Critical Thinking

A big part of effective decision making involves the use of critical thinking. What is critical thinking? It is the ability to challenge your and other’s assumptions and biases.
Critical thinking is not really taught in our educational system very well. We are taught to memorize facts and feed them back. We’re never really taught how to question the assumptions we and others make. Some people do challenge assumptions; they are skeptical by nature. But most of us, unless the facts or ideas presented are truly outrageous, will accept an assumption without too much trouble.

The Socratic Method, from the Greek philosopher Socrates, used to be taught many years ago. It is still a part of legal education. It is learning through asking a series of questions until you arrive at some knowledge. It is kind of like a 4 year old constantly asking you “Why?” until you get to a point where you really can’t answer. That’s when the 4 year old may have sparked a challenge to one of your dearly held assumptions. Critical thinking is just that: asking both the right questions and enough questions to arrive at the truth.

When faced with an important problem or decision, it can be very valuable to question your underlying assumptions. For example, perhaps you are beginning the process of selecting a college. You just assume, because it is “what everyone does”, that you should go to college. However, your assumption may not be right for you – perhaps a trade school would be a better path for you. Or, if you decide to choose a house, perhaps your assumption that home ownership is appropriate because it’s the “American Dream” is not the path for you. Perhaps renting, or living on a boat is the right path for you. These ingrained assumptions, part of our social norms, are not often aggressively challenged.

A crucial part of the decision making process is stating the decision, or problem, correctly. DecisionPlanner asks questions and asks for your objectives to try and help you clarify the decision – its scope, timetable, rewards, and ramifications. Applying critical thinking during this part of the process, challenging your own assumptions, can make a big difference.

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