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How to Improve Critical Thinking SkillsThree Methods: Honing Your Questioning Skills Adjusting Your Perspective Putting It All Together

Critical Thinking is the art of using reason to analyze ideas and dig deeper toget to our true potential. Critical thinking isn't about thinking more or thinkingharder; it's about thinking better. Honing your critical thinking skills can openup a lifetime of intellectual curiosity. But the journey isn't all rosy. Criticalthinking requires a lot of discipline. Staying on track takes a combination ofsteady growth, motivation, and the ability to take an honest look at yourself,even in the face of some uncomfortable facts.

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Question your assumptions. We make a lot of assumptions about almosteverything. It's how our brain processes certain pieces of information, and how we

get along in everyday life. You could say they are the foundation of our criticalframework. But what if those assumptions turned out to be wrong, or at least not entirelytruthful? Then the whole foundation needs to be re­built, from the bottom up.

What does it mean to question assumptions? Einstein questioned theassumption that Newtonian laws of motion could accurately describe the world.[1] He developed an entirely new framework for looking at the world byredescribing what he thought happened, starting from scratch.We can question assumptions in a similar way. Why do we feel the need to eatin the morning, even when we're not hungry? Why do we assume that we'll failwhen we haven't even tried?What other assumptions are we taking for granted that might crumble uponfurther examination?

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2 Don't take information on authority until you've investigated it yourself. Likeassumptions, taking information on authority can be useful. Instead of double­

checking everything anyone says, we tend to label information as either coming from atrustworthy or not trustworthy source. This keeps us from double­checking every pieceof information that comes our way, saving time and energy. But it also keeps us fromgetting to the bottom of things we perceive as coming from a trustworthy source, evenwhen they don't. Just because it was published in a magazine or broadcast over TV

Method 1 of 3: Honing Your Questioning Skills

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doesn't mean it's necessarily true.

Get in the habit of using your instinct to investigate questionable pieces ofinformation. If your gut isn't satisfied with an explanation, ask the person toelaborate. If you don't question a fact, read about it or test it yourself. Soonenough, you'll build up a pretty good sense of what deserves more researchand what you've determined to be true in your own judgment.

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Question things. You've already read about questioning assumptions andquestioning authority figures. Now you're about to be told to question...everything?

Asking questions is perhaps the quintessential act of critical thinking. If you don't knowwhat questions to ask, or don't ask the questions in the first place, you may as well notget the answer. Finding the answer, and finding it elegantly, is what critical thinking is allabout.

How does ball lightning work?How do fish fall from the sky in the middle of Australia?[2]

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1 Understand your own biases. Human judgment can be subjective, frail, andspiteful. One recent study found that parents who were given corrected information

about the safety of vaccines were less likely to have their children vaccinated.[3] Why?The hypothesis is that parents given this information accept that the information is true,but push back people it damages their self­esteem — something that is very important tomost people. Understanding what your biases are and where they may affect how youdeal with information.

2 Think several moves ahead. Don't just think one or two steps ahead. Thinkseveral. Imagine you're a chess grandmaster who's dueling with someone with the

capacity to think dozens of moves ahead, with hundreds of permutations. You have tomatch wits with him. Try to imagine the possible futures the problem you're working onmay take on.

Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com, famously understood the benefits of thinkingseveral steps ahead. He tired Wired Magazine in 2011: "If everything you doneeds to work on a three­year time horizon, then you’re competing against a lotof people. But if you’re willing to invest on a seven­year time horizon, you’renow competing against a fraction of those people, because very few companiesare willing to do that."[4] When the Kindle first hit stores in 2007 it was morethan three years in development, at a time when e­readers were on nobody'sradar.[5]

Method 2 of 3: Adjusting Your Perspective

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3 Read great books. Nothing beats the transformation of a great book. Whether it'sMoby Dick or Philip K. Dick, great writing has the power to frame debate

(literature), enlighten (nonfiction), or unleash emotion (poetry). And reading isn't only forbookworms. Elon Musk, the tech giant, said he mastered rocket science by pretty much"reading and asking questions."[6]

4 Put yourself in other peoples' shoes. Empathy can also help you develop yourcritical thinking skills. Whether it's improving your negotiation tactics or

understanding literature better, putting yourself in the shoes of others will help youimagine their motivations, aspirations, and turmoils. You can use this information to getleverage, be persuasive, or just plain be a better person. Empathy doesn't need to beheartless.

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Set aside at least 30 minutes a day to improve your brain function. Carve out30 minutes in your busy day to make your brain more sleek and powerful. There

are dozens of ways that you can do this. Here are just a few ideas:

Solve a problem a day. Spend a little bit of time figuring out a problem and thentry to solve it.[7] The problem could be a theoretical or a personal one.Find the time to exercise consistently. 30 minutes of aerobic exercise — as littleas a walk around the neighborhood — can help improve brain function.[8]

Eat the right kinds of foods. Avocados, blueberries, wild salmon, nuts andseeds, as well as brown rice play an instrumental role in keeping your brainhealthy.[9]

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1 Understand all your options. When you want to use your critical thinking skills toact — because armchair philosophy can get old after too long — it helps to know

what your options are. Lay them all out there, and then weigh the options. We oftenpigeonhole ourselves into believing that we're stuck with only one option, when otheroptions

2 Surround yourself with people smarter than you. You want to be the big fish inthe little pond, because it makes your ego feel good. Well, throw away your ego. If

you really want to learn, get better at something, and develop critical thinking skills,hobnob with people smarter than yourself. Not only can you bet that the smart peoplethemselves rub shoulders with people smarter than they are, you can also bet that someof that intelligence is going to permeate your perspective.

Method 3 of 3: Putting It All Together

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Fail until you succeed. Be fearless in the face of failure. Failure is just anotherway of figuring out what doesn't work. Use failure to your advantage by learning

from your lessons. The popular myth out there is that successful people never fail, whenthe truth is that successful people fail until they succeed, at which point their success isthe only thing that's visible.

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Don't be absolute, yet don't be timid in your criticism: Try to avoidabsolutes like "never", and use them only when you're completely sure.However, at the same time, be assertive in your criticism. Think howmuch less motivating this saying would be: "Slow and steady, in certaincases, wins the race."

Be diplomatic. Your aim is not the person himself, but the proposal heputs forward.

Ask for other people's opinions. They most likely will offer a newperspective which could change your approach. Consider people bothfrom different age groups and different occupations.

Practice critiquing, as you'll get better at it. Take notice if others critiqueyour critique.

Read other people's critiques in newspapers and books, and learn fromtheir mistakes and strengths to improve your own style.

Distinguish between inductive and deductive reasoning, that is, to knowwhen a discussion is conducted from the particular to the general, orfrom the general to the particular.

Perform a hypothetical­deductive reasoning. That is, given a particularsituation, apply the relevant knowledge of the principles andconstraints, and display, in the abstract, the plausible consequencesthat might result from the different variations that you can imagine

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Tips

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imposed on the system.

Use libraries and the Internet, to find out information on the topic you'recritiquing. An uninformed critique is sometimes worse than one merelyexecuted badly.

You can critique something much, much better if it's within your field ofexpertise. For example, who better than a painter to critique a painting?Or who better than a writer to properly analyze another writer's works?

Give criticism in a non­offensive way, as people can get defensive ifsomething they pride themselves on gets attacked. Therefore do notantagonize a hard­core abortion supporter by giving a heated anti­abortion speech. It will only make him go on an offensive to defend hisbeliefs, totally ignore your arguments, and strengthen his resolve tosupport abortion. Prefacing criticism with praise usually works well.

Or utilize the 'sandwich method': compliment, suggestion, compliment.Criticism is received better, using this approach. Also, use the person'sname, smile (genuinely), and look them in the eye

1. ↑ http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/physics/einstein­on­newton.html2. ↑ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article­1254812/Hundreds­fish­fall­

sky­remote­Australian­town­Lajamanu.html3. ↑ http://www.npr.org/2014/03/04/285580969/when­it­comes­to­

vaccines­science­can­run­into­a­brick­wall4. ↑ http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/11/ff_bezos/all/15. ↑

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2014/02/17/140217fa_fact_packer?currentPage=all

6. ↑ http://www.businessinsider.com/how­elon­musk­overcomes­challenges­2013­3

7. ↑ https://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/critical­thinking­in­everyday­life­9­strategies/512

Warnings

Sources and Citations

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8. ↑ http://www.brainhealth.utdallas.edu/blog_page/study­finds­aerobic­exercise­improves­memory­brain­function­and­physical­fi

9. ↑ http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/eat­smart­healthier­brain

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Categories: Thinking Skills

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