Ask HN: How do you condition yourself to be more critical

7 points by shotgungg 9 years ago | 8 comments

..of details that are not obvious?

Is there another way to hone critical thinking? this is because I notice myself to be a bit of an under-estimator/optimist. I am very optimistic on things that I see that, at the surface, should be fairly easy, but does not scratch the surface.

I know that at one part, this is due to practice and experience with real life situations, and this is very apparent.

What are your tips about this? do you have any mental framework you work with?

Something that I can share about how I learn is this quote "optimists are pessimists that lacks information". I make sure I have as much information as possible to get to a decision or conclusion.

Looking forward to some great tips.

ankurdhama 9 years ago |

Two things:

1. For anything to succeed you need to have all the factors to be right and for anything to fail you just need one factor to be wrong (aka there are more chances of failure than success).

2. Analyse the failures, don't just get over it. Ask questions about the failure to learn about it so that the learning can help you in future.

Get over the idea of optimism and pessimism, these categories will never ever help you in any situation apart from social talks where people just feel proud/whatever of classifying them in these categories.

shotgungg 9 years ago | |

Very good insight. getting feedback from failures do make one improve.

I shall carry your advice at heart.

somecallitblues 9 years ago |

There's nothing wrong with being an optimist mate. You're much happier in life. You may want to look up Edward de Bono. He has some quite readable books on thinking.

selmat 9 years ago |

Very interesting reading about this topic is in book Pragmatis by William James.

Its philosphy so its not easy reading for relax.

From critical thinking point of view, try to read something about rhetoric. If you know some approaches, try to get in practice and challenge some speakers.

Start with your friends and familly. But I have to warn you...you will not be favorite partner for discussions anymore :-) so don't overdo.

lordkrandel 9 years ago |

I'm a pessimist at heart. What if I had a stroke tonight? Slip in the bathroom, kill someone while driving to work. What if my girlfriend leaves me today. My mother could die tomorrow, my brother can get hurt while working. Optimists live happily through it all, depressed people close themselves in. Realists try to potect themselves by mentally doubling the estimates.

somecallitblues 9 years ago | |

That sounds more like an anxiety than pessimism...

rtuin 9 years ago |

Before giving tips, how do you experience this frame of mind as a problem?

ds2643 9 years ago |

Question your assumptions.