Critical Thinking

Use it or lose it.

Photo by Richard Hedrick on Unsplash

Think of a problem.

It can be big like climate change, or it could be small, like what to have for lunch. The little problems don’t require much thinking, and overthinking them might make you miserable. Don’t fall into analysis paralysis about what to have for lunch. Just make a decision and move forward with your life.

But for big problems that require big decisions, we do have a way to tackle them. It seems not a lot of people are using this method, because the problems of climate change, overshoot, inequality, and other seemingly intractable problems are being seriously discussed by a minority of specialists, but not by our leaders.

That is probably because critical thinking won’t give them the answer that they want. But it will give them the answer that they need. Critical thinking often gets you the best answer. But politics and the profits often get in the way.

Definition time.

Critical thinking is simply the intellectually disciplined process of actively applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating information to solve a problem, or answer a question. It involves questioning, analyzing, interpreting, and forming an opinion about about the answer to that problem or question. The goal is to make reasoned judgments based on evidence and avoid assumptions, biases, and logical fallacies.

Put simply, critical thinking is methodically using your brain to walk through a problem, analyze the data and come to a conclusion based on reason - not emotion, or tribal allegiance.

If we use it, it might just save us.

But critical thinking is not encouraged in the halls of power because the conclusion it would come to might just be to tear down the halls of power.

The process.

There isn’t one prescribed way to think critically, but let’s take this seven-step process for the sake of this thought experiment.

1. Identify the problem

2. Investigate the arguments

3. Evaluate the facts

4. What information is most important

5. Consider all points of view

6. Reflect on all the information

7. Make a decision

So, let’s take that framework for critical thinking, and go down the list of the average citizen analyzing a problem and an oligarch analyzing the problem.

1. Identify the problem.

Governments don’t work perfectly.

Citizen and Oligarch are in agreement on this one. This is a thorny problem. Now each of our intrepid thought experimenters will take a crack at solving the problem.

2. Investigate the arguments.

Citizen: Governments are imperfect because they are made up of people with differing agendas and purposes. We need an informed public and branches of government that serve the needs of citizens but also balance each other so that no one part of the government can dominate.

Oligarch: Governments are inefficient because they are not run like my business that I have been wildly successful at, often because I take advantage of government subsidies and pay politicians to see things my way.

3. Evaluate the facts.

Citizen: Governments always need to guard against capture by special interests who will always try to influence the governing process with money and power. The fewer people who influence the governing process, the less the needs of the people are served. The election and governing process needs to have the utmost integrity.

Oligarch: I am not rich or powerful enough. How can I fix that problem?

4. What information is most important?

Citizen: What forms of government are most effective for our situation? What limits should be put on those who represent their constituencies? What power do these officials have? What checks are on that power? How can citizens ensure their voices are heard?

Oligarch: How much does buying this government cost? Do I have that in my wallet?

5. Consider all points of view.

Citizen: All voices of the governed should be heard - within reason, with no group exerting undo influence on the process. We will take painstaking efforts to ensure we take into account all pertinent points of view. This may take a long-time, but governing is a big responsibility, so we have to do this right.

Oligarch: That is going to take sooooo long. Boooring. Just put me in charge.

6. Reflect on all information.

Citizen: We have taken the time to hear everyone’s thoughts on how we can improve government through numerous citizen’s assemblies to arrive at

Oligarch: All my advisors who I pay to tell me I am wonderful say I should be in charge. I have not interacted with a normal human being who does not owe me their station in life in 30 years. I’m sure that isn’t important.

7. Make a decision.

Citizen: Yeah, we need some changes around here.

Oligarch: Congratulations, you are now a citizen of my Techbro country. You have no rights, and my whim is the law.

Okay, maybe that wasn’t fair. I’ve been picking on oligarchs lately, and I couldn’t help myself.

Let’s use critical thinking to look at two very important issues.

Issue #1 GDP growth as a proxy for the progress of a nation.

1. Identify the problem - GDP growth is currently often held out as political and business leaders as a way to measure the progress of a nation. The counterargument states that GDP growth is a poor proxy for the progress of a nation.

2. Investigate the arguments - Pro: GDP measures the cumulative monetary value of all that a country produces. Con: GDP does not value the wellbeing of a country's citizens and does not account for the negative impact of products and services.

3. Evaluate the facts - GDP was created to simply aggregate the value of goods and services sold. It does not take into account negative aspects of some products produced and assumes “progress” is best measured by increases in a country's aggregate wealth. A measure of progress is more complicated than that. The health, education of a country's citizens and the health of a country’s environment matter as well, and an economy that grows, but harms the overall health of its citizens and environment is not sustainable.

4. What information is most important - What is most important is the goal we are trying to set your the country. I chose “progress” for this example, but you could have used the term health of a country, wellbeing of its citizens or something else. Currently GDP growth is what our leaders are incentivized to set as the goal for our countries, as their wealth and power are connected to delivering on GDP growth. If their incentives were set to life expectancy, education, or the overall wellbeing of their citizens, we might have a different world.

5. Consider all points of view - I just looked at a simple pro and con here, but there are of course many positions and many arguments for this issue. So find as many as you can and consider them.

6. Reflect on all the information - Once you have all the information, analyze it, think about it, ask others what they think. Understand that the issue your considering likely isn’t static and will evolve over time. Your thoughts on the issue will evolve over time. Be open to changing your mind as new information comes in. Critical thinking isn’t a something you do once and forget it. It should be part of your thought process all the time.

7. Make a decision - What did you decide? I personally think GDP is an oversimplified and lazy measure of whether a country is succeeding or not. I think we should scrap it and focus on the wellbeing of our citizens. The wealth of those citizens is one important measure, but it is only one. We have focused on only increasing the aggregate wealth of our citizens for so long, due to our myopic focus on GDP, that we have neglected too many other problems. But that is just where my critical thinking has led me. Your conclusions may be different.

Issue #2 The Cleveland Browns will win the Superbowl this year.

1. Identify the problem - Will the Cleveland Browns win the Superbowl this year?

2. Investigate the arguments - There are 32 NFL teams, and the Cleveland Browns are one of them. So, they have a 1/32 chance to win the Superbowl. Right? Right? No.

3. Evaluate the facts - The Cleveland Browns have never been to the Superbowl. The teams record last year was 3 - 14, tied for the worst in the league. The other teams in the league are fielding teams this year, so this isn’t looking good.

4. What information is most important - The Browns are not good and are in a rebuilding mode. As I mentioned, all the other 31 teams are planning on playing, and they tend to be better than the Browns.

5. Consider all points of view - There are people who will tell you that the Browns will win the Superbowl. But these people either work for the team or have stopped taking their meds.

6. Reflect on all the information - There really isn’t the need to. I think we are done here.

7. Make a decision - Not gonna happen. Check back with me in a year.

Critical thinking involves:

Critical thinking gets past the bullshit and biases you may have due to your religion, political party, allegiance to a sports team or other tribal affiliations. You need to be aware of biases that you or others may insert into their arguments that don’t belong there. Throw them away.

If you practice critical thinking, just like anything else you practice, you will get better at it. You will be better able to analyze, assess and use evidence to support a position, or refute a false claim.

Critical thinking also protects you. The world is full of scammers and grifters. Sometimes they are trying to separate you from your money, but sometimes they are just trying to get you to join their cause.

Unfortunately, emotion can get us to set our critical thinking aside, and the need to belong to something bigger than ourselves gets us to set our critical thinking down and believe in that conspiracy theory or magnify that sensational falsehood.

You are part of the only species that we know of in the universe that can think critically. To put that power aside for some trifling short-term pleasure makes you a fool. Don't do it.

So please, use critical thinking to make sense of the world around you. And introduce the young people in your life to critical thinking. They likely aren’t taught it in school, and any screen they are looking at is likely full of news that encourage them not to think, but to just accept the information they are fed.

So, get out there and think critically. And teach others how to do so, especially those that will inherit this world. And if you did use critical thinking to decide what to have for lunch, let me know how that went.