Critical Thinking

by Flinkliv · Updated Feb. 24, 2023

  1. Why do you need to learn critical thinking?
  2. What is critical thinking?
  3. Examples of ciritcal thinking?
  4. Examples of reverse thinking?


Critical thinking is a skill for life. No matter what way you choose in life, you will always need a clever thinking approach to overcome life challenges.

Critical thinking stimulates curiosity as it encourages you to ask questions, examine, and explore different alternatives to solve problems.

Critical thinking enhances creativity by aspiring you to imagine novel ideas to tackle issues.

Conversation between A and B using the three main critical thinking steps B: Critical thinking helps us to separate facts from opinions A: Yeah

Critical thinking is a process to define, investigate, and assess a situation that could be a conflict, claim, arguments, etc.

The process is in three simple phases:

  1. The description is to describe clearly the subject by defining the goals, boundaries, restrictions, and the subject’s elements (stakeholders). Use the following keywords in this phase: who, what, where, when.
  2. The analysis is to explain how the elements fit in the whole story. Use the following keywords in this phase: how, why, what if.
  3. The evaluation is to assess the options and their impact on solving the issue. Use the following keywords in this phase: so what, what next.
Conversation between A and B using the three main critical thinking steps

Here are examples to improve your critical thinking process:

Conversation between A and B about Description. A: What is the issue? B: I want to start a project. A: Cool, what is holding you back? B: I am not sure.

Example of analysis in critical thinking:

Conversation between A and B about Analysis. A: What if you write down all the project’s tasks? B: Oh!

Example of evaluation in critical thinking:

Conversation between A and B about Evaluation. B: How does it help me? A: It helps you to make a plan.

Example of accuracy in critical thinking:

Conversation between A and B about Accuracy. A: I think it is broken. B: How can we check that?

Example of accuracy in critical thinking:

Conversation between A and B about Accuracy. A: This one is the best. B: How do you know that?

Example of accuracy in critical thinking:

Conversation between A and B about Accuracy. A: I am very smart. B: How can you prove that?

Example of breadth in critical thinking:

Conversation between A and B about Breadth. A: The orange hates us. B: Do we need to look at this from another perspective? Maybe we just need to talk with the orange.

Example of breadth in critical thinking:

Conversation between A and B about Breadth. A: Let’s build more weapons against them. B: Do we need to look at this in other ways? How about de-escalation, dialogue.

Example of clarity in critical thinking:

Conversation between A and B about Clarity. A: It doesn’t work. B: Could you elaborate further?

Example of clarity in critical thinking:

Conversation between A and B about Clarity. A: He always says weird things. B: Could you give me an example?

Example of clarity in critical thinking:

Conversation between A and B about Clarity. A: The device is corrupted. B: Could you illustrate what you mean?

Example of depth in critical thinking:

Conversation between A and B about Depth. A: Let’s colonize Mars. B: Well, what are the challenges to achieve that?

Example of fairness in critical thinking:

Conversation between A, B and C about Fairness. A: Am I considering the thinking of everybody here? B and C: Yeah
Conversation between A and B about reverse thinking. A: I don’t know how to succeed at work B: How about reverse thinking? A: What do you mean? B: Well, think about a list of things that ruins your work, then do the opposite A: Oh! A: Late to work. … mediocre work. … not getting along with colleagues … not helping colleagues … negative attitude … not offering a solution … etc. B: Well, do the opposite of this list, and your chances to succeed at work will increase

Example of reverse thinking:

Conversation between A and B about reverse thinking. A: I don’t know what to study or how to choose the right degree B: Why? A: I want to have a good job B: How about reverse thinking? A: What do you mean? B: Think about a good job you want to have, then look for the education that leads you to it A: Thanks

Example of data science and critical thinking:

Conversation between A and B about Data scientist and critical thinking. A: I am a data scientist. B: How come? A: I took online classes in R & Python and dataviz. B: Data science is more than that.. B: You also need skills like critical thinking, communications, and mathematics.