Posts in Critical Thinking

Knowledge isn’t enough – you need daily practice Reading 27 essays about how your brain fails you does not make somebody a critical thinker. It makes somebody a person who… Read More

Intelligence doesn’t protect you from bias – it makes you better at rationalizing Intelligence does not protect you from bias. In some ways, it actually makes you worse at it…. Read More

The less you know, the more confident you feel The less somebody knows about a subject, the more confident they tend to feel about it. This sounds counterintuitive. It isn’t…. Read More

Your brain sees patterns everywhere – but most of them aren’t real Conspiracy thinking feels like critical thinking from the inside. That is what makes it so hard to fight…. Read More

Changing your mind isn’t weakness – defending wrong beliefs is Changing your mind is supposed to be a failure. That’s the cultural story, anyway. Politicians get destroyed for “flip-flopping.” In… Read More

Political tribalism destroys critical thinking – here’s how to fight back Election season is basically a stress test for everything in this series. Every cognitive bias gets amplified. Every fallacy… Read More

The study doesn’t say what the headline claims it says “Coffee cures cancer.” Three weeks later – “coffee causes cancer.” Both headlines were real. Both cited real studies. Neither one… Read More

Applying critical thinking tools to actual policy questions Healthcare policy makes people’s brains stop working. I mean that almost literally. The topic activates so many cognitive biases at once –… Read More

Critical thinking isn’t a destination, it’s a daily practice I believed something for years that turned out to be completely wrong. I thought anecdotal evidence – personal stories and individual… Read More

Ask why until you hit bedrock Good morning! Let’s continue talking about critical thinking! This is part of my Critical Thinking series of essays – you can find the link… Read More

What gets covered and how it gets covered shapes everything Good Morning! Let’s continue talking about critical thinking! This is part of my Critical Thinking series of essays – you… Read More

The plural of “study” is not “conclusion” Good Morning! Let’s continue talking about critical thinking! This is part of my Critical Thinking series of essays – you can find the… Read More