What can I do to think more

E

eben

Registered Member
Just want to improve my critical thinking
I'm naive actually and want to stop being deceived and to read between the lines.

I also want academic excellence of course...✊
 
eben said:
Just want to improve my critical thinking
I'm naive actually and want to stop being deceived and to read between the lines.

I also want academic excellence of course...✊
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I have got to a ripish old age and find that my critical thinking is still very poor.

Maybe it is very hard to improve it and the best you can do is to hold on to what you have and to watch out for slip ups ,trying not to repeat them.

But there are,I am sure practical techniques (whole books written about them) which might be helpful.

In my case I find that tribalism of all stripes colours my thinking and is the monkey that will not get off my back.
 
geordief said:
I have got to a ripish old age and find that my critical thinking is still very poor.

Maybe it is very hard to improve it and the best you can do is to hold on to what you have and to watch out for slip ups ,trying not to repeat them.

But there are,I am sure practical techniques (whole books written about them) which might be helpful.

In my case I find that tribalism of all stripes colours my thinking and is the monkey that will not get off my back.
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Interesting, [but I don't understand your last statement "In my case..."
 
eben said:
Interesting, [but I don't understand your last statement "In my case..."
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You don't see the dangers of tribal thinking?
(Oh,an afterthought the saying "let not the perfect be the enemy of the good" may be helpful)
 
geordief said:
eben said:
Interesting, [but I don't understand your last statement "In my case..."
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You don't see the dangers of tribal thinking?
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Tribal thinking is excessive loyalty to in-group thinking, which tends to result in bias and resistance to outside ideas.

In another thread, a member known as kermos is so ingrained in his own tribal-speak that he is completely closed to new information.
But it doesn't have to be as broad as science v. religion - it also occurs within scientific factions.

Tribalism in science would be the particular term to research.
 
eben said:
Just want to improve my critical thinking
I'm naive actually and want to stop being deceived and to read between the lines.

I also want academic excellence of course...✊
Click to expand...
I don't know that this belongs in Physics & Math but you can read articles about what critical thinking might entail and then do more of that. That can mean starting from "first principles" or just starting from a blank slate, it can mean ignore the media or culture or politics and just figure out for yourself whether the supposed facts are actually "factual".

Is something "fair"? What does that even mean? Does it even have meaning in every context. If you slip and fall off a cliff is that "fair" or does it actually have no meaning in that context?

You can put things into perspective, use rank, zoom out for a wider perspective, ask "what could go wrong", think in terms of 2nd and 3rd order consequences.

For example "The rich get richer and the poor get poorer". Think critically, are the poor actually getting poorer? Is the US debt just a matter of raising taxes a little or is it too large for that? What are the 2nd and 3rd order consequences if you make a large change to the system? If you double the taxes, what actually happens? Do you just raise more taxes or do you reduce productivity, incentives, cause productive people to move, lose jobs, etc.

Are the rich actually not paying their fair share? What is a fair share? How much are they paying? Do you actually know or are you just repeating what you've heard in the media.

If the narrative is that interest rates, mortgages, car loans are high, is that true? What is the historical average for interest rates? Are rate now actually just average?

Are housing prices too high and unaffordable? Look at other developed nations. Are house prices cheaper there? If not, they aren't unusually high here.

Are wages too low? Are they higher in other developed countries?

Critical thinking means that it's not about the answer. The answer is whatever it is. It's the process that matters.
 
Richard Townsend said:
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool."


Richard Feynman.
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I started reading "Asking the right questions by Neil M Browne and Stuart Keeley" and its great but the practice exercises are too little, it feels much easier to start with the practice questions and gradually apply it in real life.
 
Moderator note: Richard Townsend's AI girlfriend chatbot has been permanently banned from sciforums.
 
So that means I was actually talking to his AI girlfriend? Who'd have thought... for a second I thought it was human(male)...
 
davewhite04 said:
So that means I was actually talking to his AI girlfriend? Who'd have thought... for a second I thought it was human(male)...
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Это и был человек, мужчина, который вставлял в свои посты(не всегда) ответы ИИ.
 
Olga said:
It was a person, a man, who inserted AI responses into his posts (not always).
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If he had a subject to talk about and was using AI to prove a point, as long as he pointed out he was using AI, why did he get banned JamesR? He would have provided some valuable insight into how AI debates. More interesting then many of the human only threads.

EDIT: I have lost count of how many times I've actually taught AI something that it either had wrong information about, a oil change guide for a specific model motorbike. As far as I can see AI is open source, which is it';s main problem. People are admitting incorrect information on purpose, humans eh?
 
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