Hey, curious mind! In this article, I will share my experience of mastering critical thinking. This website already has an article about the good effects of critical thinking. Click here to read it. 

First of all, I want to add some book references. These books have the essential strategies that will help you get into the practice of critical thinking. Below here is a list of those books. 

     – “The Art of Thinking Clearly” by Rolf Dobelli”

     – “Thinking, Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman”

     – “Thinking in Systems: A Primer” by Donella H. Meadows”

     – “The Art of Problem Solving”

These books were super helpful to me and I hope they will help you too. 

Now, let’s talk about some habitual practices that we can do regularly to train our brains. I want to share a few thought processes with you. The first one is, “Be aware of perspectives”. 

Everyone has a different perspective and they perceive various things in their way. Like every coin has 2 sides, anyone around you may have different opinions or perspectives than yours. We all should be welcoming and patient while hearing their opinions. We should be eager to get their point of view on a particular topic. Welcoming every thought inside you will make you a better person as you can see the matter in various ways. 

Secondly, Start cutting down logical fallacies in your speech and deeds as much as you can. We often overlook crucial points while talking to someone just because sometimes we get swept away by their feelings/emotions. Sometimes, people make many logical fallacies during conversations and that may impact your feelings/emotions but rather than fighting back with emotional speech, we need to point out their mistakes in their speech. We need to develop a logical mindset and act accordingly. I am listing some famous logical fallacies below: 

• Ad Hominem
  Definition: Attacking the person making the argument rather than the argument itself.

Example: “You can’t trust John’s opinion on climate change because he’s not a scientist.”

• Straw Man
  Definition: Misrepresenting or oversimplifying someone’s argument to make it easier to attack.
  Example: “Person A: We should improve public education. Person B: My opponent wants to throw money at schools with no accountability.”

• Appeal to Authority
  Definition: Claiming something is true because an authority or expert says it is, without providing evidence.

Example: “A famous actor uses this skincare product, so it must be the best.”

• False Dilemma
  Definition: Presenting two options as the only possibilities when others exist.

Example: “You’re either with us, or you’re against us.”

• Slippery Slope
  Definition: Arguing that one small step will inevitably lead to a chain of related (and usually negative) events.

Example: “If we allow students to redo their exams, soon they’ll expect to retake them multiple times, and standards will decline.”

There are more fallacies out there. You can search on ChatGPT to learn more. 

Anyway, Let’s get on to the third practice. “Problem solving”. Let it be maths, physics, or programming problems. Solving problems helps your brain develop some key thinking features. Such as. i) Eliminating unnecessary thoughts floating around; ii) Following a step-by-step method to think about any issue; iii) Having this mindset that “One problem can have different ways of a solution”. 

These 3 essential practices helped me develop “critical thinking” skills. Now, I always find myself controlling my deeds, and speech with “Critical thinking”