and misconceptions led by the quality of thought patterns some implications for instruction reflective thinkers can actually graduate from high school and college and still be completely unaware of their lack of self-reflecting and thinking while it's true that most people do think think most people are unaware of how their thinking is structured in their heads or how to improve

it so when they run across problems in their thinking they don't know how to identify or fix them stage two the challenged thinker if we don't know we have a problem we can't solve it there is no way to fix something we don't know is broken without being aware of our own ignorance we can't make the journey to find the knowledge we don't have we need the skills to be able to obtain that knowledge as The unreflective Thinker becomes aware they move into the second stage of critical thinking at this time some things begin to

get noticed we make assumptions that are questionable at the very least we use misleading information and present it as fact we imply things that are in direct conflict with the evidence we have we fail to identify those implications in our thought process we don't recognize the problems that we have the con cepts that we form are inaccurate we take our prejudices to base our arguments around we think irrationally and egocentrically when we become aware that our thinking is creating problems in our lives then we move to the challenged Stage IT Dawns on us how dangerous

our faulty thinking can be to our lives or the lives of others at this point in your thinking development there is a genuine danger of deceiving yourself many people are resistant to accepting the thought that their thinking is an actual problem in their lives sometimes they'll go back to the unreflective stage there's a lot of fear hiding around acknowledging where we actually are versus where we think we are you are not alone however the majority of people tend to defend themselves in their thinking many of us have never been taught how to think in school

constructively the absence of intellectual humility is quite prevalent among each different class of people of all all ages and walks of life active or passive resistance is the norm when it comes to challenging your own critical thinking most people reject the notion that they need to look inward to challenge their thinking it's very important to be open to that process to move forward defining features these thinkers are just becoming aware that the role of thinking plays a part in their lives and that they're having problems because their thinking is mostly behind that Prince principal challenge

the challenge thinker principal challenge is to become aware of how thinking affects their life and the underlying problems they experience as a result of their poor thinking knowledge of thinking challenged thinkers are starting to become aware that thinking is playing a part in the problems in their lives on some level they are beginning to realize that highquality thinking requires reflective thinking and that is something that is deliberate and not incidental they understand that the thinking is often flawed but they're not sure how to pick out and identify a lot of these flaws challenge thinkers might

be initially aware of thinking that involves standards for exessive thinking such as Clarity accuracy precision relevance logicalness Etc but they only have a beginner's grasp of the standards and minimal knowledge about what it would take to implement them into their thinking challenge thinkers also become aware of the concept of self-deception in their thinking this is also Limited in its ability to understand this the challenge thinker develops some reflective awareness of how thinking operates for good or bad skill and thinking for the most part challenged thinkers have minimal ability when it comes to thinking but in

contrast to unreflective thinkers challenged thinkers may have a variety of skills and think about being aware of them as a consequence many of the skills prevent them from developing their thinking further this can cause them to inadvertently deceive themselves into believing that the thinking is more Progressive than it really is of course this makes it even harder for them to recognize problems in their poor quality thinking to overcome this you should be able to gain insight into their poor thinking and apply intellectual skills across every facet of their lives relevant intellectual trait intellectual humility is

the primary intellectual trait at the stage for challenge thinkers this allows to see the problems as a result of their thinking stage three the beginning thinker when someone decides to develop their thinking skills they move into the beginning thinker stage this is where thinking is being taken seriously new habits are trying to be formed and followed consistently in this stage there are a lot of realizations that come to light it's a time for allowing these feelings to reveal themselves and not condemning them for existing the key is to realize that you alone have the power

to do something about it once the realization hits that we are in a negative habit pattern of poor thinking they have been able to understand the nature of the problem egocentric thinking is sometimes common at this stage we can notice how much we focus on our needs and forsake the needs of others we may realize that rarely do we take into consideration other people's points of view over our own we might even catch ourselves trying to persuade others to get what we want or to give them what they want so that we can also get

what we want at this phase we're just starting to assess situations and problems and their logic articulate specific questions verify information for relevance and accuracy in the situation determine between actual information in someone's perception of it separate and recognize assumptions that are guiding our inferences identify biased beliefs misused inferences and prejudices catch ourselves when we notice our interests are selfish and biased as beginning thinkers we're starting to look at the different categories in our lives from A New Perspective we start realizing that our thinking in terms of clarity accuracy revalence precision and logicalness plays a

part in our overall critical thinking skills however we haven't mastered it yet we're still operating on a low level because it all feels weird to us we have to force ourselves to stay disciplined and on track we feel foolish starting from square one and we don't like what we see when we're practicing to reach the stage of thinking we have to shift our values we have to explore how our thinking got to where it is and figure out why we think and believe as we do this is accomplished by reflecting on who we are where

we were born when we were born who our parents are are and what associations we made growing up around friends and Community if any one of these factors were different your belief system would be shaped differently than it is now there are so many influences in your life that if any one of those was tweaked it could give a completely different outcome knowing that we can start appreciating this fact and how little control we actually had over it this can help when we're too hard on ourselves in certain areas to realize much of the control

we think we have when we don't we have a lot of prejudice based on our culture environment family and friends intentionally seeking out those flawed beliefs and replacing them with evidence-driven data can go a long way in helping us think critically several modes of influence shape our minds there are also different domains that help influence how we think vocational we are influenced by our co-workers and our work environment sociological we are influenced by social groups that we hang around philosophical we allow our personal philosophies to influence our minds ethical the way we Define our obligations

and how we behave is influenced by our minds intellectual the ideas we have and influence our minds to play based on the ideas that we hold anthropological culture practices taboos and more influence our minds ideological and political we are influenced by interest groups that surround us economic the economic conditions that we live in influence our minds historical history and the way we tell our stories to influence our minds biological neurology and biology have a profound influence on our minds theological our religious practices and attitudes surrounding that influence our minds psychological our personality and personal psychology

influence our minds physiological our weight height and physical condition influence our minds when you look at it we don't know very much about our minds our inner mind does a lot of heavy lifting for us it decides whether we're joyous or frustrated it limits what we can see and what we can imagine it can also provide some peace if we're making friends with our mind we'll give it the motivation to step into the role of leader in our thinking defining feature the beginning thinker is actively working to take control of their thinking across all areas

of their lives they realize and acknowledge that they have fundamental problems with their thinking and make the first steps to try to understand how they can take control and make improvements although they try to take the steps they have limited insight into the extent to which their thinking is troubled as a result they don't have a plan for how to improve their thinking so most of the time they are firing on trial and error principal challenge the most challenging part for them is to see how important it is for them to develop as a thinker

they will try to find ways to improve themselves as a thinker and fully commit to that goal knowledge of thinking beginning thinkers are starting to understand the concepts of assumptions inferences implications a point of view Etc that play a role in their thinking they do recognize that there is a specific set of standards for assessing thinking like Clarity accuracy precision relevance logicalness Etc but they also realize that they have to take them into themselves and intentionally use them when thinking they are at the beginner level of comprehending the role of egocentric thinking skill and thinking

beginning thinkers are more receptive to being critiqued about their thought Powers they have enough skill to start supervising their own thoughts but they are often inconsistent relevant intellectual traits the primary intellectual trait that is needed in this phase is a form of intellectual humility this allows them to recognize the problems in their thinking they also have to use some level of intellectual confidence when it comes to reasoning because that's a trait that allows them to accept the challenge and begin developing as a critical thinker despite the fact that they have a shallow understanding of what

it means to perform high quality reasoning beginning thinkers have enough perseverance to combat thinking problems but they still lack a clear solution to those problems they are more aware of the problems then there are solutions for them some implications for instruction once a thinker is convinced that the thinking is not monitored or controlled then they're able to improve when they realize that good thinking practice leads to automatic critical thinking they have more success reaching that goal all of us need to develop good habits of thinking and that requires consistent practice stage four the practicing thinker

a person becomes a practicing thinker once they recognize and embrace that Improvement thinking requires consistent practice and adopts the habits of regular practice there are several ways to go about this process the problem with this is that most people don't follow through they get discouraged and give up too soon this requires a commitment to see the practice through to the end and develop a realistic plan that will work out long term something that will fit in with your lifestyle and is easily adaptable into a habit it is not unusual to try different methods at this

stage to see what works right for you the main point is to be realistic about what you can do consistently every day and to experiment with several plans before you settle on one protect yourself from getting discouraged make a decision right now that no matter what happens you're not going to allow discouragement to derail your efforts from consistent practice this is a process and not something that you can achieve overnight defining feature at this stage practicing thinkers realize they have habits that need to be developed to improve their thinking they recognize that problems exist in

their thinking and they know that they need a system to be able to address them they have gotten in the habit of analyzing their thinking in several ways because they realize the importance of practicing consistently however especially how to approach it in an organized way so they still have a limited understanding of the deeper levels of thinking principle challenge practicing thinkers need to concentrate on cultivating their awareness of the need to be consistent when practicing their thinking knowledge of thinking practicing thinkers are Farther Along on the scale compared to beginning thinkers and that they acquire

more knowledge of what it actually takes to monitor their thinking in terms of concept Concepts assumptions inferences implications points of view Etc practicing thinkers also begin to understand what it takes to assess their thinking for clarity accuracy precision relevance logicalness Etc they realize they need a system for critical thinking and for internalizing their habits that are going to get them better at that thinking they also understand that there is a natural tendency of the mind to engage in self-deception and egocentric thinking skill and thinking practicing thinkers can critique their plan for initializing practice because they

have enough of the skill to be able to do that they can also formulate a realistic self-reflection of their own powers of thought practicing thinkers also can regularly monitor or supervise their thoughts they're able to see the strengths and weaknesses in their thinking accurately they can also recognize their own egocentric thinking and the egocentric thinking of others not only that but they're also in the habit of monitoring their thinking even though sometimes they're not very successful at it some implications for instruction there are specific predictable structures of thought that as humans we need to learn

to understand that is a must thinking is powered by the questions that we want the answers to we need information to get those questions answered we have to interpret the information we're given to be able to implement the thinking critically and at this point practicing thinkers should be developing the habits whenever they're trying to figure something out they'll begin to see that there are connections between the various subject matters that they are learning stage five the advanced thinker defining feature good habits have been established by thinkers at this level their deeper thought levels also have

much more insight and analytic skills when looking at the different categories of their lives however Advanced thinkers aren't yet able to obtain highlevel thinking across all of these categories they have their egocentric nature well in hand and consistently make an effort to think in fair-minded terms but can fall back into egocentric ISM and have a one-sided perspective principal challenge the challenge for advanced thinkers is to develop a deeper insight into problems of thought and to understand the need for consistent thinking practice implementation knowledge of thinking active thinkers have consistent monitoring of thinking Concepts well inand

they have the abundance of knowledge in this regard Advanced thinkers are also competent in what is necessary to analyze their thinking for clarity accuracy precision logicalness relevance Etc they appreciate their ability to Deep dive into their critical thinking and Implement those habits daily they know how important thinking plays a part in their lives they understand that they can control the the power that egocentric ISM plays in their lives and their thinking skill in thinking Advanced thinkers take the initiative to improve their plan for practice thinking continuously they continually evaluate their thoughts and can identify strategies

to help them reduce their egocentric thoughts relevant intellectual traits highlevel intellectual humility is required at this stage this allows The Thinker to recognize egocentric thoughts in their own lives as well as prejudicial and arrogant thoughts implications for instruction it's essential to know the criteria for becoming an advanced thinker and that it's perceived this goal is essential we must Foster awareness of egocentric ISM and sociocentric ISM in Thinking by seeing oneself in the topic stage six the accomplished thinker defining feature accomplished thinkers take control of their thinking and they're also continually analyzing that thinking to improve

strategies for better thinking skills and methods they have the basics down so critical thinking for them is intuitive and purposeful regularly they rise to the level of Consciousness awareness through consistent practice and are good at analyzing their thinking across all categories in their lives as well as developing new ways to look at problems and use their critical thinking to solve them accomplished thinkers are very committed to being fair in their thinking process process and they have a stronghold over their egocentric nature principal challenge to get to the point where they're reaching the highest levels of

critical thinking in every category of their life knowledge of thinking accomplished thinkers actively engage in analyzing the role in their thinking when considering Concepts inferences implications points of view Etc but are also consistently improving accomplished thinkers have a high degree of knowledge and Insight they assess their own thinking to find Clarity accuracy precision relevance logicalness Etc accomplished thinkers have strong habits in their process of thinking they understand how sociocentric ISM can egocentric roles play in their thinking as well as in human beings as a whole skill and thinking accomplished thinkers often critique their thinking in

their lives and are always looking to improve they're always aware of their thoughts and insightfulness and can convey those strengths and weaknesses about their thinking they realize that as humans they are fallible but they're continually looking to improve in every area of their lives others are drawn to them because they appreciate their thinking as it relates to complicated issues relevant intellectual traits accomplished thinkers are high in intellectual humility intellectual perseverance intellectual Integrity intellectual courage intellectual empathy aathy intellectual autonomy intellectual responsibility and fair-mindedness the accomplished thinker integrates the fundamental values beliefs desires emotions and actions in

their thinking some implications for instruction most of us are generally not very accomplished thinkers but it's important to learn what it takes to become an accomplished thinker it's important to see it as possible so long as practicing habits are formed General implications for instruction human beings will be oblivious to the concept of thinking unless they're challenged to look at it whether that's through instruction or education intellectual vocabularies must be established and presented to The Thinker so they can start questioning their systems and processes discovering the parts of thinking humans have to realize that they have

to use some aspects because without them their thinking would be unintelligible thinking is often prompted by the questions we ask ourselves those questions are driven by some sort of purpose in order to answer these questions we have to get the information that is relevant based on how we interpret it this is called inferences inferences are based on things we assume and require that we use familiar Concepts to organize that information in a way to form that inference thinking begins intellectually and then moves forward into implication and consequences so whenever we try to figure out a

problem it's a good idea to take command of the structures purpose information inferences assumptions Concepts point of view and implications by taking command of this we take command of our own thinking and we provide a way to allow us to think critically in the context of our lives so basically to become a good thinker we need to be able to figure things out using Clues we find around us an excellent way to start understanding how to create proper thinking is to understand that everything around us is for a purpose it's our job to connect how

we organize to figure these things out once you understand the purpose of these things then you can learn from them and build off them until you get a bigger picture we also learned that we have to ask questions to gain a broader picture for us to draw from it the advantages of critical thinking the good news is that when we embrace critical thinking we can do a lot of things some of those include explaining goals and purposes clarify questions that we need answers to any problems we need to resolve organize and gather information and data

assess the meaning and significance of information given to us demonstrate that we understand Concepts identify assumptions consider the implications and consequences examine things from more than one point of view be be able to State what is said clearly and accurately test and verify for accuracy stay on task and thinking and not wandering off on other thoughts express ourselves precisely the way we want to deal with severe problems and issues be able to consider other people's perspectives Express logical thinking tell the difference between necessity and unimportant matters once we are instructed on how to do the

these things we can learn content on a deeper level and have it become a permanent part of our thinking process we are also better able to explain this to others and apply what we've learned we are better to apply to connect what we are learning in one category to another and how it relates to the big picture we can also ask better questions we can understand materials like textbooks and other documents better we can understand the instructions better we can understand what other people are talking about we can write better we can apply more of

what we're learning to our everyday lives we become more motivated to learn it becomes easier for us to be taught chapter 2 mental toughness and the elemental structures of thinking Elemental structures to become an advanced thinker we must learn how to analyze our thinking that comes from ident identifying and questioning its Elemental structures the elemental structures are one Clarity the ability to understand the meaning questions to ask could you elaborate further could you give me an example could you illustrate what you mean two accuracy free from distortions or mistakes questions to ask how could we

check on that how could we find out if that is true how could we test or verify that three Precision accurate to the required level of detail questions to ask could you be more specific could you give me more details could you be more exact four revalence relating to the situation at present questions to ask how does that relate to the problem how does that bear on the question how does that help us with the issue five depth having multiple inter relationships and complexities questions to ask what factors make this a tough problem what are

some of the complexities of this question what are some of the complications we need to deal with six breath containing more than one Viewpoint questions to ask do we need to look at this from another Viewpoint do we need to consider another point of view do we need to look at this in other ways seven Logic No contradictions everything makes sense questions to ask does this make sense together does your first paragraph fit in with your last does what you say follow the evidence eight significance ignoring the trivial and focusing on the important questions to

ask is this the most significant problem to consider is this the central idea to focus on which of these facts are the most important nine fairness not one-sided justifiable questions to ask do I have any vested interest in this matter am I sympathetically representing the viewpoints of others elements of thought take into consideration the different elements of thought and how each contributes to improved critical thinking skills point of view this is your Vantage Point the place where you view your world from this includes your perception of the environment around you it's important to understand that

your Viewpoint has limits and to consider the viewpoints of others one recognize your point of view two find other viewpoints other than my own and analyze their strengths and weaknesses three try to maintain a level of fair-mindedness when analyzing all viewpoints questions to consider when checking your point of view can I see this situation differently what other ways ways can I look at the situation what am I focused on what do I think about what I'm focused on are there other reasonable views other than my own what are they what does my point of view

Overlook how do people of other cultures view this in any given situation which point of views make the most sense do I have a hard time putting myself into different viewpoints that I disagree with what's the author's point of view do I challenge Myself by analyzing viewpoints other than my own purpose your purpose is what you're trying to achieve it's your goal your ultimate endgame you want to make sure that you are absolutely clear about your purpose and how to get there one state your purpose with Clarity two differentiate your related purposes from your primary

purpose three continue to stay aligned with your intended target questions to ask yourself about your purpose my purpose in doing blank is what what is the goal of this task assignment job is it time to revise our purpose what is the purpose of this action what is your primary goal in this thought process information information does not necessarily mean that it's correct or accurate instead it's defined as experiences facts and data we use to make decisions one one use the data you have to support your claims two balance your information by finding the pros and

cons of your position three all information should be clear relevant and accurate four gather enough information to use for your purposes questions to ask yourself about information to answer this question what information do I need depending on the problem what data do I need to solve it should I accumulate more information taking the purpose and goal into consideration what information pertains to these what information do I have that supports my claim how do I know the information I have is correct and accurate is there any other information I need to collect interpretation and inference when

the Mind tries to figure something out it's called inferring there shouldn't be any inferences outside of what evidence is provided in the situation when you reach a conclusion it's called an inference inferences use evidence and come as a result of evaluating that evidence one only infer what the evidence presents to you two inferences should be consistent with each other three underneath inferences are assumptions you should be able to identify them questions to ask yourself about inferences what conclusions am I drawing does my inference make logical sense are there conclusions I haven't considered that I need

to does my conclusion draw from my data my reasoning is based on what is it possible that there is another conclusion that can be reached what is the best conclusion given all the facts how should the data be interpreted Concepts concepts are principles ideas or theories we use to try to have things make sense to us Concepts and ideas shapes all reasoning one explain Key Concepts clearly two entertain the option of different definitions of Concepts three use Precision when using Concepts questions to ask yourself about Concepts is the idea I'm using in my thinking causing

problems for myself or anyone else how can I explain a good theory better which hypothesis is my reasoning using what relevant points should I draw with reasoning through this problem what type of thinking is the author using is there anything wrong with it question the issue our thinking is Guided by the questions we ask the more specific our questions the more clarity we gain the question's job is to guide our thinking so it should be obvious one precisely and clearly State the question two Ask A variation of the same question several times to clarify its

meaning three break down the question into sub questions four separate clearly defined questions from vague questions questions to ask yourself about questions what's the question I need to answer is there a better way to frame the question is the question Crystal Clear Andor complicated assumptions assumptions are automatic beliefs you take for granted you can have them on a conscious or subconscious level your assumptions should be backed up by strong evidence to support it assumptions are based on reasoning one determine whether your assumptions are justifiable and clearly Define what they are two take into consideration how

point of view is shaped by assumptions questions to ask yourself about assumptions what am I taking for granted is there something I'm assuming that I shouldn't what assumption leads to this conclusion what are some important assumptions I've been making implications and consequences claims and truths that follow in a logical progression from other claims and truths they follow from thoughts consequences follow from actions let's talk about mental toughness we understand the world in different ways how we take in information not only shapes what we think and believe but also shapes the perceptions we have in our

environment several mental modes explains this complex subject and we're going to explore some of them right now keep in mind that a mental model is like a map that summarizes how something works the more models you have to draw from the bigger your resources become and the more likely you are to be able to pick and choose the ones you need when it really matters when you're trying to improve your critical thinking skills having a surplus of different techniques to choose from is invaluable the type of mental model we use is based on Who We

Are as a person and what we do in life for example a scientist thinks in terms of logic and testing so the type of mental models that would be most useful to that person would be models that reinforce that type of thinking there is no wrong answer when you're choosing mental models it's merely a matter of preference and based on the person's experience however learning more models in different areas makes for a well-rounded person so the more models that you can be exposed to the broader your toolbox becomes mental models aren't useful unless you have

a foundation to put them on if they don't work together in some sort of pattern or logical concept they aren't going to be used in everyday life these models need to be incorporated into your thinking and they also have to be accessible to you within your present environment trying to remember facts and recall isn't enough you have to have an anchor to hang these experiences and models on here are several mental models that we summarized for you this will give you a basic overview of the mental models available out there so you can pick and

choose which ones you find the most relevant to you and do further research on them www.criticalthinking.com logic-- model 1. HTM mental models thinking Concepts the map is not the territory maps are imperfect they're only a representation of reality not the actual reality maps are a sample of a particular period in time representing something that used to exist but no longer does when we are thinking through problems and trying to solve them to make better choices it's important to keep this in mind circle of competence we get blind spots in revision when we allow our ego

in the driver's seat it's our confidence that should be driving our ego we must have a good understanding of our strengths so that we know when we have a Leading Edge over other people if you can be honest with yourself about what you don't know and where you're most vulnerable and how to improve that's where you can increase your confidence and decisionmaking thus yielding better outcomes first principles thinking this is something called reasoning from first principles this is a useful tool that helps bring Clarity to difficult Problems by dissecting ideas and facts from any assumptions

made based on them this is one of the leading ways to reverse engineer difficult situations and yield creativity when you can strip away the problems and dissect them like this you'll find only the core Essentials that are left to produce something new and build your knowledge around that you have to know the first principles of something an example of this would be the differences between a chef and a cook a chef invents his or her own recipes they know their ingredients and how they'll work together on the other hand the cook using analogy follows the

recipes and merely assemble something that's already been created when reasoning from first principles and reasoning by analogy is that if the cook didn't have the recipe they wouldn't be able to produce the meal however the chef has real knowledge about each ingredient and how they work together so he could recreate it at will thought experiments sometimes called devices of the imagination used to investigate the nature of things thought experiments are used in disciplines like philosophy and physics to examine the factors that are known to us by doing that it reveals new Pathways for asking new

questions and exploring various paths these are incredibly effective because they allow us to learn from mistakes and see future ones down the road so we can bypass them it equips us to tackle the potential consequences of our actions and examine history to make better decisions they also can help us figure out the best way to get where we want to go and decide which direction second order thinking most people can see before it happens the consequences of their actions this is first order thinking and is usually pretty easy to do to make sure you get

the same results that other people get second order thinking is the ability to think further down the road and think big picture we have to consider our actions and their immediate consequences but we also have to think about the effects that those actions will have down the road if we don't think about these things it can lead to Serious negative consequences probabilistic thinking think of the word probability probabilistic thinking is the act of trying to use math and logic to estimate How likely any outcome will happen if we're talking about improving the accuracy of our

decisions it's one of the best tools we have every single moment of Our Lives Springs from an infinitely complex set of factors probabilistic thinking allows us to select the most probable outcomes fat tailed processes are included in this a fat tail can be disguised as a normal distribution that's because outlier events are more likely to occur than in a normal distribution it takes on the shape of a large tail if the fat tail is on the negative side the risk can be higher however if the fat tail is on the positive side it can be

more profitable most of the world we socialize and is regarded as fat tailed rather than normally distributed beian updating this is the process of taking into account all probabilities and then updating them as new information reveal feels itself this method is named after Thomas Bas our intuitive decision-making process is not necessarily behind this method instead we have to use prior information combined with new information to come up with the best decisions in this model it's considered very constructive and used often inversion inversion assists you in identifying and removing challenges in your path to success the

root word invert means to turn upside down so taking that into consideration it means that you put yourself on the opposite end of the situation and look at it from that perspective most people are used to looking at a problem from one angle inversion enables you to turn the problem around and look at it from the other side most of us start at the beginning and work from there sometimes it can be way more useful to start at the end first oam's razor ok's racer explains that the simplest explanation is likely to be the answer

it supposes that you can make more confident Decisions by basing your information on the factors that have the fewest moving parts that's great news if you're currently consuming all of your energy trying to disprove complicated scenarios ok's Razer suggests that the more straightforward answer is usually the right one Hon's Razer helon Razer states that the explanation with the least amount of content is most likely the correct one this model forces us to ask ourselves is there another reasonable explanation for why something has happened it's a great reminder to us that people make mistakes to look

for options instead of picking out missed chances we should not assume that poor results are the fault of a person's poor choices this model helps us avoid idealizing situations and assuming ourselves with paranoia that is unfounded basically Hon's states that we should not label a person with the intent of malice that is more accurately explained Away by stupidity systems scale systems are sensitive to scale behaviors tend to change when moving the scale up or down rough quantification has to be applied to the scale that we are predicting the system when we are studying complicated systems

we must always estimate the scale that we are watching evaluating or predicting the system for example in the higher education Arena the person is to equip graduates with a tools to enable them to tackle complicated correlative problems that means they need the flexibility to work on problems the scale of those problems whether minute or massive determines the response by The Graduate so if the graduate has a degree in Liberal Arts but finds no jobs hiring for that type of degree or industry he has to adjust adust his behavior skill set to jobs that he is

eligible for in his industry another example would be a teacher addressing behavioral issues in the classroom the scale at which the teacher must meet the consequence of actions is determined by the offense if Little Johnny is distracting the class by talking to other students then perhaps the teacher would give him lunch detention but if Little Johnny decided to throw a chair across the room the scale of punishment would move up in accordance with the scale of the offense law of diminishing returns this law states that there is eventually a decrease in the value of something

we can relate this to most real world scenarios there are many situations in which the law of diminishing returns becomes negative for example a sick person who has an infection and is given antibiotics will soon no longer have an infection there is a point which giving them more antibiotics will not improve their situation at some point there is a diminishing return on the medical care given the Paro principle this principle states that a small portion is responsible for the most significant effect for example 20% of the population brings in 80% of the nation's wealth this

principle can be applied to various situations from money to population the Paro principle was named after an Italian Vedo paredo after he observed that 80% of Italy's land was owned by 20% of its population feedback loops an outside force is static to change in a feedback loop unless it's automatic all complicated systems are exposed to a positive and negative feedback loop where point a causes point B in which in turn affects point A and C and so on and so on to get the point back into line an opposite change in points A and B

has to occur to maintain the balance of the whole system an example of this would be the human body temperature the butterfly effect the slightest changes in conditions have a significant effect on future outcomes and ripple forever this means that elements in our world and the decisions that humans make are unpredictable for example if you were to go back in time and assassinate Hitler as a child you would set into motion an alternative set of events that send a ripple through time everything we know to be true would be altered the ripples get larger the

longer they are allowed to flow even the tiniest change can yield major changes preferential attachment cumulative Advantage the status of the leader is preserved by giving the current leader or ruler more of the price than any of the others an excellent example of this would be a company that has 10 times the customer as the second largest company will have a preferential attachment Dynamic emergence low order factors serve as the foundation for highlevel Behavior to emerge this yields an exponential result emergent Behavior cannot be predicted by studying each part alone irreducibility there is a certain

point where you cannot reduce a processor system to get a particular result there is an irreducible level and below that the result desired cannot happen for example trying to build an entire vehicle using only one part is impossible at a certain point a result becomes irreducible the tragedy of the comment a resource that is not preserved by an individual responsible for its preservation will be depleted over time this concept was first introduced by Garrett Harden an economist and ecologist the fear of missing out causes an accelerated rate of depleting the resource if each individual yields

more personal benefit than the cost incurred unless people collaborate Gram's law in an environment where currency is circulated the forged currency will drive out real currency this is because the real currency is held on to while the forged currency is used in the market another parallel to draw is good and bad behavior in humans bad behavior will drive out good behavior in a system that is morally bankrupt when speaking on the economy bad practices will drive out good practices to keep the balance regulation and oversight are required to prevent falling into gresham's law financier Thomas

gram is the namesake for gresham's law algorithms an algorithm is like a map with a set of instructions leading to a destination or outcome usually you can recognize it in its if then statements algorithms are used in social media sites like Facebook and YouTube It's the blueprint that leads you to the outcome you want fragility robustness anti- fragility fragility robustness and anti-fragility is a sliding scale it's relevant to how responsive a system is to variability that is negative the negative variability has a disproportionately negative impact the negative variability has a disproportionately negative impact think about

a ceramic cup that shatters from a 7 foot fall but stays intact or receives drastically less damage from a twot fall however if a ceramic cup got stronger when dropped then it would be labeled as antifragile redundancy the concept behind redundancy is to never assume or rely solely on the individual components of any system redundancy built into the system allows the Integrity of the total system to be preserved without such failsafe effort systems tend to disintegrate over time margin of safety the margin of safety is similar to redundancy in the sense that a margin for

error is built into the system when an elevator is constructed it has a weight limit that is usually more than a realistic scenario in which its writers would be unlikely to reach so giving a margin of safety is seen as intelligent and a way to avoid tragedy critically the process of a system transitioning from one phase to another results in the system becoming critical before the phase changes the unit before the new phase is higher than the next unit the term critical mass means the mass required to have a critical event occur an example of

this would be the inner workings of the nuclear system Network effects for a network to be a network it has to be comprised of several smaller elements that connect a great example is the telephone Network One telephone is is useless but if everyone has a telephone then the network becomes very valuable and can work as intended via negativa doctors Implement a form of via negativa when they take another to First Do no harm when bad elements are removed as opposed to adding the right elements this is called via negativa for example when one student in

a classroom is disrupting the class it's more useful to move that student rather than punish the entire class the Lindy effect the current lifespan of an object is related to its expected lifespan this is called the Lindy effect an example would be classic literature if Jane Austin's Works have been read for a 100 years it's expected that they'll be read for another 100 years this only applies to non perishable objects or ideas a human wouldn't be expected to live 50 more years if they've lived to be 50 renormalization group this technique tries to renormalize a

group after a small group of unrepentant individuals influences those around them on a larger scale this idea has its origins in physics the application of this technique tries to explain why this strange Dynamic happens spring loading in an unpredictable world it's essential to protect ourselves against adverse Elements by engaging in positive spring-loaded relationships the opposite can be devastating for a system to be springloaded it has to be coiled in either a positive or negative direction as long as the user does something to keep it active a spring-loaded mode will persist for example if a user

holds down a mouse button the state will continue to exist however if the user releases the button the system closes the state it's in complex adaptive systems a complex adaptive system can understand itself and change based on that self-awareness this is different from a general complex system these are social systems complex adaptive systems are unpredictable and cannot be influenced for example the stock market may change based on events or opinions but a hurricane does not stop becoming a hurricane based on the opinions of the weather forecaster military and War the front lines this method doesn't

rely on advisor data and reports without first seeing the front lines for himself those things can be riddled with mistakes or biases generally leaders can benefit in almost every situation from seeing the front because it allows them to see the information firsthand and make decisions accordingly asymmetric Warfare in the asymmetry model one site appears to play by different roles than the other side due to the specific circumstances they find themselves in this model is usually used when one side has limited resources and they're looking for a quick Insurgency they can't overpower their opponents with muscle

so they use other tactics terrorism is one example of this model two front War this can be a useful tactic when trying to squash internal disgruntlement so they can focus on the competition in World War II Russia and Germany became enemies as a result Germany had to divide its troops and send them to two separate fronts which made them weaker on both fronts than if they had stayed one troop counter Insurgency if asymmetric Insurgent Warfare is used for a prolonged period of time competitors have a chance to develop counterinsurgency strategies a feedback loop can be

created when each side Falls leads between Insurgency and counterinsurgency mutually assured destruction this concept states that the stronger that two competitors become the less likely they are to destroy one another the most prominent example of this is the nuclear arms race in the 20th century in business it can be displayed as the avoidance of damaging price Wars between competitors sometimes though a fat-tailed scenario the possibility that mutually specific destruction scenarios are reality can make them more severe if one side makes a mistake the why model the premise is that to inspire action we need to

make sure our message is communicated in an obvious precise manner as such when we move forward we need to lead with the question why asking this question gets her brain turning and producing a series of questions that will only draw closer to their awareness therefore reinforcing their sense of inner purpose the why becomes the front door to justifying our reason when we know our why we're no longer aimlessly wandering about we have Direction and are ready and prepared to take action the power of the why question has been used for centuries to motivate individuals to

take action and stir up crowds the Y model is one of the most useful techniques and sales to grab the customer's attention when providing customers with their why they're more likely to invest in the solution to their problems however to get to that point a salesman has to employ the Y model asking the right why questions and being able to handle the psychological reasons that spark a sale successfully is the reason why the model works it's also a great tool when trying to determine personal meaning counselors try to help people to get to the bottom

of their Pain by helping them raise self-awareness through the Y model pavlovian associate iation more than likely you've heard of Pavlov's dog at least once in your life it's one of these terms that's thrown around to discuss conditioning techniques classical conditioning is a keyword that talks about the biological stimulus being introduced while combined with a neural stimulus like a bell to help form the learning process in this case the subject was a dog when the dog makes the association between food and the bell it will elicit the same response during the then neur stimulus the

same as it would during the biological stimulus when poff's dog came across food it started to salivate eventually it would salivate just by listening to the sound of the Bell this was a huge Discovery it opened the dog training realm and helped teach more dog friendly approaches to training it also was a potent psychological tool that could be applied to any one of us we've all been the victims of the pavlovian association whether consciously or subconsciously just look at commercials for example products pay a lot of money to be associated with popular events and celebrities

because they know you can't help but associate with your favorites most of the work is done in the subconscious so any conscious attempt to avoid it is usually pointless it's a beautiful mental model for the influence of others as well as self-awareness bias over influenced by Authority this is an imperative mental model model Authority is an exciting concept that has been famous throughout history the idea of authority is approached from numerous angles Nazi Germany and communist Russia help people come to terms with the fact that authoritarian regimes are not the best path for any social

group every human relationship Dynamic is a power play for authority over other people it's something that's inside all of us awareness that it exists is the first step in learning to control it before it gets out of hand and biased from being over influenced by Authority is learned early on as long as the person pledges their allegiance to the authoritarian figure the bias stays in place Authority may give temporary security but this is a mirage that rarely lasts long term bias by The Authority if treated with bad intentions can instigate bad events in motion if

people don't recognize the power it has and the effect on their own decisionmaking entropy entropy can be used in a lot of different disciplines and for many different reasons some examples include thermodynamics entropy and information Theory entropy and cosmology and entropy in statistical mechanics the word entropy gets its name from the Greek word entropy turning toward it was invented by German physicist Rudolph Claus in 1865 he was trying to measure the level of disorder within a system system the system referred to thermodynamics has been used to explain the change in Randomness in any system when

entropy is high Randomness is high with the assistant and vice versa the more complexity we bring the more we increase entropy there's no use in trying to control entropy because it will keep increasing over time laws of thermodynamics this describes energy in a closed system useful energy is continuously being lost and energy cannot be created or destroyed applying this lesson to the social world can be profitable when you're talking about business reciprocity this tells us that if I push on the wall the wall pushes back with equal force when we're talking about biology if one

individual acts on another the action will be reciprocated in kind velocity velocity and speed are two different things velocity speed Plus factor or how fast something gets to a destination if an object moves forward and backward it's not showing velocity velocity plus the addition of the vector is what we should use in everyday life relativity physics is where you hear the concept of Relativity but taking from that idea an observer cannot understand the system if he's a part of it for example traveling in a car going 80 M an hour does not feel like he's

moving but an outside Observer can see that the vehicle is moving activation energy a chemical reaction requires the input of a critical level of activation energy to get the reaction going combustible Elements by themselves are not enough to start this Chain Reaction catalysts the Catalyst maintains a chemical reaction or starts it but isn't itself or reactant the reaction may slow down or stop altogether with without the addition of catalysts in a social system any of these traits are similar leverage exerting a small output of force yields a high output of force through leverage it's the

understanding that we can apply this to the Practical world that can be a source of great joy and success alloying alloying involves mixing different elements to form new substances which is not a novel concept however the process of alloying demonstrates that combining two elements can result in properties that are more than just the sum of the individual parts for example the resulting alloy can be significantly stronger this enhanced strength enables the creation of larger physical structures similarly these principles of combination and Synergy can be applied in Social contexts to yield enhanced outcomes viscosity viscosity is

the measure of how hard it is for one layer of fluid to slide over another layer the lesson in this is that we change the scale we change what forces are relevant the biological World incentives creatures and humans respond to incentives to prosper a steady stream of incentives tends to cause a person to have constant Behavior to a point humans are a pretty great example of this as we are driven by money pleasure and need to avoid pain adaptation humans tend to adapt to their surroundings to survive which is a combination of their environment and

genetics these are not passed on genetically but these are a way to adapt to the exterior World evolution by natural selection Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace both realized that species evolve through random mutation and different survival rates this led to the belief that nature decides who survives and who doesn't replication in bi ology the fundamental building block DNA molecule is an excellent example of this because it provides a blueprint for Offspring to be built for physical building blocks this is a type of replication method self-preservation instincts this instinct is wrapped up in the DNA

these are the survival instincts we all have that help us fight to stay alive and clear of danger or violence simple physiological reward seeking All Creatures have a a sense of Pleasure and Pain in their bodies which responds to the environment reward seeking is a way to gravitate towards pleasure sometimes they can backfire and cause destructive behaviors like drug addiction exaptation stevenh J Gould introduces this concept and it refers to a trait developed for one purpose that is later used for another purpose ecosystems an ecosystem is any group of organisms coexist in the natural world

many ecosystems have a variety of different organisms living shoulder-to-shoulder societal systems have many similar traits and many of the same conclusions can be made about their behavior niches this is a method of competing and behaving for survival humans will choose a niche for which best qualified the problem developed when others began competing for the same Niche this can cause saturation in the niche because there can only be so many people doing the same thing before the resources are exploited human nature and judgment Trust basically Society operates on trust trust within the family members is usually

given freely while other relationships earn trust a system of trust works best and the benefits of the trust are very high tendency to feel envy and jealousy humans tend to get jealous of those who have something they don't they believe their ODed or do the same or more prolonged Envy or jealousy can drive a person to irrational Behavior denial denial can be powerfully destructive to The Human Condition denying reality is often a coping mechanism but if not managed it can lead to a total Detachment from reality altogether tendency to stereotype stereotyping is when someone generalizes

and categorize is something rather than for specific traits this is generally applied to humans social proof humans are a social species along with many other animals we tend to seek safety in numbers and will look for social approval of our Behavior as a result this gives a collaborative sense of cooperation and culture to live in a society however that acceptance can be withdrawn if poor behavior is deemed to be acceptable by the social whole narrative Instinct human beings are called the storytelling animal because we have a deeper seated need to bring meaning to our lives

before we could read or write we were telling stories curiosity instincts we are the most curious species of all the species here this can lead to great things but it can also lead to our demise we have questions about our world around us and how we got here curiosity leads to inter interesting human behavior language Instinct we use language to craft stories as well as to gossip and solve problems the idea that grammatical language is not a simple cultural artifact was first made famous by the linguist Noam ksky it said that grammatically ordered language erratically

carries infinite bearing meaning first conclusion bias Charlie Monger observed that the mind works like sperm and egg the first idea I get and then the Mind shots speaking from a survival perspective this is probably a device used to save energy in our bodies we tend to settle on the first conclusion which leads to many false assumptions that combined with the fact that we stop asking questions and many times we can be wrong about a lot of things tendency to overgeneralize from small samples human beings need to generalize we don't have to see every scenario from

beginning to end to be able to make general rules about how it works while this can give us an initial picture it also comes with a certain number of fallacies when we disregard the law of large numbers and act as if it doesn't exist we will take a small number of circumstances and create a general category even if the conclusion is not statistically backed relative satisfaction misery Tendencies relative Tendencies cause either great happiness or misery in varying array of situations and make it hard for us to predict her behavior and feelings human happiness studies show

that happiness is related to the state of the person relative to either their past or their peers not an absolute commitment and consistency bias humans have an aversion to missing their prior commitments and not staying consistent humans consider this irresponsible in trying to maintain the social Norm unreliable people are often distrusted hindsight bias once the outcome is revealed it's almost impossible to look back in time mentally we automatically reason that we knew the answer all along when we were actually reasoning using the S of facts we know now but not then this is why it's

essential to keep a document or Journal of essential decisions to build a Gob back and look to evaluate it on its own Merit sensitivity to fairness Justice is a deep-seated value in our lives we are all judges when it comes to a valuating what is fair when someone violates that fairness it can be considered a reason for reciprocal action or at the very least not trust them anymore however fairness doesn't seem to be something that stays consistent it depends on the collective perspective of society at any given time influences of stress stress can cause physical

and psychological responses and can influence other biases specifically it worsens the conditions when the body goes into a fight ORF flight response stress can cause bad decisions knee-jerk reactions and a regression into bad habits survivorship bias the problem with history books is that it's written by the winners we do not see the individual lives of those who did not win we give more credit to things done by the successful individual rather than treating it to lock we also learn lessons steeped in fallacy by only studying the victors without seeing all of the losers who acted

similarly but were not able to succeed boredom syndrome most humans want to act even when they don't have to we also want to offer solutions to problems that aren't ours or that we don't have enough knowledge to solve the problem this is also called the tendency to want to do something falsification confirmation bias simply put we see what we choose to see we look for patterns that confirm our long held beliefs rather than unpleasant things we don't want to see the scientific model is used to do the exact opposite which is why it's so effective

when used correctly chapter three problem solving what you think is what you feel is the premise of cognitive psychology most people think that your feelings come before or are separate from your thoughts but the truth is that your feelings are the result of your thoughts this can either be good or bad news depending on how you feel about it it could be bad news because we learn that we are responsible for our moods we can blame this on anybody else our attitude dictates the direction of our thoughts it can also be liberating because we realize

that we are given the power to make the choice on which perspective we want to choose to see this in turn affects our mood and our thoughts as well when it Dawns on us that we have the power to choose and focus our thinking in any direction we realize that we have more control over the circumstances in our lives and our thoughts this in turn improves our decision-making and in general we live much more productive lives isn't that great news that doesn't mean we minimize the feeling that we have as humans we don't have to

suppress them in any way this is just a way for us to balance how we feel with our scientific cognitive abilities some examples of when we are thinking in a critical and problemsolving way are rely on logic rather than emotion using logic gives us an accurate picture of the problem we're trying to solve the emotion complicates everything stay rational and firmly set in reason consider a wide variety of perspectives and viewpoints opening up our world to other perspectives allows us to gather more of the bigger picture so we can evaluate it and ultimately provide a

more comprehensive and accurate solution keep an open mind to interpretations that are different from our own we may never know what little gyms lie in interpreting information in several different ways except new findings explanations and evidence again this goes back to widening our perspectives and interpretations of the information we're taking in more information allows us more options and finding the most useful Solutions willingness to reassess information to make sure it's accurate and can be seen from a variety of perspectives if we are set on looking at information only one way that limits us to something

that we may have missed put aside personal biases and prejudices this contains data when we need to have an open mind and be able to interpret information accurately consider all realistic and reasonable possibilities even those that we may not deem worthy it's still important to consider them avoid snap judgments rushing through this process and not taking the time to find the truth can be one of the most damaging mistakes we can make in search of a solution learning to think critically or solve problems takes time perseverance and plenty of practice no knowing the proper steps

to take and how to apply them helps Master the process critical thinking steps to problem solving as with everything else in life problem solving and learning to think critically is a long-term process and takes time and a lot of practice understanding the steps to take and how to use them to massive the process is critical identify the problem before you can do anything you need to know if a problem exists when you sit down and cont ly think about the situation sometimes you might find that there isn't a problem at all it may just be

a miscommunication or misund understanding if that turns out to be the case that's great but if it doesn't and you find that there is an actual legitimate problem you must identify precisely what that problem is the act of being able to pinpoint the problem and weigh out the positives and negatives of that problem is a sign of a highly developed intelligence look at the problem from different angles once the problem has clearly been identified it's important to analyze it for accuracy this means that you have to look at it from several different perspectives is it

something that can be solved is it a real problem or a perceived problem do you need help to solve this or can you solve it by yourself when you're looking at the problem from several different angles most of the time you can come up with a solution almost immediately you might also uncover bias or a narrow Viewpoint that needs to be expanded brainstorm for possible solutions there are several ways the problems can be solved brainstorming a list of possible solutions allows our mind the freedom to produce a list of anything and everything that reveals itself

no matter how silly or strange putting it down to paper and then reviewing the entire list to narrow it down is the best way to find the best possibilities when you have several realistic options you can choose the best solution decide which solution works for the situation review your list of possible solutions each situation will be different and it will call for a different solution in fact many times what works in one solution would be a complete disaster in another even if they're similar situations taking the time to analyze which solution would work for which

situation pays off and resolving the problem one solution typically does not solve or fit every situation take action it isn't enough to brainstorm you have to take action if you want anything to happen incorporate your solution into the situation and observe what happens every problem has a solution even if the solution is to come to terms with the situation as it is and move forward this is where mindset plays a part because instead of looking at problems as obstacles that can't be overcome we can change our perspective and look at them as opportunities to improve

our critical thinking and problem solving skills one of the best side effects of resolving problems is that each time we do it it increases our self-worth and confidence when we think critically it not only helps us handle challenges in our paths more comprehensively and intelligently it also expands our life experiences and helps us gain a greater perspective of the bigger picture chapter 4 critical thinking exercises and activities any leader or manager understands variable Concepts you need to build your skills and behaviors essential for leading people any type of position requires you to manage and the

teams mean that you have to be able to think critically and solve problems especially if you want to survive in a competitive Marketplace there are four core professional skills you need to know to be a successful leader critical thinking skills are one part of this forsome of course there are others you can use to build off this Foundation but here are the primary four one critical thinking skills this is your ability to analyze a problem and find the solution by translating complex information into an organized and easily digestible plan two operational skills this is your

ability to comprehend how your company makes money and translate that understanding into profits as seamlessly as possible three leadership skills this is your ability to set an example and Lead others through difficult times providing confidence where Others May lack this also requires you to be creative and resourceful when solving problems four connected and relating skills this is your ability to nurture relationships and engage successfully with various personality types at all levels of your company without this Foundation everything else would crumble so it's essential to practice critical thinking skills to be proficient in leading people critical

thinking exercises have you always been stumped by riddles puzzles and games that require you to think outside of the box are you sick of being the only one unable to figure out the Sunday crossword puzzle critical thinking is a skill and an art that relies on practice to improve critical thinking allows you to step back and see the bigger picture to be able to make better decisions about which direction you'll take it's something that takes a lot of practice to get good at over time the good news is that with enough practice you can Master

critical thinking to the point that it becomes second nature for you critical thinking starts with three pillar linking ideas structuring arguments and recognizing in congruences one linking ideas connecting two or more ideas that are on the surface seemingly unrelated two structuring arguments parts of an argument that are structured in a revent practical and sound way three recognizing in congruences the ability to find gaps in an argument to find the actual truth six exercises to improve your critical thinking skills one learn from other leaders one of the biggest lessons you can learn is that there is

no need to reinvent the wheel very often what we need to do is already done by several who have come before us all we have to do is learn from their mistakes and model what they've done to get the success they have reading other leader stories gives you the ability to be exposed to new ideas and challenge your thinking differently try to read at least 20 minutes every day two analyze your competitors studying your competitors and trying to reverse engineer their success will give you a great amount of insight into their process you can learn

a lot by studying somebody's footprint to success try to understand who their target audiences are and why they focus on that group try to learn their philosophy and what life experiences LED them to believe the way that they do then turn that focus on your own business and identify those same elements for your own company what are the gaps where are you doing things correctly ask your customers what they need and if they're happy with your service this is an excellent exercise for you and your team to execute three in every company there are problems

that everyone ignores and that nobody fixes identify one of those problems take it under your wing and ask for support when trying to solve it if part of the problem is beyond your scope put together a team to help you guide your team through the process of analyzing information and reviewing relevant participants and developing a potential plan of action in addition to establishing credibility as a problem solver you will be actively exercising all four of your professional skill sets with this exercise four four find out what keeps your customer awake at night you want to

solve a problem that your customers are having but not just any problem you want to solve the problem that's so painful to them that they want it solved yesterday how do you do that you pick your boss's brain and find out what strategy he uses to do this then you model his success and incorporate it into your process ask for his support as you try to meet the needs of your customers this process will give you valuable insight into how to fulfill fill the needs of the people you serve you'll not only tend to make

more money but you'll realize you have a greater purpose five assign a team to do it guide your team through the problem solving activity work with them to assess the problems in your company and encourage them to have multiple perspectives about it share these perspectives and develop a laundry list of solutions frame this as an opportunity for your team to gain a wealth of insights as a result of solving the problem remember the saying two heads are better than one this absolutely applies in this case also be sure to reframe any challenges into opportunities so

that your brain can begin thinking in a different way from the perspective of positive rather than negative six track your progress you should log everything in your challenges your triumphs and failures this documents the experience and allows you to refer back to it for future projects it also can help you save a lot of time from going in circles combine knowledge with the tactics you've already tried and which ones you've left out you gain a tremendous amount of insight into your own critical thinking process specifically your strengths and weaknesses practical exercises as an adult you

know how easy it is to make a false assumption and restate it as truth many times we don't challenge what's being said before passing it along we need to question authority more often verifying that our assumptions are based on truth and not a fallacy here are a few exercises to enhance critical thinking skills and test those assumptions and fallacies linking ideas exercise grab an old-fashioned newspaper scroll through all the articles in each section of the newspaper get out a piece of paper and a pencil and write down a list of the articles in the newspaper

Now look for commonalities between the Articles and try to see if you can establish a connection ction among them trying to see if you can identify an overall theme for each section of a paper if successful see if you can connect the sections of the newspaper lastly summarize the aim of this publication and its primary Innovation structuring argument before we get into the exercise there are two concepts you need to be familiar with premise a proposition from which another is implied or follows as a conclusion if the foundation of an AR argument undertaking or Theory

conclusion the final takeaway from an argument a decision is reached by the process of reasoning go to Google or YouTube and look for speeches on arguments and theories pick a couple and determine the premise or the subject as well as the conclusion there may be more than one premise but they have to support the conclusion recognizing in congruences use the same information from the previous exercise to see if you can determine whether any of the premises do not support or link the conclusion if all the premises are connected with the conclusion take a more in-depth

look at the premises themselves there may be fallacies in the premises if that's the case do more research to see if he can get to the bottom of the actual lastly analyze the premise to verify a false statement has not been assumed true tell it to an alien this can be applied to any Theory or information but as an exercise you're going to look for the 10 most interesting theories on the internet you'll be playing two parts yourself and an alien from outer space who's never been to Earth you're going to try to explain this

topic to both people try to explain it to an alien who has no prior knowledge of Earth although the alien will speak English then adopt an alien Persona and ask questions about the topic from the perspective of having no prior knowledge about it for example you would explain the game of bowling is one round sphere with three holes in it rolled on the ground to hit as many strange pillars as possible when you're playing the part of the alien would you ask questions to gain Clarity and understanding activities question standards to ask before you know

what critical thinking questions you need to ask you're going to need to know how to ask these questions because they're critical to critical thinking open-ended questioning your goal when asking questions is to prevent the person you're questioning from giving you a few details you want them to give you as much information as possible yes or no answers can drag out the questioning process and unnecessarily delay getting the information you wish to have therefore asking the right question will not only give you the answers you're looking for but also leads to more questions than what you

were initially looking for as ask open-ended questions similar to the ones below what is the purpose of this product instead of is this the purpose of this product who is your favorite person in all the world instead of is this your favorite person in the whole world avoid leading questions leading questions can inject bias into the information collecting process critical thinking is about getting out of your head and seeing things from a different perspective ideally from the perspective of the world it's essential to avoid leading questions so as not to taint the answer with your

preconceived notions make sure your questions are as neutral as possible and don't allow any kind of definitive language into the questioning process look at the examples below what is your opinion on the healthiest exercise plan on the market instead of do you think the Power 90 is the healthiest exercise plan on the market how is the condition of your family's home at the moment instead of how bad is the condition of your family's home at the moment be specific with the boundaries of your questions a leading question can damage your goal to find the information

you want so can leaving the question too open it can invite unnecessary information to be given when you're a critical thinker that means you're objective when you're taking in forms of information however critical thinking still needs a focus and direction that only you can control make sure that skeleton outline is accurate before you shape your questions and have them answered being too General makes the process of getting the answers you want slow maybe you'll have better success if you ask questions like who is your favorite celebrity movie star in the United States instead of who

is your favorite celebrity if you could live anywhere in Los Angeles where would that be instead of if you could live anywhere in the United States where would that be lead the questions down the funnel until you get the answer you're searching for shallow questions make it easy for the people your questioning to avoid giving you the information you want it's important to dig deeper after each question stays on the trail of the information you really want when you get your answer then move back to the broader questioning to get an overview of the whole

situation again all answers must be based on facts and supported from many different sources hearsay is a dangerous concept you have to make sure that you're not quoting what you heard someone else say find actual case studies facts and proof before you settle on the information you've been given make sure you're crosschecking the information you find to verify it's credible put yourself in the position of the opposition and see if you can validate what they're saying as well critical thinking method questions the H and the 5 w the who what where when why and how

are the basics of critical thinking questions it's a statistical certainty that you've learned them in school they are the base upon which every critical analysis should be generated here's how you should apply these questions to critical thinking who is responsible who with this hurt who would benefit who has looked into this before me what would be the challenges what are its strengths what is the other perspective what is the key subject where are the similar situations where can this be approved upon where can more information be found where would this problem reside when could this

be implemented when is it time to stop this action when is it acceptable and unacceptable when would we be able to measure the result why is this relevant why is there a need for this why is this a problem why should this be made known how does it function how could it harm anyone how is this different from anything else similar to it method and agenda questioning even though these two may have been covered through the five W's and the H's it's still worth breaking them down to emphasize the angle at which this questioning comes

from the agenda is positioned to figure out how an individual could reap the benefit from an idea or situation for example if a celebrity was trying to repair their reputation and held a free charity event then the donations would be less of a charitable intention and more about the celebrities reputation to clarify an agenda some questions that might be helpful could look like this what is the individual involved trying to accomplish what problems are raised by the individual involved what evidence experiences Andor data is provided how can we see from their perspective to appreciate their

Viewpoint the second part of this questioning is the method being a critical thinker means that the method makes the outcomes of every situation and idea questionable too often the validity gets overlooked in focus on the debate when talking about the outcome of a specific method questions that might help clarify the method would be is the individual willing to rethink their methods of creating the outcome has the individual thought about how the method will function in the future how far has the method been tested is there an alternative method that can be used to produce the

same outcome and what were the implications of using this method is the individual willing to allow this method to be tested are there other situations this method has been used and if so how effective was it the inquiry process it does what the title States it contains some questions but the effectiveness of this process lies in the way this process is conducted this process creates an order that you can follow while uncovering the information you looking for the terminology may vary but the foundation Remains the Same the process is broken up into five parts ask

pose a question investigate find resources create interpret synthesize discuss report findings reflect reverse engineer the process chapter five critical thinking in everyday life situations the journey to becoming a better critical thinker is joined by the process of accelerating personal growth when you are as your point gets better you can begin to see where you can improve and grow the f F in examples can be applied to your everyday routine they will allow you to really start critically thinking and discover the art of questioning everything around you look at the examples below of how critical thinking

affects your everyday life self-reflection taking inventory of your shortcomings by researching and issuing cultural differences you begin to empathize with people from other cultures and start seeing where they're coming from self-reflection on your behavior in a particular in incident with another individual you begin to see things from their perspective and realize there were a few things you could have done differently to yield a more favorable result upon completion of a task you think back to what you've learned and how you could have made better decisions to get more experience from the situation decision-making more educated

decision-making thinking back to an altercation with someone you care about you start seeing things from their perspective this dissolves your feelings and you can see a panoramic picture of the situation as a whole from this spot you can make a more purposeful decision in the future you are asked to create a mockup of the future residential neighborhood next to an industrial area sitting next to a river your research leads you to play out scenarios in your head on the pros and cons of the projects and from the perspective of the people in the neighborhood and

the environmental effects this project will have on the earth once you see all sides you can make a more educated and logical decision time utilization analysis recognize your value you take stock of what you do in a day and how long it takes you to do it you notice that there's a lot of time being wasted watching movies you decide to narrow down your movie time by watching only one good movie per day and use the extra time to tackle another goal like practicing your writing you look at your to-do list and break down the

priority of each task you will evaluate each task to see how it affects the largest group of people with this information you begin to focus and spend more time on the most important tasks first workplace critical thinking examples teamwork problem solving as a group you've been promoted to a project leader in your department it's your responsibility to come up with a strategy to produce a new product you give the entire team the authority to write down all concerns they may have as well as solution recommendations and constructively criticize other Solutions simultaneously you have someone jotting

down notes at one point he stopped the conversation and wrote all the notes on the board divided into perspectives and obstacles you and your team can now clearly create a solution based on the collaborative information given by your team adding value improving and recognizing your contribution your company has its eye on a achieving a certain goal by the end of the year you take stock of your position at the company and think about ways that you can contribute towards this goal make a list of every way that your actions can help achieve this goal and

then credit the impact of each action to the person or area that it's impacting then you can think about all the ways that you can add more action and increase the productivity and impact on the goal chapter six goal setting what exactly is a goal a goal is something you hope to achieve that will elevate your present situation when you set out to make a goal for yourself you take into account who you are the environment around you the skills you have and the things you desire in essence setting a goal represents critical thinking and

action as you work toward your goal you're continually analyzing your progress as well as acknowledging the challeng is in your way so you can create strategies to overcome them goals are kind of like a road map toward success some are long-term others shortterm sometimes you have to set several goals to meet your ultimate goal for example if you want to be a doctor you have to set another longterm goal of finishing college and medical school to graduate you need to achieve short-term goals like passing the required courses necessary to graduate the short and long-term goals

are linked together like a chain each reli on the other to achieve your ultimate success understanding how to use critical thinking to create and achieve your goal is fundamental there is a five-step process for setting up any goal and every step demands that you implement critical thinking skills let's get into detail to see how this overall process runs step one gathering information about yourself the first thing you need to know is information about yourself in terms of what you would like to accomplish and your strengths so you're able to have goals that are easily defined

realistic manageable and meaningful to you the first thing you want to do is take inventory of your strengths and weaknesses review the challenges you encounter daily in your life both personal and professional then recall any past experiences you've had determine whether you want your goal to focus on the strengths or weaknesses that you have for example if you're unhappy that you procrastinate then a solution would be to set a goal full of small baby steps of improvement to get your work done without overwhelming yourself step two set a smart goal once you've gathered information about

yourself the next thing you want to do is set a goal that displays what you want to achieve it should be a smart goal specific measurable achievable relevant to you personally and Tim related you should not have a vague goal by any means saying I'm going to get more rest is weak and does nothing to motivate you to achieve it it also makes it difficult to know whether or not you have achieved it goals that are vacant Without definable Limits and boundaries and leave you in the sense of limbo never knowing that you've crossed the

Finish Line that's why the smart approach allows you to create goals that are strong and definable and realistically able to be achieved through detailed steps specific having a specific cold like get eight hours of sleep per night contrast against the vague goal get more sleep gives you defined boundaries and a clear understanding of what the goal is and when you want to achieve it measurable the best way to tell the goal is measurable is that you know when you've reached it it's a specific point on your journey for example when you reach a certain number

on the scale you can tell you've lost the weight achievable when making goals you want to make sure that your goal is achievable and not out of your reach that's the most frustrating thing that happens to us when we don't realize what we've been striving for is realistically possible at that particular time this is different for each individual for example wanting to lose 100 in the next week may not be an achievable or realistic goal on the other hand completing a course may be achievable if there's any question in your mind about whether your goals

are achievable perhaps you'd want to retake a look at your goal and evaluate it to make sure that it is reasonable to achieve in the time you've set for it then once you accomplish that goal you can set the standard higher for yourself find the balance between your goals being challenging enough to motivate and inspire you but not so challenging that it's impossible to reach them relevant to you goals should reflect your personal values career plans and interests they have to be personalized specifically to you and no one else this makes them extremely motiv motivated

to want to pursue it's how you know you're doing it for yourself versus for anybody else so if you love math and you want to become a rocket scientist the motivation will be easier for you to reach that goal of studying those hard classes time limited smart goals must have deadlines or else they're just wishes a goal has to have a definite time limit to set the action in motion however make sure the deadline isn't too far away that you will procrastinate or lose interest in it on the flip side if you set a deadline

that is too early the goal may start to seem like pressure and unachievable this can lead to Major overwhelming and discouragement setting a fair and realistic time limit for achieving your goal is going to help you figure out if you've achieved it step three make a plan of action you'll need a plan of action if you're going to accomplish anything goals are no different these are a list of steps or can take to achieve your goal and in the order in which you'll take them it's kind of like a Todo list for reaching your goal

write your actions Down When developing a plan of action the first step is to write down the actions you'll be taking to reach your goal you might say that you have a list in your head but writing it down on paper is going to serve you better that's because we often forget despite the fact we tell ourselves we aren't going to we do forget according to a recent study 43% % of participants who didn't write down their goals actually achieve their goals compared to 76% of participants who wrote down their goals and achieved them that's

quite a difference it doesn't matter if the list is incomplete sentences or perfect you just want to get your thoughts down on paper prioritize your steps once you brainstorm every possible step you can take and write it down decide which steps are more important and which ones are of lesser importance you determine this by evaluating whether the step is critical to the goal if you can't achieve your goal without taking that step it's critical if you can achieve your goal without taking that step it's not critical the items that are not critical should be the

lowest on the list list your steps in order and set deadlines once you organize the critical and non-critical steps on your list or range of steps in the order in which you'll complete them make sure you have a deadline for each step step so you can stay on track to your ultimate goal step four list barriers and solutions barriers are going to pop up regardless of how prepared you are or how Rock Solid your plan of action is for accomplishing your goal a barrier is something that keeps you from making progress towards your goal it

could be anything like your own tendency to procrastinate for example or something out of your control like an unforeseen tragedy there are barriers that you can control and others you can't as you establish your goals get in front of the barriers by writing down possible barriers you could encounter when you see the potential barriers you can plan for them or at least not get caught off guard if they pop up you can also plan in advance for how you will deal with them if they happen for example if you take on too many clients you

might not be able to predict that you'll have enough time to fill all the orders you promised by anticipating this barrier you can figure out ways to avoid getting into that situation such as Outsourcing part of the job and paying somebody else to do it there's nothing that says that you have to confront these barriers by yourself there are several resources around you that you can take advantage of all you have to do is look around step five act and evaluate outcomes as you drive down the Journey of your plan of action steps towards your

goal evaluate your progress regularly are the steps you're on getting you closer to your goal or further away are they effective are you going to complete them on time is there a plan as a whole helping you get closer to meeting your goal if you find yourself falling behind the process of evaluating your outcomes helps you tweak your plan of action sooner rather than later so you can change to accommodate these factors it keeps you on track evaluation can also keep you motivated to continue working toward your goal make sure sure that you're celebrating small

wins along the way this goes a long way to motivate you as well sometimes you will have setbacks you must know this now so that you can anticipate when it happens also you want to stay positive the point of evaluating your progress is to deal with and identify setbacks the more practice you have doing this the better you'll get at not letting the setbacks derail your progress chapter 7 conclusion by now you should have everything you need to begin your journey to better critical thinking skills remember that in addition to the principles we covered in

this book the central element that takes you from an unreflective thinker to a Master thinker is practice this is something you can't do sporadically you have to make it a part of your daily routine in chapter 1 we discovered the six stages of critical thinkers unreflective thinkers challenged thinkers beginning thinkers practicing thinkers Advanced thinkers and master thinkers we broke those down into six different categories defining a feature principal knowledge knowledge of thinking skill in thinking relevant intellectual traits and some implications for instruction we determined the definition of critical thinking and how it can benefit you

in your daily life in order to do that we were able to establish the four assumptions of critical thinking in Chapter 2 we discussed the concept of mental toughness and the elemental structures in thinking which are Clarity accuracy precision relevance depth breadth logic significance and fairness we also discuss the various mental models that can be used When developing critical thinking skills in chapter 3 we identified steps to problem solving which include identifying the problem looking at the problem from different angles brainstorming for possible solutions deciding which solution works for the situation and taking action these

straightforward steps are the key to solving almost any problem in chapter 4 we put our knowledge of critical thinking to the test by reviewing specific exercises and activities to get us practicing daily we learn that there are four core professional skills critical thinking operational thinking leadership thinking connecting and relating thinking there are also three pillars to critical thinking linking ideas structuring arguments and recognizing in congruences we learn that there are six exercises to improve critical thinking skills learning from other leaders analyzing our competitors and every company there are problems that everyone ignores and nobody fixes

finding out what keeps your customers awake at night assign a team to it and tracking your progress chapter 5 was all about critical thinking in everyday life situations we took a look at real world examples of how critical thinking could benefit our lives and work and at home this included taking inventory of our shortcomings more educated decision making recognizing our value problem solving as a group and recognizing our contribution chapter 6 was entirely about goal setting we determined the definition of what a goal is and how to obtain it we established that there are five

steps to goal setting gathering information about yourself setting a smart goal making sure that goal is specific measurable achievable relevant to you and time limited making a plan of action listing barriers and solutions and acting and evaluating outcomes with time and a lot of practice you could build your critical thinking skills to a Master thinker this means you would be able to see a variety of perspectives other than your own critically and analyze them to make the best decisions in all areas of your life the bottom line if you want to succeed in today's Busy

World you have to become a critical thinker great Business Leaders and managers know this and they work every day to perfect their thinking process the person who can solve the problems is the person who's going to pay the most being able to decipher Solutions in the middle of a difficult problem is the person everyone will go to you can leverage your critical thinking skills into a great life a good life and valuable relationships make sure that you question assumptions critical thinkers are inquisitive they look to find why something is happening and what's behind every problem

critical thinkers are the ones who get us out of economic hardship and invent ways to prosper adopts different perspectives takes The Road Less Traveled you won't get noticed if you're following the crowd think outside of the box and dare to do what nobody else is doing analyze the world around you see what others are doing that works for them and copy it see the potential in yourself realize that these simple skills are not something you're born with you can do this you can get better at it and master it but you have to practice critical

thinkers have confidence that allows them to see opportunities where others see challenges they don't give up without a fight managing ambiguity the speed of business is intertwined with global factors and complicated dichotomies where knowing all the variables is impossible one significant trait of a critical thinker is that they are comfortable with operating in an environment where change is constant fast thinking decisions need to be made if you can win yourself to that kind of pressure not only are you serving the greater good you will most certainly be compensated for it critical thinking has always been

highly regarded as a trait of leadership but over the years schools have dropped the importance of critical thinking in favor of quantitive skills however the need for critical thinking is in high demand now more than ever the world is growing crowded and we don't know when the next economic downturn can happen but one thing is for sure we need critical thinkers who can see the situation for what it is and provide Solutions where others may not and cannot see it you have been listening to critical thinking beginner's guide to Advanced critical thinking concepts for problem

solving decision-making and goal achievement authored by Steven West read by Terry Christensen [Music]