Let’s face it. Critical thinking is all about structured thinking.

It is like the financial modelling we do on Excel sheets by inserting data in a chart and arriving at conclusions that look sane because many others have been there and done that.

It applies well to problem-solving, decision-making, learning, research, and analysis. It can help us build a structure for social interactions or resolve workplace challenges.

BLOCKS TO CRITICAL THINKING

Emotions interfere most with critical thinking. They cloud judgment because how you feel at that moment does not correspond to the known model. And you emerge looking like an iconoclast because you disrupted an established model.

Confirmation bias, anger, fear, sadness, disappointment and excitement are all hindrances.

Governance would be complex if more people followed instinct, so we tend to curb that behaviour. After all, how many theories can research generate? How will you hypothesise or conclude without a historical pattern to fall back on?

IN SUPPORT OF CRITICAL THINKING

I’m not a supporter of anarchy. Emotions are unreliable because they change. Seeing the same situation from a different perspective may generate a different emotion. Do we keep revising theories and conclusions, then?

This is precisely what plays havoc with financial plans. Try to convince a client that real estate is not liquid enough for his needs or that gold should not form more than 5% of his portfolio, but a desire for social esteem and leaving a legacy pulls him in other directions. The only answer that financial planners espouse is always to have a Plan B. Do I believe that the same mindset can generate a different Plan B with a different logic simultaneously? Or do we need someone to play the Devil’s advocate to make him see the other side?

LOOKING AHEAD

Get what I’m arriving at? Critical thinking needs a Devil’s Advocate. What if X does not happen or Y happens?

Critical thinking is needed only to arrive at solutions in a structured environment to achieve a predetermined goal. It can earn you corporate governance or management awards or catapult you to higher realms of scientific thought.

Life moves ahead in the by-lanes with stories that people tell themselves.

The kind of critical thinking I’d love to see happen project ideas into the future and determine feasibility. Maybe nine out of ten will fall flat, but the one that succeeds will propel the world ahead.

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Friday Faithfuls at MLMM