11 Rules for Critical Thinking

Reflective and independent thinking can be tough these days. With media and internet becoming the source of mostly biased and opinion-based information, one has to isolate his mind for some time to introspect and understand his own opinion about things. Social media on one side is the fastest means to spread a news but it also often propagates highly judgmental views. So, how to discover our own thoughts, not the ones derived from the pre-existing and spoon-fed opinions around us. 

It takes a critical approach to be original and not a mere paraphrased version of the peripheral world. Thinking "out-of-the-box" requires challenging the consensus, not taking the usual route but trying less-popular approaches. I have observed that since childhood, my critical thinking ability has reduced. May be it happens with everyone, you start accepting the general flow and start flowing in the same direction. I was very critical of the world around me. After watching "Terminator", for some time I was sure that everyone around me was a robot and Skynet knew everything about me. All the people I knew were either the ones protecting me or the those who came to destroy the only left human on the planet. Among the destroyers were my school teachers and siblings. Well, this was obviously an exaggerated critical approach to human existence but yes, children have that ability to deny what everyone believes or asks them to believe. They just reject you boldly.

While reading around, I came across "Prospero's Precepts"- 11 rules for critical thinking. These rules are contributions from great minds from history. They have immense depth, and they can serve as guidelines for thinking differently in any matters of doubt. 

1.  All beliefs in whatever realm are theories at some level. 

(Stephen Schneider)

2.  Do not condemn the judgment of another because it differs from your own. You may both be wrong. 

(Dandemis)

3.  Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider. 

(Francis Bacon)

4.  Never fall in love with your hypothesis. 

(Peter Medawar)

5.  It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories instead of theories to suit facts. 

(Arthur Conan Doyle)

6.  A theory should not attempt to explain all the facts, because some of the facts are wrong. 

(Francis Crick)

7.  The thing that doesn’t fit is the thing that is most interesting. 

(Richard Feynman)

8.  To kill an error is as good a service as, and sometimes even better than, the establishing of a new truth or fact. 

(Charles Darwin)

9.  It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so. 

(Mark Twain)

10.  Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong. 

(Thomas Jefferson)

11. All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second, it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident. 

(Arthur Schopenhauer)

Source               : http://www.brainpickings.org/2013/04/01/aka-shakespeare/

Image Source : http://www.copyblogger.com/critical-thinking/

Mean Memes !!

Memes have been flooding over facebook, twitter and almost everywhere else these days. I didn't know how to pronounce it correctly even after using it several times. For those who still don't know, it's not "meh-meh" but "mi-m" or "meem". 

Google says meme is "an image, video, piece of text, etc., typically humorous in nature that is copied and spread rapidly by Internet users, often with slight variations." Wikipedia rather gives a complicated theory behind its origin and usage. Who cares where and how they originated but they sure are entertaining. I came across some of the meanest and bang-on memes. They have a message from the society and to the society, with the perfect balance between humor and irony.

Some of the best I found... Enjoy :) 

• This is a fact. Not a single bunk is 100% successful. There is always a "Chatur" in every class.

• Brain vs beat, fight unresolved. Brain is the practical one while sentiments matter more to the heart. Althought a research says that the heart has it's own brain (http://in5d.com/the-heart-has-its-own-brain-and-consciousness/). May be that's why I listen to my heart mostly. 

• The Creator of this planet was clever enough to add ingredients like "light skinned people", "medium skinned people", "dark-skinned people", birds, insects, reptiles, tress etc. "Jerks" were added for fun I guess.

• I believe him!

• This one is just very funny, not sure what it implies though.

• Don't know who was more stupid, the human or the alien.

• It's designed for humans. If I consider vice-versa is true, there are many aliens living among us. The company claims that the phone is inspired by nature and is designed for human emotions. #IdontBelieveIt

• This one is really ironic and shows how virtual kindness is nothing as compared to real help and sympathy. 

• "Capitalism is the astounding belief that the wickedest of men will do the wickedest of things for the greatest good of every one." - John Maynard Keynes

• No offenses meant to iPhone users. But isn't that true? 

• Women!! :D

Source: Quora

Procrastination- An extract from the life of a B.Tech student

I was waiting for the weekend to write another post. Not that I was busy, I just could not start working, stuck in the "making-up my mind" phase. Procrastination doesn't spare anyone. Following is a short expression (it's quite long actually) of how a typical engineering student prepares for a test in college. 

I have a test tomorrow, need to score good in this one because others didn't go well. There is a full day and full night to go so I am relaxed. I plan out my schedule, decide to start preparing from today evening after having sufficient sleep to pull an all-nighter. But no, I have to go to the market to buy some stuff I have been postponing and better to do that today because I have to "study" later. I go to the market, and I find some really cool stuff too which wasn't there earlier so I have to buy that (Obviously!). I come back by 5 pm. I should have started preparing by now but I can't because I had to sleep to be awake at night. So I sincerely set an alarm to wake up after exactly 2 hours of sleep. After having a a very good nap I wake up hungry, but how can I be hungry? Because it's dinner time already. May be my alarm tone was so charming that it sent me into an "inception dream" (there is no such thing, don't Google it!). #MovieReference

Dinner lasts for another hour, find some friends on my way back from hostel mess to my room, had to ask their preparation status. They say they haven't started, I know they are lying. Yeah, I have a lie detector fixed in my head; I borrowed it from Nick Fury. So I am a little tensed now, just a little. But I am confident enough; it's just a small test. 

What do I need now? I start looking for notes to study from. I had them yesterday but can't find them now. Oh! I had lent it to a friend for photostat, I didn't get it back. I sprint to her room, ask for my notes. She is a fellow procrastinator; she is watching Friends (the tv series) to freshen up "before" starting to study. We discuss the episode and some other local gossips and another hour passes. I get the notes but I need coffee for maximum concentration. Got coffee now, all is set, I settle down and seriously go through the index, mark the pages to study and happily cross the ones not to be covered. Suddenly my phone beeps, some discussion has started on the group chat regarding the syllabus. They say another chapter is also included in tomorrow's test syllabus. Little more stressed I skip the introductory part of the chapter, let's start with the important topic. I go through the text, didn't get it, read it again. Nah! Still nothing. I need to google it, I am lost in phone now and have to check facebook occasionally because my friends are commenting on my profile photo so I have the moral obligation to reply them. 

So, this topic seems tough, it has a derivation which has five sections. Doesn't seem important. I skip the topic for morning. This continues for few hours. It's quite late now but I haven't done much. Feeling tired, I decide to take a short nap because I care about my health so much (only when it's not required). I'll get up in half hour and finish everything. To my disappointment I wake up half + three hours later. Sun is out already, my heart skips a beat. The test is in about two hours. Feeling horrified, I call a friend and get a list of expected questions and FAQs. I have no time now, but I can see the topics mentioned in these questions. Ultimately I haven't even covered half of the syllabus. I reach college and try to grab the seat closer to the geeks so that I can peek in their sheets. 

Finally, I write the test, trying to extract the most of my poor photographic memory. Hoping for the examiner to be either lazy or too happy so that he just misses the fact that none of the answers make any sense, here I am, proud of my "hard work".

Everyone’s story might differ from this but more or less it will be the same. Temptations and distractions overpower our minds very easily. Beating procrastination would require strong commitment and today with so many distractions around it's tough for students to be consistent with hard work. And why should we be, when last day studying gets us good marks. Thanks to our awesome education system where "if you cram, you top the exam". Procrastination has been a by-product of such system. Obviously, why to cram every day when it can be done on the last day. 

Sarcasm? ..Why not !!

I consider sarcasm as one of best ways to express irony, an art of expressing the situation in an amusing manner. Yes! It might hurt the audience sometimes but if the speaker worries about people getting hurt, sarcasm loses its soul i.e. "audacity". It cannot be described as strictly hurtful or aggressive humor. It is a form of expression that prevents you from lying, gives you courage to say what is right but in a comic manner.  I am a firm believer in sarcasm. I use it as a tool to initiate conversations and sometimes to dodge them too. It helps me speak my mind. 

Sarcasm is often called the lowest form of wit or humor. But it's so much more fun in saying the opposite of what is happening at the time. If my friend is lurking around doing nothing, I would prefer saying "Dude, you look really busy!" rather than saying "You are so idle". 

 

It's not always possible that the person at the receiving end of sarcasm is also witty enough or in a mood to take it. He might turn out to be Sheldon Cooper. It might cause problem sometimes. Once my friend was upset due to low score in an exam, and I greeted her as "Awesome, I am impressed. How did you manage?" She did hit me with the thickest book she had, but later we had a good laugh.

What I mean to convey here is, we can't speak truth all the time. Sometimes we can just satirize the situation. If someone shoots sarcasm at you, reply back with sarcasm 2.0. Believe me it's harmless if you have right crazy bunch of people around you. Getting punched on the nose once in a while is fine by me. Yesterday I was in an elevator with another girl; she pressed the button for 4th floor and looked too anxious to reach there. She re-pressed the button for about 4 times till the lift was about 1st floor and that was the point I couldn't control the urge to speak. "Yeah, I think now it should accelerate." I often do it, shoot sarcasm on people before thinking whether they will catch it and laugh or just punch me back. But thankfully she laughed and also didn't press the button again. 

Well, I am no Chandler Bing, he is the ultimate God of sarcasm. But yes, I often use sarcasm as a shield from those annoying people who can't bear blunt truth and also don't usually understand sarcasm. This is how I choose to be. I can avoid getting too serious about things by being sarcastic and so can you. 

We always need a defense mechanism against the dull world out there. So, let's be witty and take those punches head-on !!