You can often hear discussions about critical thinking. Is it as vital as most specialists say? In fact, the level of development of this skill determines how good the decisions we make every day will be. The more developed it is, the fewer mistakes a person makes. This is a useful skill for work and situations in daily life alike because the cost of a mistake can be too high sometimes.

When can critical thinking decide your fate? 

Non-standard situations 

Most decisions are made automatically every day. We do not think about all the nuances because we use proven algorithms. However, what happens if we encounter any non-standard problem? Templates won’t help here. But if you think critically, you can get away with it even in the most hopeless situation.

Efficiency of performance

At any job, you will have to look for the best way to solve the problem. For example, imagine you work on the instructions of a customer. With developed critical thinking, the result of your work will meet even the most complex customer requirements. This also includes marketing. It is the ability to think critically that will allow you to find the most effective method of attracting new customers. Law, criminology, medicine, business — all these areas require you to be able to make quality decisions.

Student life

The process of obtaining education in a higher educational institution requires considerable effort from each student. Critical thinking will help you complete almost any task, find the necessary arguments for the report, and use the available free time as efficiently as possible.

When is the best time to start developing critical thinking? 

Ideally, begin learning this skill from childhood. First, it is a rather long and complicated process. That is, the sooner one engages in the development of critical thinking, the quicker a person will be able to achieve good results. Secondly, children learn new information fast. Psychologists believe that by the age of 12, kids develop a thinking style. If you succeed in laying the foundations of critical thinking, this will simplify its development in the future. In addition, it will be easier for the child to study at school.

Thus, the child learns to correctly perceive and analyze information, form his/her own opinion and argue it, and adapt to unexpected turns in life. It is also during this stage that children learn to question and verify the information before agreeing or disagreeing with others. The more questions the child asks, the sooner he/she will be able to learn the law of cause and effect, as well as analyze the situation from several angles.

But if you are already an adult who did not think much about the need for critical thinking before, this does not mean that all gone to pot. Read books or even sign up for special courses. This may take some time, but as a result, you will feel the changes. It’s never too late to learn, right?