The importance of critical thinking cannot be understated. It is a necessary and vital tool to have in your life’s toolkit. Why is that? It is because when you are thinking critically about something, what you are really doing is thinking with good reason; you are thinking with clarity and with logic.
When you are in college, everything is intensified. All the decisions you make, both big and small, carry more weight and have more consequences. It is more important than ever at this point in your life to make sure you are thinking well and making good judgments.
Making intelligent decisions in any area of contemporary life requires, above all, thinking critically. This capability enables one to evaluate situations accurately, without emotion or bias, and to decide what to do next. In an emergency, for example, it allows a doctor to make the right call. It also plays a crucial role in day-to-day life, whether we’re deciding which cereal to buy, which car to drive, what kind of person to date, or which politician to elect. And it’s this thinking skill that most people now believe needs to be taught.
Besides, the importance of problem-solving cannot be overemphasized. You must be a critical thinker if you want to solve problems in any real way. Problem-solving is a very fundamental part of what human beings do. We have been solving problems all our lives and, as we become adults. We are faced with more significant problems that require us to solve them.
Moreover, critical thinking encourages the growth of analytical abilities that let individuals dismantle intricate problems, identify patterns, and uncover trends. These are exactly the kinds of skills one needs (and can cultivate) to make sense of any huge amount of information dumped into one’s cognitive space. And these are also the kinds of skills one needs to draw the right conclusions or formulate an informed opinion. More than ever, in this age of big data, we need these abilities.
Critical thinking is a very important aspect of being a good communicator. In perfecting our critical thinking, we can articulate our thoughts and ideas in a manner that is cognitively structured, and in so doing, present ourselves effectively. When we engage in meaningful dialogue with others, we have to pay attention to two things at once—what we are saying and what the other person is saying. The ability to think critically allows us to keep those balls in the air and is, therefore, essential to our prowess as communicators.
Moreover, thinking critically promotes not only creativity but also innovation through the means we have just described. It can do so because it heightens the chances of poor decisions by demanding a purer level of rationality and through the syncopations of its different modes of thinking (e.g., the divergent streak pulls off some jazz riffs), poor decisions that can then spur creative and innovative leaps that set poor decisions right and make them instances of eureka! The thinker who questions a think-poorly-of-until-you-have-sufficient-reason-to-think-better-of-it declaration just might come up with something.
Several strategies can be used to heighten our critical thinking abilities. One is to be inquisitive; to think like a detective seeking evidence for or against a proposition; and to always be ready to ask ‘Why?’ Employing intellectual modesty is another potent strategy. We should be willing to say ‘I don’t know,’ at least on occasion. Yet, within that space of admitting our intellectual limitations, we should also be looking for opportunities to grow—to increase our knowledge of the world and our understanding of what goes on in it. There are few problem-solving and decision-making sinks as deep as the bottom of the well labeled ‘intellectual humility.’
To summarize, critical thinking is a must-have ability in life. It helps you work through the tough spots and lets you see things you might otherwise miss. Though we use the phrase “critical thinking” a lot, we don’t often stop to think about how important it really is. With it, you can make good decisions. Without it, your decision-making might be a lot worse. Whether one is a doctor or a house-seller, a well-honed critical thinker is a better performer. Learning how to think critically is like learning how to be a better surgeon. It is the way into a better understanding of many things.
