The Power of Critical Thinking

How asking yourself 6 questions can drastically improve for problem solving.

I’m sure you remember the 6  question words in English.  Who, When, Where What, Why and How.  Asking yourself these questions when you are problem solving will improve your problem solving abilities and yield better solutions because if you practice this, you are essentially practicing critical thinking.

When I have a problem to solve, the first question I ask myself is why.  Why do I want to solve this problem? I keep asking this question until I get to the root of my problem. I do this because I want to make absolutely sure I am focused on my real problem and not some related but non-essential problem.  For instance, if I want to try to make it rain, I would ask myself why. Because I want water on my field. Why? Because if the field doesn’t get water, my crops will die and I will die of starvation. Great – now I know my real problem is that I need to get water on my field. Making it rain is a possible solution, but not the only one.  This also helps me be properly motivated to solve my problem, because, I now know why it matters that I solve it.

The next questions are What.   What causes my problem? What might work to solve my problem? These are brain storming questions, but also skeptical questions. I want to make sure my problem solving is based in reality as that will give me the greatest opportunity for success.  By figuring out what might be causing my problem, I can also figure out what might work to solve it.

Now I need to ask myself How. How do I know that. This is a skeptical question to make sure I double check whether what I think I know about what is causing my problem and what might solve it is even true.   I can also ask How, to think about problems with implementing any potential solution.

The When and Where questions are very useful. Sometimes the solution to my problem is to wait. Not now, but then. Where is also useful because what I might want to do can’t be done where I am, but if I move? Maybe.  These are critical questions to developing a winning strategy.

Finally, the question of Who.  Who is going to implement my solution?  If it isn’t me, I am relying on someone else. That can often work and it is always very helpful. But ultimately, you need to be responsible for solving your own problems.

How to be Proactive

Why be responsible? So you don’t make mistakes and you fix problems promptly.

What does it mean to be proactive and why should you care? Proactive behavior means anticipating problems and fixing them before they happen. It contrasts with reactive behavior which is all about fixing the problem after it occurs.

What does this have to do with Humanism? Humanists spend a lot of time thinking. We think about what is ethical. We think about how to be compassionate. We think about responsibilities and more. The reason we do all this thinking is not so that we end up in thinking limbo, but so that we can be proactive in our lives.

We all make mistakes. As a Humanist, I would prefer to avoid the avoidable mistakes if at all possible. I know the only way to do avoid making mistakes is to think about the problems and the potential problems I am likely to make before they actually become problems. This allows me to not only avoid making mistakes; it also allows me to fix problems promptly when I do make them. Because I expect to make them and so am proactive in dealing with them.

To me, this is what it means to be responsible. It is also the answer to the question, why be responsible? If you want to be successful you need to avoid as many mistakes as possible and to do that, you have to be proactive and responsible for avoiding and correcting your mistakes. This is why we Humanists think so much and spend so much time thinking about how we think.

Why be responsible and learn how to think well? So you can proactively fix problems so that you don’t make mistakes in the first place.

What is the most common mistake you make and what do you do to avoid it?