One of us or one of them. Liberal or conservative. Top down or bottom up. Progressive or retrograde. Robust or fragile. Pro something or anti something.
The world is an orange and it is cut in two halves. You must be on either side. But only one.
It’s an easy thing for the tired mind. There are only two shelves and you must file in either. But you must choose one.
This is not just a simple anecdote. It has tremendous consequences. What if the opposite of progressive could be also non-regressive? The opposite of fragile, anti-fragile (Nassin Taleb [1] dixit), and any other option beyond A or B?
Bipolar thinking is dangerous and, always, a sign of poor critical thinking. It’s a Descartes infection that needs to be repelled.
Rejection of bipolarity does not mean wild post-modern relativism, where anything is possible and nothing stands as ‘the truth’. Regardless the philosophical or even religious connotations (true/false vs. ‘it depends’), bipolar thinking is simply bad thinking. Full stop.
Anything presented to us as a bipolar choice should smell bad. It’s a cheap shortcut. We can do better. Our minds can do better.
Agree or disagree?
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Critical Thinking [2] Accelerator from The Chalfont Project:
At The Chalfont Project, we have crafted a short intervention on Critical Thinking [2]:
- Do you feel like you’re missing the time to reflect and makes changes?
- Do you feel like your team has fallen into bad habits, business is unproductive and no one takes ownership to change it?
In this short intervention we teach you and your team Critical Thinking methods and questions that will help you focus your time on the things that matter, make good and fair decisions and escape the dangers of human biases. We will also help you apply these methods to your everyday challenges in your organization.
You will learn about strategy acid tests and many mind fallacies, including various biases, and the practical Critical Thinking methods that you can use to address these.
This high impact, short intervention will:
- – challenge ways of thinking
- – provide immediate and trackable actions
- – drive change
- – develop a better way of functioning across the team, department or organization.
Contact us [3] to find out more information or discuss how we can support your business.
