Continuing with thoughts on critical thinking….
‘Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end; then stop’.
That was Lewis Carroll’s advice in Alice in Wonderland. It worked there marvellously.
Real life is a bit more complex. For example, start, develop a bit, rest, ‘sleep on it’, carry on, see alternatives, explore different pathways, seek possibilities, stop again, keep it in the oven, cook the next day, eventually some sort of fully baked idea will come out.
Well, that’s me at least.
But linear thinking is powerful!: ‘Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end; then stop’. Come on. It does not get better that this.
It’s also a trap. It’s all laid out in front of you. You don’t have to think much.
Critical thinking is harder, it’s not all cooked for you, you explore options and criticize assumptions. You ask questions, lots of them. You look for thinking traps. You don’t settle for the obvious.
We can’t afford Lewis Carroll’s thinking.
Perhaps because we are not in Wonderland.
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