Book: 20200705 to 20200724, "Asking the Right Questions" by Neil Browne

"Asking the Right Questions-A Guide to Critical Thinking"

20200705 - 1. Asking the right questions: advantages, approaches and right techniques

This chapter is the introduction of this book.

Critical thinking is not easy. We need the right attitude, approaches and techniques.

One of the reason that people don't agree with each other, is because they have different priority about their "values". So, quite often there is no correct answer. We have to wait for long time to see the result.

I think this book basically tells us how to go through illusion and see the real world, by asking correct questions. That helps us to improve our perception.

20200706 - 2. Critical thinking: hindrances and intrusions

Slow down. We need to minimize fast thinking, and maximize slow thinking. With the help of routine, in many cases we can remove "thinking" completely. Of course, we need slow thinking to set up best routine.

The best way to avoid those hindrances and intrusions, I think, is to admit our ignorance, is to admit that we might be wrong.

We need to listen carefully, and then think carefully.

20200707 - 3. Issues and their conclusions

This chapter is a bit easy to me.

I think the easy way to identify conclusion is trying to insert "because" into the paragraph: Conclusion because of the supporting reasoning.

Two types of conclusions: descriptive and prescriptive one.

Conclusion is always the answer to an issue.

20200708 - 4. Identifying the reasons

Backward reasoning is the major issue to me. We should always consider the reasoning first, then get the conclusion.

That means we should not insist with our opinion, keep open to embrace changes.

20200709 - 5. Recognizing ambiguous words and phrases

Critical thinking grant us the skill to ask important questions to clarify issues, but it's still hard. It's very hard to understand the real meaning of the speaker or writer.

The capability of critical thinking also depends on our knowledge and perception. The more we know, the easier to tell the truth.

Ambiguous words and phrases are part of our illusion. We need to clarify the meaning to see the real world.

20200712 - 6. Evaluating value and descriptive assumptions

People have different value priority (values). Based on this difference, we get different conclusion from same facts.

It's hard to say which value priority is better than the others. In different context, we should choose different values. This means, no one is always correct, and we need reminding from other people before making decisions.

Descriptive assumptions are another type of ambiguity. These assumptions are actually our illusion, which are different from real world. So, if we are not aware of incorrect assumptions, we will make wrong move. Many assumptions are just not "complete".

20200713 - 7. Fallacies in reasoning

I think there is one tip to recognize all fallacies: keep conclusion in mind, then check those reasoning and make sure they support the conclusion. Fallacies means those reasoning don't support conclusion.

Why fallacies affect us so much? It is because our mind get distracted. We were thinking too much about the reasoning, and forgot about the aim.

Isn't this just like what we got in our life? We pay too much attention to trivial daily activity, and forgot about what we really care about.

202007015 - 8. Evaluating evidence: intuitions, case examples, testimonials, and appeals to authority

This book tells us how to avoid traps. However, it doesn't help us to find the right direction.

It's traditional smartness, but not the real wisdom.

Comparing with "the first principle", it's a shortcut to prevent mistakes, but only "the first principle" can help us understand the real world, although it needs a huge amount of study.

20200720 - 9. Evaluating evidence: personal observation, research, and analogies

Nothing is absolutely dependable. We have to slow think about the evidence before accepting it.

Bias and mistakes are everywhere.

What we really can trust is science, including Math, Physics, Chemistry, etc. Statistics is powerful, but we still need to be careful about the sampling and analysis.

20200721 - 10. Likelihood of rival causes

The chapter touches the core again.

How to explain some phenomenon? What is the real cause?

There are many causes contribute to the result, and quite often "luck" plays big part of it.

Real world is not simplified laboratory. It's chaos. Although we may figure out the major factors, but it's hard to guarantee that the same result will appear again with other factors.

So, it's more about probability.

The more we understand about this world, the more likely we would figure out the correct cause.

20200722 - 11. Detecting deceptive statistics

Statistics is almost the most dependable evidence to me. However, after reading "Thinking, fast and slow", I learned that small sampling almost gives us random result.

Apart from that, from logic point of view, there are also a lot of traps when use statistics for reasoning.

It's good to learn that average includes mean, medium and mode.

20200723 - 12. Omission of important information

Potential negative impact is part of the "omission of important information".

The key is to understand the critical point of the issue.

First principle doesn't mean we need to know all details, but where the critical point is. So we can spend time on it to figure out the most important details.

How to figure out the key point? It needs a lot of reading and thinking.

20200724 - 13. Plausibility of reasonable conclusions

We can get almost any conclusion we want in different contexts.

Then, again, it's based on our understanding about the world, to choose the one we believe.

Critical thinking is not for identifying other people's flaw in their thinking, but for ourselves to improve our mind sharpness.

Only the right attitude leads to right direction.