During the last few weeks, a friend of mine is actively looking for an employment opportunity. He recently completed his graduation and now he is a full-time LinkedIn leech—devoting endless hours to shine in the professional world.
One common thing about all social media platforms is that people try to broadcast a specific version of their identity:
On Instagram, we pretend to be happening. On Facebook, we pretend to be interesting. On Twitter, we pretend to be virtuous, and on LinkedIn, we all pretend to be bleeding-edge professionals. Using never-heard-before words to impress others.
One such word on LinkedIn is Critical Thinking, almost everyone using LinkedIn is a Critical Thinker. Critical thinking is to LinkedIn what Selenophile is to Instagram, yet only a handful of people understand what it really means. Hell, even I struggled to explain its meaning to my 8-year old cousin a few days ago.
Let us understand what Critical Thinking is?
What it means to be a Critical Thinker
Suppose a new idea or claim is thrown at you— an idea about some controversial social issue. Now, what you do with that idea determines whether you are a critical thinker or not.
If you discard it without considering the validity of its intellectual expanse, you are not a critical thinker.
If you accept it without considering the limitations of its unstated assumptions, you are not a critical thinker.
But if you critically analyze that idea, giving the pros and cons equal attention, you are a critical thinker.
Related: Anatomy of Interesting Ideas
In simple words, critical thinking is about having good reasons to justify your beliefs and being aware of the distinction between good and bad reasons.
The ability to question your beliefs and those of others—to emotionally detach yourself from those beliefs—is at the core of critical thinking.
A critical thinker is aware of the fact that no matter how noble an idea might sound, there are always some underlying assumptions that most people who actively adopt it, ignore. Critical thinking is all about questioning those obvious assumptions, giving fair consideration to both, the supporting and opposing arguments for those assumptions.
It is not that easy though. Most of the time our judgment is clouded by our personal biases. For instance, if you are a hardcore DCEU fan it will be tough for you to digest and agree with facts and arguments against Zack Snyder’s cut of Justice League. Or if you are a Republican, you would never support Joe Biden's policies, even those that are good for society. You are ought to be offended by those arguments without even considering their logical validity.
Related: Reconstruct your Identity!
Biased Slaves
Humans are not rational beings, we are all slaves of our cognitive biases. They govern our decision-making ability and prompt us to make ill-informed decisions.
So, as a critical thinker, your job is to identify your biases and think around them, not through them. To rise above the constraints created by your emotional identity.
To identify those cognitive biases you need to have a detailed understanding of them. So, in the next episode of the critical thinking series, you will learn about some common cognitive biases humans possess.
I appreciate your patience and dedication to read this essay. I am glad you made it through the end. I hope you now have a better understanding of critical thinking and its extensions. In the following essays, we will dive deep to have more nuanced discussions around it.
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Thank you.