In a world with a constant and increasing stream of information and messages of all kinds demanding your attention, critical thinking is of the utmost importance. In between everything that gets your attention, there is an increasing chance that it is unsubstantiated and useless distraction. Fake news and conspiracy theories according to one study have increased by 93% in 2019. What stands out as a differentiator is deep and critical thinking.
Key to your critical thinking skill is asking the obvious but also less obvious questions: Why is this so? Why is it important? How does this fit into the bigger picture? How can I make use of it? Who else might be interested?
Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact; everything we see is a perspective, not the truth – Marcus Aurelius
But critical thinking goes beyond asking questions and challenging assumptions. A person with advanced critical thinking ability is a person who is highly observant, able to analyse and solve problems, make good inferences, reason well and be creative in planning for the future.
As a practical example of how critical thinking can be applied, you could evaluate your contributions to your work organisation. List all the different ways and evaluate the impact they have on the overall progress. Then come up with ideas to enhance the effectiveness of your contributions. Self-evaluation is one area of critical thinking that demonstrates its value in practicality.
Dr Gerhard van Rensburg
