Critical Thinking

The most important skill anybody can have is thinking for themself. This manifests itself in many ways:

• skepticism


• critical thinking


• independent thinking


• insisting on working things out for oneself from first principles

Here's a video by Michael Shermer that covers the basics:



Funny thing... Shermer calls cold fusion "baloney" and he calls skepticism about global warming "baloney". For me, this just proves that you can't take anybody as an "authority". I reject Shermer's claims on both of these. There are credible scientific experts who will tell you that cold fusion is real and that global warming is overblown. The bottom line: you have to find your own way through the world. You have to do the hard thinking. You can't let somebody else tell you what to think. Not even Shermer who is trying to teach you critical thinking.