Why Crucial Decisions Can’t Be Made in the Blink of an Eye
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Michael R. LeGault
Notes
Critical thinking is a cognitive skill that permits a person to logically investigate a situation, problem, question, or phenomenon in order to make a judgment or decision.
“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
Oscar Wilde
Skepticism, not merely open-mindedness, is required for effective critical thinking.
I call seeking knowledge, not for knowledge’s sake, but for the sake of arriving at a solution that everyone can feel good about, “egalitarian intelligence.” Egalitarian intelligence is the shaping of knowledge and education to fit an individual’s brain, rather than shaping a brain to learn from formal methods of problem solving, deductive reasoning and factual knowledge.
A culture of unaccountability is a culture without incentive, and a culture without incentive is the death of critical and creative thinking.
A successful American politician must first and foremost project a non-egghead persona. He or she must simply connect with the public.
“Information is not knowledge.” The point to extrapolate from Shenk’s analysis is that the information explosion is not leading to better critical and creative thinking; it is largely being used to spout off, preach, or confirm existing biases or flawed thinking.
One of the hallmarks of a good critical thinker is the ability to adjust and add in new information.
…some college educators have noted a shift in attitude of “Millennials” (people born after 1980) toward education and work, with the central expectations being assistance and the view that everything is negotiable.
Students (or for that matter, people) need structure to learn effectively and succeed. The human mind appears to need structure and organization in order to make sense of new information and ideas. Material has to be presented systematically, concepts defined, examples demonstrated and explained.