From the course: Critical Thinking

The importance of critical thinking

From the course: Critical Thinking

The importance of critical thinking

- Let's look at the importance of critical thinking. So many times when people ask us can you solve this problem, we rush off and start solving it without stopping to think before we do. We're facing new demands that require extensive amounts of information before we can make a decision. As part of your problem solving process, there are going to be multiple stakeholders involved. This increases the complexity of trying to get to an answer. When you do ultimately come up with a recommendation, those big decisions will involve numerous trade-offs. Not everyone is going to be happy with what you recommend. There are going to be long lag times in acquiring the required data to make your decision, and when you finally do make the call, there's going to be high scrutiny over whether you are right or wrong, and a bad call can have both business as well as personal and professional implications. Add to this unforeseen bottlenecks in getting to that answer, multiply it by the number of problems you're trying to solve every single day, and then divide by the limited amount of time you have to get to an answer. The importance of stopping and thinking critically before you rush off and undertake all these very comprehensive efforts is very high. That critical thinking process is what's going to differentiate you and the solutions you develop versus rushing off without any thought at all.

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