Do You Use Critical Thinking or Counterfeit Thinking?
Posted by Evan Smith on Fri, Jul 23, 2010
Excerpted from an article published by Patrick M. O'Shei in Uncommon Wisdom.
Do you attempt to solve problems with critical examination of root causes and clarity around the objectives -or- do you merely deal a "tried-and-true" solution off your deck of management card tricks?
The episode of the Simpson’s where a lobbyist suggests to Mayor Quimby and the community leaders that all Springfield needs to cure its problems is a “Monorail”, mocks the counterfeit thinking so often employed by politicians in their “pork barrel” funding of projects that have zero possibility of producing the results promised but follow the pattern of similar projects done elsewhere.
As opposed to “counterfeit” thinking, the term "critical thinking" takes thinking in a focused and diagnostic direction as it means "thinking" directed at finding and examining that which is fundamental to understanding something.
Critical thinking is about finding patterns not following patterns. The leap from thinking about something -to- developing an understanding of something is the same as the difference between standing on a pool deck and looking at an object on the bottom -and- diving into the pool, swimming to the bottom and examining the object down there.
To read the full article in Uncommon Wisdom click on Critical Thinking.