Critical Thinking: Think Clearly in a World of Agendas, Bad Science, and Information Overload

by Ian Tuhovsky

Here's How You Can Weather The Storm & Start Thinking Clearly!

Let's see the facts. Your mind is under siege.

Every single day, you are bombarded with thousands of news stories, hundreds of fake news articles, secret agendas, and bad science. You need to develop a defense mechanism that will allow you to hold your ground and improve your life.

And the name of that defense mechanism? Critical Thinking!

Imagine if you could develop a new skill that would

Unleash Your Creativity

Encourage Positive Curiosity

Boost Your Problem-Solving Skills

And help you navigate the foggy waters of mass media, online hysteria, and social media angst.

Would You Be Interested In Developing Critical Thinking?

Ian Tuhovsky, the author of this exceptionally-researched critical thinking book, has created a simple, easy-to-follow, critical thinking science guide that will change the way you perceive your world and react to it.

When dealing with the subject of practical critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making, Ian leaves no stone unturned, in order to offer you a clear idea of the importance of critical thinking in your daily life.

5 Key Takeaways From This Game-Changing Rational Thinking

✅  Learn More About Our Biases & Where They Stem From

✅  Understand The Bystander Effect, The Confirmation Bias, The Halo Effect, And More

✅  Discover How Our Biases Are Used Against Us

✅  Protect Yourself From Fake News And Bad Science

✅  Sharpen Your Critical Thinking Skills

That's Not All!

We have entered uncharted waters and it's extremely important to prepare yourself for the perfect storm of fake news, which is certain to develop during these chaotic and uncertain times.

By the time you reach the back cover of this logic book on the basics of critical thinking, you will feel more confident when dealing with problems, and be laser-focused on the things that actually matter.

What Are You Waiting For? Click "Buy Now" & Start Thinking Clearly - Today!

Genres: Nonfiction

133 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 3, 2020

Reviews

[Brian Zondi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book

It is a well written book with great insight on how our thinking is shaped. I would recommend this book to anyone, it is a good book.

[George · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok. But needs further improvement

Good. But not excellent. Started well. Then branched off into other fields. Critical thinking is something that is to be trained.

[Lushr · Rating 4 out of 5]

it’s a good time for all of us, no matter how smart or righteous we are, to check our thinking, and ensure we know the best ways to find the truth amongst the fakery out there these days.

this book does just that. teaches the skills, tells you why, provides evidence. tells you why evidence is important! it is short, easy to read and unbiased.

this skill should be taught in all schools. our kids today are online with extremists of all kinds ready to manipulate the truth and our egos and emotions. no one is safe.

perfectly normal kids are finding themselves in jihadist camps wondering where they went wrong. normally apolitical people are literally storming the gates of our democratic governments.

this kind of action could lead us to following the kind of leaders seen in countries like Chile or Malaysia where people disappear for having opinions, and leaders steal trillions from government coffers. corruption of our minds will lead to corruption of our civilised nations.

i’m a feminist and even i’m seeing friends claim “it’s men’s fault” about things that are NOTHING to do with gender, i see it with race too. this blame culture obstructs our view from actual injustices of race and gender and emboldens right wing extremists who use our mistakes as proof of why we are wrong. because we are! no one is right all the time! and that’s why we need more books like this.

we cannot fan the flames, we need critical reasoning if we are to have a safe and just society to live in.

[Polwanderer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Most of the book is interesting and well thought through apart from the fact that he doesn’t actually tell you how to critical think, but explains the concepts.

Then he seems to fall for the very same conspiracies he starts off warning you about. Doesn’t take his own advice

[Kurt Hoyt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a definite must read!

[Rory Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a well written and informative introduction to many of the central issues within Critical Thinking. The author skilfully avoids the temptation to indulge in abstract Philosophical and logical discussions, instead weaving real world stories to illustrate realistic examples of biases.

Amongst the examples in the book we hear that false assumptions of uniqueness about fingerprints have led to at least 22 cases of wrongful conviction (4%). Share trading in around 26 Stock Exchanges is directly related to the amount of sunlight hitting the trading floor (10%). Victims of crime will potentially get less support if there are more witnesses (14%). And drug trials funded by private companies lead to positive results in 85% of cases, whereas publicly funded trials only do so 50% of the time (68%). And so on...

Each of the chapters deals with a specific set of issues. I was particularly impressed with Chapter 2 and its focus upon interoception, ie the internal feelings and emotions which people experience within themselves. This is a significant set of issues which many similar books omit, but they are important because interoceptive feelings can be linked to senses of ‘intuition’ and ‘innateness’ (11%). However, despite the apparent certainty of such feelings, they can still be surprisingly misleading and fallible. For example, in some experiments people will routinely rate others as “more attractive” when they are doing so in a fearful situation, like standing on a high bridge. This seems to occur because internal feelings of fear and attraction are being confused, due to a common underlying state of arousal. Understanding the potential for such confusion is an important step in learning to mitigate its impact.

Where the book strayed into more philosophical territory, there was an occasional risk of over simplification. For example, we heard that ‘essentialism’ is untenable (10%) because evolution has shown that things change. However, even if it is the case that things change ‘over time,’ this does not mean that there are not ‘kinds’ of things at specific points in time. And more significantly, talk of essences has traditionally been used to explain the common sense observation that at a specific point in time (like 'now') animals such as birds and cows share similarities within their own kinds, despite differing between their kinds.

The second part of the book (58%-85%) changes its tone, to focus upon exemplifying how biases are used to influence specific thoughts and actions. This involves a number of examples of medical and marketing mischief. Illustrating how media bias can arise we hear about the devastation resulting from the 2005 hurricanes Katrina and Stanley. Each was comparably destructive yet Katrina was mentioned 3105 times by the UK media whilst Stanley was mentioned just 75 times. Is that explained by the fact that Stanley affected areas which were much harder for news teams to reach?

Overall I enjoyed the book and I would recommend it to people looking to get into Critical Thinking, especially those without prior exposure to the subject. There are more detailed and more complex books which readers can progress to (like Robert Carroll's "Becoming a Critical Thinker") but this provides a clear introductory overview which equips readers to begin grasping core concepts.