In this article 50 critical thinking tips, everything you need to know to improve your critical thinking skills:

Learn logical fallacies until they’re second nature and you can recognise them anywhere

Learn cognitive biases (same as above) Learn debiasing techniques

Learn heuristics (same as above)

Study psychological effects and their impact upon your perception Naive realism Backfire effect Belief perseverance Continued influence effect The illusory truth effect Illusion of transparency Illusion of asymmetric insight Reactance Schadenfreude

Identify which logical fallacies/cognitive biases/heuristics you’re most guilty of and seek to avoid them

Ask critical thinking questions of everything you read, watch and listen to

Practice intellectual honesty and avoid intellectual dishonesty

Learn the difference between Deductive vs Inductive vs Abductive reasoning and arguments that are valid and invalid, strong and weak, sound and cogent

Build your own toolbox of mental models and start using them The map is not the territory First principles thinking Second order thinking Probabilistic thinking Inversion Opportunity cost Law of diminishing returns 80/20 rule Premortem

Become familiar with philosophical razors Occam’s razor Grice’s razor Hanlon’s razor Hume’s razor Sagan standard Hitchen’s razor Newton’s flaming laser sword

Think for yourself, don’t let anyone tell you: What to think What to believe What to like/want/value What the facts are What the truth is Don’t be intellectually lazy. You have a brain so use it

Apply critical thinking to your sacred cows God Jesus Buddha Krishna Shiva Muhammad Your guru/religious/spiritual teacher The Bible The Quran The Bhagavad Gita



Instead of only using critical thinking and skepticism to attack and defend against the things you don’t like

No belief

No holy book/religion

No person

No subject

No teaching

Should be off limits, or safe from criticism, questioning or scrutiny

In fact, lots of people feel certain about lots of things:

The earth is flat

9/11 was an inside job

The dinosaurs never existed

The Illuminati rules the world

The world is run by shape shifting reptilians

Jesus will return and the world will end within this lifetime

But that doesn’t make them true does it. How you or I or someone else feels about something, has nothing to do with the reality of that thing

Be a truth seeker, be intellectually curious, and want the truth more than you want to win arguments, or to be “right”. If you’re intellectually lazy, don’t care what’s true, don’t know and don’t want to know – forget it

Avoid black and white, either/or, all/nothing thinking

Watch out you’re not oversimplifying complex issues, or offering overly simplistic solutions to complex problems

Understand: The relativity of wrong (not all answers are equally right or wrong, there are degrees of “rightness” and “wrongness” e.g. there is a huge difference between the spelling of “CAT”, “KAT” and “XQW”)

Factor probabilities into your decision making. Yes, anything “could” or “might” happen if you make that decision, but what will most likely happen? What will probably happen?

Learn the scientific method (the most reliable way we currently have of knowing truth) Make an observation Ask a question Form a hypothesis, or testable explanation Make a prediction based on the hypothesis Test the prediction Iterate: use the results to make new hypotheses or predictions

Learn the difference between science and pseudoscience. Pseudoscience is: Something you would find in a mind/body/spirit or new age bookstore: astrology, numerology, tarot cards etc. instead of in a scientific journal Makes claims which cannot be verified, falsified, tested, or reproduced, which defy the laws of nature, especially those of a mystical, spiritual, or supernatural nature, and are greater than what modern medicine and science can provide e.g. a cure for AIDS or cancer (When it is pointed out that the pseudoscience makes claims which go against scientific knowledge, it might be said, “science doesn’t know everything” or “science has been wrong before”) Avoids peer review and outside verification by experts and scientists in the field Based upon very weak evidence e.g. anecdotal, hearsay, rumor, blurry photos, shaky videos etc. Cherry picks evidence to support its claims, and is quick to deny, dismiss, explain away or ignore, any disconfirming evidence (pseudoscience only counts the “hits” but not the “misses”) Fails almost all tests (e.g. psychic predictions), doesn’t give any meaningful or specific predictions, also tends to blame failures and lack of results on outside circumstances or the lack of faith or belief of others Claims to be based on “ancient wisdom” (as if that were superior to modern science) Pseudosciences, like religions, don’t change or evolve in response to contradictory or superior evidence and information. The first edition of a book is the same as the last. Even if centuries or millennia have past. Astrology, numerology, palmistry etc. is the same now as it was 2000 years ago Uses a lot of psychobabble and other meaningless scientific-sounding terms, or misuses actual scientific and technical terms and jargon in meaningless ways or out of context Uses terms such as: “Alternative medicine”, “all natural”, “holistic”, “traditional” (just because something is natural, that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily healthy or safe e.g. death and disease is natural)



Pseudoscience examples:

Alternative medicines

Anti-aging creams

Anti-vaccination

Astrology & horoscopes

Bermuda Triangle

Channeling

Crop circles

Dowsing

Faith healing

Flat earth society

Healing crystals

Homeopathy

Natural cures that “they” don’t want you to know about

Naturopothy

Numerology

Palmistry

Parapsychology

Prosperity gospel

Psychic predictions

Reflexology

Tarot cards

Telepathy/Mind reading

The Law of Attraction/The Secret

Ufology

Open your mind – techniques that will help:

Meditation

Mindfulness

Psychedelics (Ayahuasca, DMT, LSD, Magic Mushrooms)

Listening to different perspectives/people who think differently

Seeking out the best arguments and evidence against your beliefs

Making friends with smart people who think differently than you

Read/watch/listen/study things you know nothing about. Variety is always good, and when you learn new things you know nothing about, it activates new neural pathways in your brain and it causes you to think in a new way

Variety. The more variety you have in what you eat/read/watch/listen to/talk about, who you hang out with, where you spend time etc. the more your mind will open to new possibilities

Travel the world to as many places as possible as soon as possible, and if possible, live in another country. The more you travel, the more you will see/hear/feel/experience, and the more your mind will open to new ways of thinking and doing things

Learn Edward de Bono’s six thinking hats and apply them to meetings: