Improve your thinking (a practical exercise)

One of the best ways I improved my thinking greatly was to quit lying, even little white lies to save people feelings and such . It freed up so much of my mind no it having to remember who I told what.

The best way I found to teach my children to critically think is in a debate, to defend a belief they don't believe in. The other thing I taught them, is when given information to question the motive.

I didn't realize how inextricably intertwined both thinking and writing were until Jordan kept emphasizing it, despite it being seemingly obvious at face value. That's something that educators need to reinforce. Also, there are law schools that will teach using the Socratic method of asking questions to stimulate thought. I think this type of pedagogy should be employed in other disciplines as well because it's a lot more useful than passively listening to a lecture.

The best way to exercise Critical Thinking for me so far has been to never commit to a side, be it social or political as well as to listen to everybody. Listening to both parties should always be a must no matter what before you form an opinion on X matter. It also enriches your knowledge on the topic you are researching/arguing. I think in the first stages of Critical Thinking you should keep your ears and eyes open and your mouth closed. Variety and detachment.

Three-year olds are pretty good at critical thinking. When you tell them some fact or anecdote they respond with "Why?" It doesn't really matter what reason you give them, they just probe deeper, "Why?" If you want to be better at critical thinking, be more like a three-year old.

1:20 thinking allows our thoughts to die rather than having our actions kill us. Plan out something then look for the hazards before you take action. 4:00 the quality of our thoughts depends on the ability to speak out minds.

Putting my thoughts in writing, and then reading it aloud to myself, is invaluable.

I’m an alcoholic who’s spent the last 7 months of my life sober thanks to God, AA, and Jordan. I’m 40 now and thats the longest stretch of sobriety I’ve had since my mid 20’s. I hope I have the opportunity to thank you in person some day Jordan. Since I’ve been sober I’ve needed to hear a lot of what you have to say. Re-programing my thinking and approaches to people. Fighting my deeply selfish nature and seriously flawed thinking has been freeing, healing, and necessary. Restorative I think you might say. Talking things out with my sponsor is where many of my flawed thoughts go to die and where I’ve learned some correct, or perhaps proper thinking. You are such a gift Jordan.

Mindfulness is the key. Being able to observe your thoughts and know they aren't you.

"if you are merely repeating an accepted script, then to what extent can you say that youre an individual at all". exactly

Critical thinking is simple, but straining. All you have to do is take a statement and imagine a world where it’s true and a world where it’s false. Then, honestly work to find and itemize the essential differences between each of those two worlds and the real world. That’s it. Our personalities automatically choose one comparison automatically, so there’s no trouble there. The hard part is imaging a world where the opposite is true so that could also be compared with the real world (a precondition to what you really want — the two comparisons themselves could be compared). People who are incapable of doing that mental rehearsal or simulation on certain issues are being held emotionally hostage to their biases on those issues and as a result, invariably confirm their biases. Some people almost entirely confirm their biases on all issues and end up grooming themselves into a closed worldview after a while. This acquired disability where emotions, feelings, and proclivities overwhelmingly replace reason is one the bases of totalitarianism.

Our personality is structured by our thought process, and when an individual says they "don't know who they are", i think the more accurate question would be "where they are" in their thought process cause some times you wander to a thinking process you have never encountered before or may have had a belief that you were good with a certain way of thinking.

I have multiple notebooks I use for different personal writing projects. This video has reminded me that I want to be in those notebooks regularly. It’s tough when I work 70hrs/wk with a constantly changing schedule and run a household, but damn if it isn’t important! Thank you as always, Dr. Peterson!

When I was in the Philosophy Department as a student we had papers which both professors and students would get together and present. You have to think through your ideas in order to reject stupid ideas and develop a more reasoned position. Wittgenstein said, Open the Door and then let intelligence in the room. In other words, say what you want to say and then decide whether an idea is stupid or not but in this current atmosphere you cannot open your mouth without being attacked. This is not open discourse and not a way of acting in a Critical Thinking. If you really want to learn Dr. Peterson more about Critical Thinking then Professors Ralph Johnson and Anthony Blair were leading thinkers in this area of Critical Thinking Theory. They wrote a book called Logical Self Defence (LSD) which was well received by all kinds of Critical Thinking Theorists. They were leaders in the world in this area.

I would love to see Dr. Peterson do a segment called “Ask Dr.P” where anyone can come with any psychological problem and he applies his methodology and research in a podcast based answer form. The questions could be filtered and chosen through an email system where anyone is able to send a message but only the most pertinent and frequent questions are the ones chosen by the JBP team.

From watching the docu-film "What the Bleep Do We Know" a few years back, I learned to often become the observer of myself. This helps one gain an objective perspective, as much as is possible, on one's emotional reactions and on responses to others, to circumstances and helps somewhat disarm the thousands of random conscious thoughts going through our mind during all waking hours. From this observational perspective one can modify one's behavior so as to not waste energy on worry and on inconsequential thoughts and concerns thereby freeing one up to live more in the present moment...which ultimately leads to internal peace.

You arelooking better, Jordan. Very glad to see this. The world is better with you around. Thank you...

Great video Jordan. I've been playing on Twitter for the last week and I am amazed at the lack of independent thinking and oftentimes, thinking at all.

Hello, Dr. Peterson. I enjoyed this presentation very much. It explains the dumbing down that we are experiencing in society. Thanks for sharing! Stay healthy!

Listening to Dr. Peterson is like listening to a superb classical symphony. I close my eyes and pleasure my mind by listening to the intellectual splendor of his words. It is perfection. It is divine. It is uplifting.