Critical Thinking Skills
Is nuance a skill?
Like, the world isn’t black and white, left and right, right and wrong, etc, but too many people want to simplify complex issues down into binary choices and leave out any trace of nuance.
We live in a hyperbolic age. People’s attention has been commodified so almost all messaging is exaggerated to pull attention to one pole or another. Nuance and patient, thoughtful debate can’t live in that atmosphere.
Are you really claiming that ALL messages are exaggerated and that thoughtful debate can NEVER exist???
😜
Clutches
pearlshyperboles
Not to mention we’re in a period of morality panic. We’ve been brainwashed to think there are only good and bad, either with us on all thoughts or against. We’ve been sucked into a hard lined good vs. evil plot, except everyone is wrong.
Maybe related: The ability to understand complete statements and considering the context, instead of latching onto one phrase and ignoring the rest.
Not sure if it’s an actual skill, but it certainly is a trait that fits this question. It’s gotten so bad that I tend to tag people with “Nuanced” if they’ve proven to understand this, so that I know they’re actually reasonable if I see them in a discussion over a controversial topic.
It’s like we live in a floating point world, and too many people are only capable of dealing with integers lol.
I’m stealing this.
I wish I could do this with the web version. I’d like to tag people “Made sense once - don’t block”
We’re living in a particularly toxic time, and splitting is a reversion
I agree, and I’d say the backing skill is emotional maturity or emotional management
Somewhat related is the belief that things are simple rather than complex. I’d argue that thinking something is simple - or believing you have a solid understanding of it - should be a red flag that you probably don’t know as much as you think. I mean, when have you ever heard a true expert give a short and simple answer to anything?
Critical thinking. Religion and our education system beat curiosity out of people and they end up being unable to process information on their own.
Also driving. People can’t stay in their own lanes, stop three car lengths from an intersection because they don’t understand that the ‘see the tires in front of you’ made sense in low sedans with sloped hoods and not their massive SUVs with flat hood, and don’t bother signaling when changing lanes slowly.
One thing many forget about critical thinking is to also be critical of your own thoughts as well. Too many people think it’s only about attacking other people’s opinion.
Critical thinking. Religion and our education system beat curiosity out of people
And now AI is here to run cleanup on any critical thinking those two haven’t already destroyed.
and don’t bother signaling when changing lanes slowly
I always love playing the road trip game of “Are they changing lanes slowly without signaling, or are they fucking with their phone and just drifting?” 😠
Oof yes and don’t get me started on roundabouts.
I might as well go first: Basic troubleshooting and reasoning.
I mean, we’re not talking debugging assembly language here. But at least you should be able to reply correctly to the question “is it dead or faulty?” when it comes to a computer. And when a your car has a weird noise, at least try to locate it for an obvious cause such as something rolling around under your seat.
EDIT: And one important aspect of troubleshooting many people don’t get is how to narrow down the problem. Let’s say your wifi isn’t working - have you checked on any other device whether it’s working there? Someone else mentioned binary search which has a lot of overlap with this.
“I don’t know what the error said, I clicked ok and it went away. Now fix it”.
Bingo.
I used to work with internet on trains, and the system was relatively simple by today’s standards. Not so much back then, but:
- One carriage had UMTS/LTE and CDMA modems and a router that load balanced between the uplinks. Usually in the restaurant carriage, because there would only be one per train. It also had a short range wireless link in each end for other carriages to connect.
- Each carriage that could potentially be in the same train had wireless clients in each end for connecting “upstream” towards the router.
- All carriages had a wifi radio
On other words, many potential points of failure. And sometimes we’d get tickets such as this sent our way: “Internet doesn’t work”
- No info about which carriage
- No info about when
- No info about where
- No info about which train
I mean, that’s really a software design issue. Like, the system should be set up to have a system log of those.
Most visual novel video game systems provide a history to review messages, if one accidentally skipped through something important.
Many traditional roguelikes have a message log to review for the same reason.
Many systems have a “show a modal alert dialog” API call, but don’t send it to a log, which frankly is a little bit bonkers; instead, they have separate alert and logging systems. I guess maybe you could make a privacy argument for that, not spreading state all over even the local system, but I’d think that it wouldn’t be that hard to make it more-obvious to the user how to clear the log.
Well, it might be a ‘software design issue’, but it’s really more of a branching point that was made long ago and reflects the world we live in. It could be fixed, but the point is that error messages are often not logged but people tend to act like they must be, and that their vague description of an issue should be enough to track it down like ‘something flashed on my screen last week’.
Hell people can’t even describe useful parts of an error that’s correctly happening…‘it’s not doing ANYTHING!’ can often mean anything from not booting, to the mouse not moving, to ‘it’s working perfectly but icons are snapping into place instead of staying exactly where I’m dragging them’.
This is usually coupled with the expectation that I’m going to use some special knowledge to do it rather than just pasting the contents of the error message into a web search and following the simple instructions contained in the first link.
This grinds my gears super hard. I’ve had a few new hires come through and they can’t do anything unless someone tells them to do something or if its written out step by step. Absolutely no critical thinking, curiosity or even basic understanding of why we’re doing what we’re doing, the job might as well be severance lol. I have no idea whats going on, they interviewed well, had relevant experience and can do the basics but as soon as we have to troubleshoot or use our brains they just go dear in the headlights. Its something thats difficult to train.
Maybe they prefer the work to be mysterious (and important)
Maybe they got in trouble too many times for not doing it exactly as instructed, even if the instruction is obviously bullshit in some ways?
I’m trying to work things out but I swear its a generational “kids these days” thing. Its a science field with lots of interpretation, judgement, problem solving and troubleshooting too so critical thinking is really important.
I had that stuck to my desk at work for years. And I haven’t even opened the link yet to see if it’s the one I think it is.
Yep, it was 😁
It missed ‘Have you checked the software’s help files or manual?’ but yeah. I guess a Google search mostly covers that, although I’d check the manual before resorting to Google. I remember when telling people to RTFM was a thing.
Basic troubleshooting and reasoning.
That drives me nuts sometimes. Like even professionals sometimes seem unable to do basic troubleshooting. I work in live music, I am not a tech/engineer but have done a lot of tech work on and around stages.
Simple stuff like - one speaker is not giving a signal, two techs are unable to identify the fault for over 20 min. I observe for a bit, they check the console, they check the speaker, they check the power supply.
And I, half joking, ask - have you switched sides already? Both look at me like they don’t understand my question, I walk over to the signal line for the PA, unplug them both, plug the left side into the right signal and vice versa on the other side - the problem moves from one speaker to the other, so it has to be a faulty cable. I was so baffled by that.
WHY IS THAT NOT THE FIRST THING YOU DO??? It takes seconds!
Or a wireless in-ear system has weird noises in the signal, I suggest to switch the frequency, the old tech grunts at me that he has already done that, I check and he moved the frequency like 10mhz. I suggest to move to a totally different frequency range and he gets rude so I go somewhere else. Half an hour later it turns out I was right. Why do you fuck around with firmware and shit before you do something simpler and quicker?
I used to work as a refrigeration technician and when I first started I was working with an old Russian dude who had no filter. We’d walk into a store and he’d ask the owner “ok so what’s the problem?” and if they ever said “the machine isn’t working.” he’d immediately reply with “no shit man, I wouldn’t be here if it was working…” Lol
Critical thinking.
They should teach basic philosophy in schools; common formal fallacies and such.
But then the eletorate would actually be making good decisions, how would the rich afford their 10th yacht?
They teach it at Turkish schools.
Being aware of what’s around you. Whether driving and not looking before pulling out, blocking the middle of the supermarket aisle, stopping in the doorway, standing in the middle of the footpath playing with your phone; so many people are completely oblivious. The world doesn’t revolve around you, have some ordinary consideration and manners.
I was going to say things. Situational awareness is very much lacking, especially in certain parts of the world.
Most of them are perfectly aware. They just don’t care.
“Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity”
I know it’s tempting to dismiss these people as all being assholes. But in my experience, once they realize they’re in your way, they’ll usually apologize and move. Drives me crazy, but some people really are that oblivious.
Number 1 by far is knowing how to separate your opinions from your identity.
I’ve been thinking about this for years and I can’t shake the thought that identity politics is the root of most major problems in western society (esp. US). It means people interpret criticism of their opinions as personal attacks instead. This overblown defensive reaction leads to turning around and conflating the opinions of others with their worth as human beings.
Yes, there some truth to that. If you hold hateful & bigoted opinions, I would say that makes you a shit person. But you’re not necessarily condemned to that forever, because opinions can potentially change. This is tied in with Karl Popper’s “Paradox of Tolerance”, i.e. ideas should be tolerated unless they themselves are so intolerant as to undermine the wider marketplace of ideas.
When we equate (potentially temporary) opinions of others with immutable value, that’s what leads to dehumanizing them and taking away their fundamental rights. And as has always been the case throughout history, the burden falls primarily on vulnerable groups (immigrants, ethnic or social minorities, children and the elderly, etc).
People need to understand that YOU ARE NOT YOUR OPINION. Others can and should criticize your opinions, but that doesn’t mean they are attacking you personally. Defend the opinions, but don’t turn around and go ad-hominem in response. And for fuck’s sake, unless an opinion is so abhorrent or intolerant that it threatens someone else’s existence (e.g. Nazis), you don’t get to take away the holder’s rights to citizenship, food, shelter, healthcare, etc.
EDIT: And yes I do consider this a skill that people have to learn. I think most should be capable by maybe… age 7.
Making constructive, non-adhominem critique, and accepting such critique. Maybe calm debate/discussion in general.
Look at yourself: your momma is bigger than a triceratops and you’re going to teach me something about ad-homo…-nomo…thing? Phah!
I can teach you about homo things, too ; )
Swimming, it’ll save your life
Yeah. I’m amazed at how many people do not know how to swim.
Yeah I know multiple adults who can’t swim, and I occasionally ask them if they’ve learned yet.
I remember seeing this video of two indian(?) guys drowning in a pond literally 2 meters from the shore. I mean… If I knew I couldn’t swim I wouldn’t go anywhere near water. It could just as well be lava.
Basic sewing
Also empathy
Communication. So many issues could be resolved by just talking to the person clearly and calmly instead of assuming they can read your mind and getting upset when they don’t respond the way you played out in your mind.
De-escalation. Even if you’re right, there’s a time and place where you need to let it go and revisit it at a more appropriate moment.
I get so mad with so many “romantic problems” in movies (I know it’s just a movie so the need to do it) it’s like just say the damn thing and there won’t be an issue! Lol
If people were rational, 90% of movie plots wouldn’t exist
I should have just read one comment down! I literally just replied to them with a complaint about this exact thing lol
I agree. The world could be much more peaceful if people used their words and ears more intently.
Reading comprehension. Not a day goes by where i don’t see someone respond to a comment that they clearly did not understand completely.
I think a lot of it is just laziness. I find that my habit of writing nuanced comments in sections to highlight various valid arguments/views tends to attract angry responses to only the first half, as if they only skimmed the first part and ascribing me a standpoint based on that.
Cooking. I don’t mean heating up prepared food. I mean taking raw produce, spices, herbs, and starches to make your own food. Doesn’t need to be extravagant. Start with an omelette or maybe properly made scrambled eggs. Move on to other “easy” dishes like grilled cheese sandwiches and spaghetti. I am constantly amazed when I hear fully grown adults saying shit like, “I could never make anything like Beef Wellington.” Yes you can, just try and fail a few times!
I feel that if people knew how much effort it takes to create their food products, they might be more hesitant to waste them. Even with things as simple as making bread! It’s not just something that appears on a shelf, it’s the result of whole process and should be valued as such.
I agree, but bread and noodles were damn near the first stable foodstuffs we discovered. I suppose beer would be the next stable food we discovered worldwide. I only have an issue because you’re talking about a food that literally every single civilization discovered independently, so bread as we know it, isn’t bread as an all encompassing concept.
It’s great to learn because after a while you can start experimenting and making things you don’t have a recipe for. I kinda have a “memory” for tastes so I can just think about how things might go together so I just kinda make up dishes now. I mean I’m sure I’m not making something unique, but it’s all without a recipe. Or if you are lazy and are craving something you can just make it instead of having to go out lol I’ve made many “cakes” because I was craving something sweet but didn’t have anything around just by knowing how it’s done having done it before.
I always keep some easy prep boxed meals or whatever on hand for when I’m feeling really lazy.
Use those as a base and spruce them up with spices, veggies, meats, or even just swapping out one thing on the instructions for another to give some added richness or texture.
Half from scratch can be just as good as from scratch, especially when you’re tired and hungry AF and you’ll still have the satisfaction of making the dish “your own”.
The issue is I don’t want to
Using a fucking PC properly.
I am engineer enough to use my fucking PC in whatever fucking way I want without some fucking smart-pants telling me what to do. Have a fucking nice day!
That’s the fucking spirit! Have a fucking nice day too!
People have said “critical thinking”. I agree, but we can be more specific than that:
- Formal logic to think clearly
- Relational frame training to think fluidly
- Human cognitive bias awareness and mitigation strategies to avoid magical thinking or otherwise systematic cognitive errors
- Discourse Analysis to be critical of any message https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LKiaYBVAEUk&pp=
- Mindfulness and acceptance skills to engage with what our thoughts and body tell us, regardless of whether it’s painful or difficult
- Visible Thinking Routines to make thinking and communication with others easier
- Research design (Joseph A. Maxwell) and system design (How to Design Programs) to seek information critically and how to systematically tackle challenges
This covers so many other things.
My usual specific go-to is how to search the internet for things. But not knowing how to search for hyper-specific things is the symptom of a lack of critical thinking skills.
other things
Interesting. So you’re saying that critical thinking is not what I mentioned, but rather it is something different (an “other thing”). What would you say critical thinking is?
Not at all, I’m saying that many smaller problems people often cite are simply symptoms of a lack of critical thinking.
Ah. It sounds as if you’re saying that critical thinking skills are the base of many skills. That’s actually an interesting issue: could you increase skills by skill and end up with someone that is a critical thinker? Or is critical thinking something fundamental that naturally manifests in many different skills?
Yeah, not revolutionary - critical thinking is a skill that’s fundamental to so much else. Its like learning to read or cook. The base skill let’s your learn more.
Fair enough. If it is fundamental, it affects many things. How do you think it’s best taught or developed? What are the specific activities that you as a teacher or as a student would do to improve it?
Not sure, other than a general combo of “question everything” and understanding the scientific method. I’ve never had to teach it before.
