Critical Thinking

[Frank Beck]

What I thought was a basis for normal human behavior now seems to be quite foreign to some. When I ask people (employees, sales clerks, friends, strangers, etc.) "What makes you say that?" or "Why did you do it that way?" and I'm met with the answer of a 4 year old ("I don't know"), I have great concern for our society. My employees know if they answer with "IDK" they will get a smack down so they default to their Safe Space which is "let me think about that and get back with you."

So here's the So What: I'm looking for a 15-30 minute Critical Thinking survey that I can provide to job candidates and current employees. I'm finding that more often than not employees and prospective employees can't defend their actions and have no clue how to articulate or explain the basis for their decisions. What I'm left with is the assumption that their actions are governed by emotion and "how they feel".

Which sounds like a very confusing way to go through life.

[blucille]

I like this.

As a grammar policeman I would add the following.

Use the following words in a sentence each. Point out any that is not a word.

A lot
Allot
Alot

There
Their
Theirs
There's

Your
You're
Yours

[jaudette3]

This is indicative of poorly educated people. Critical thinking ability should be one of the *major* skills developed by the educational process. An inability to do so leads to so many negative things, including, as you mention, decisions made on a purely emotional basis. It's one of the factors most responsible for the Oxford Dictionary naming "post-truth" as its word of the year for 2016.

And, perhaps most troubling, it creates situational ethics.

Cheers,
John

[RSTarga]

I'm finding that more often than not employees and prospective employees can't defend their actions and have no clue how to articulate or explain the basis for their decisions. What I'm left with is the assumption that their actions are governed by emotion and "how they feel".

Which sounds like a very confusing way to go through life.[/QUOTE]

Frank,
Are you being ironic again?

It is only confusing for those who actually are, "critical thinkers"
It seems to me that in the current environment, going with your "gut", and not the facts, has been a very successful philosophy.

[a911s]

Sadly, in the U.S., this is the norm now...

Going with your gut is great, as long as you have the fundamentals down from real life experience.

[Frank Beck]

This is indicative of poorly educated people.

John, While I don't disagree with you I believe the moral cause is more significant:

Selfishness and narcissism (I am my own god and the center of the universe).

I accept that as an unfortunate reality but still need to recruit the best, most qualified people that I can.




David,
Please define "successful".

[jaudette3]

Frank...

I agree that there is widespread culture of narcissism and selfishness. A lot of causes there I think and lack of perspective is a major one. Another goal of a good education is to establish perspective - a poor education that fails to deliver a wide view of history is culpable as it fails to broaden one's perspective, making them believe they're more important than they really are. Simply learning about the sacrifices that previous generations made in WWII should slow you down a little.

A materialistic culture... The constant hammering from the advertisers telling you that you are the star of your own movie and that not only can you have it all now, you deserve it all now... Parents' over indulgence... Secularism and a lack of humility... As Kurt Vonnegut used to say, "And so on..."

Cheers,
John

[RSTarga]

Frank,
Things must be slow in Scottsdale this week, boring around here too, so I'll bite.
Here is a question to a prospective employee...
If I were to task you with finding the proper cam timing for a 1973 RS, which of the three below listed approaches would you be most likely to use?
A) Put a call into the Psychology Department at a local University
B) Post the question on a relevant Porsche 911 Forum
C) Book a room at a Holiday Inn

Now to your followups:
"So Selfishness and narcissism (I am my own god and the center of the universe)." Hmmm were have I seen this lately?

Please define "successful".You got me there Frank, everyone has their own definition, and this has so many interpretations.
One can be successful professionally, and not so personally, or vice versa. This is one area that is really best left to ones own "gut" feeling, or maybe the Dalai Lama.

[jaudette3]

Ask them this:

You have an 8 gallon container and a 3 gallon container. You need exactly 4 gallons and there is a water spigot nearby. How do you do it?

Cheers,
John

[Peanut]

Frank,

I think many people in our society are just plain lazy. They don't want to invest time, or think any more than is really necessary. In my field, I've worked with a number of jury consultants, and observed quite a few focus groups, mock trials, etc. involving mock jurors. What the jury consultants found is that an overwhelming majority of the jurors don't want to think, and want easy problems.

So... when you say " What I'm left with is the assumption that their actions are governed by emotion and 'how they feel'," I think their actions are governed by a lack of effort, and the desire to connect two dots in the shortest distance possible, hoping it works out, and hoping people like you, won't ask questions. But I am a skeptic.

Merry Christmas!

Scott