How To Improve Your Critical Thinking Skills
Critical thinking is a crucial survival tool in the age of information. Thanks to the internet, a deluge of information trickles before our eyes every single day, so it’s easy to get lost in the endless scrolls of data. And when overwhelmed with information, even basic thinking skills are rendered useless. It’s hard to immerse in contemplation with the constant buzz and pings notifying you of new messages, likes, and posts, right? That is where critical thinking comes into play. And if you need to brush up on your critical thinking skills, you’ve come to the right place.
What Is Critical Thinking? One simple truth of today’s world is that everything is moving at a breakneck speed. As it’s a digital (and informational) era, time and data go hand in hand, and we often feel we cannot keep pace with things in the world around us. To get a sense of the world and process information that directly comes your way, you need critical thinking. So, what is critical thinking exactly? Critical thinking is active thinking or analytical processing of thoughts. The product of critical thinking is a rational and clear understanding of matters at hand without cognitive biases or fallacies. Moreover, critical thinking allows you more freedom and a deeper understanding of the world around you. Compared to everyday thinking which transpires mainly
passively, critical thinking is an active endeavour in which you deliberately seek answers and clarification of things at hand.
4 Ways to Improve Critical Thinking Skills To get in touch with your critical thinking skills, you need to work on boosting them actively. Luckily, there are more than enough ways to do precisely that. Here are the four easiest ways to perfect critical thinking skills.
Avoid Cognitive Biases No matter how hard we might try to be logical and rational, sometimes our brains get the best of us. They act impulsively, recognising seemingly familiar patterns and cutting short our analysis with a ready conclusion. In simple terms, our brains love to jump to conclusions. Jumping to conclusions translates into cognitive biases. Cognitive biases or illusions are fallacious beliefs that arise from generalisation and lack of logical rules. The most famous example is the Gambler’s Fallacy, which refers to a fallacious belief that previous outcomes have an effect on the upcoming outcomes in gambling. If you want to improve the way you think critically, getting rid of cognitive biases and fallacies is vital. In most cases, they are embedded in the subconscious part of your brain, and you might not feel the need to change them – but they may hinder your critical thinking abilities a lot.
Practice by Playing Mind Games Although boosting critical thinking abilities is a fun endeavour, many beginners consider it a tedious task. In truth, it is difficult, as you are faced with some of the trickiest parts of your mind. For real progress, you will need to demolish old cognitive patterns and build new ones and starting anew is a scary undertaking for most of us. But there is a way to make it enjoyable. Games are a unique way to boost critical thinking skills. Puzzle games, board games, and even card games can be of great help for increasing proficiency. Chess, sudoku, or skill-based games like blackjack are great for boosting logic and observational skills. Moreover, playing blackjack is an excellent opportunity to explore fallacious beliefs, starting with the Gambler’s fallacy. Live Casinos is a website dedicated to live gambling games where you can play the game in real-time and watch live action from the comfort of your home. The site
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Research To get from one point to the other, you will need knowledge. And knowledge comes from research. Explore the internet, read, and listen to new information. Using questioning skills and visualisation, you can arrange and organise new data in your head and explore it further. And while you explore, try to see whether you have cognitive fallacies and what they are.
Question Everything When we say, ‘question everything’, we mean everything. And start from the most basic presuppositions, especially ones you think are failsafe. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and doubt, as doubt will lead you to new questions and insights. You cannot learn something new if you don’t ask questions. If you are not used to questioning and doubting, try to visualise the matter you are thinking of. Use Rubik’s cube as the concept and imagine solving the issue by turning the cube’s sides in all possible directions. Rubik’s cube is generally a precious tool for problem-solving, so if you have one at home, try with the real thing.
Parting Words The benefits of critical thinking are aplenty. However, switching your mind to critical-thinker mode is not easy – but feasible. The four methods offered above are just the start.