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CRITICAL THINKING IN THE MODERN AGE
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CRITICAL THINKING/E-INTELLEGENCE IN THE MODERN AGE

Going through the school of ‘thinknology’ is not an easy thing to come by among students and even corporate workers in the business circle. This pivots the topic on a cosmopolitan platform in the audience it attracts - both the old and young, working and undergraduate class.

Thinking intelligence as is otherwise called, is a very critical tool to the survival, happiness and success of individuals in their workplaces, family and life as a whole. It is the process of intentional arrangement of thoughts for wonderful results and performance. Very technical as it is, it encompasses the techniques of discerning what to think (selective thinking), how to think (thinking technology), and when/where to think (thinking smartness) and application of ordered thoughts (thinking proficiency).

Needless to highlight the essentials of critical thinking, we would help ourselves by imagining what stands us out from the other species of living entities – the apes, monkeys, guerrilla, buffoons to the least developed species. The advantage you as individual have over them is your capacity to process, refine and apply fresh thoughts to impress smartness over them. Thus, not even the energy most animals have more than you gives them the advantage, but your ability to order thinking patterns and apply them to produce results, give you the competitive advantage.

Foremost, you need to understand that the brain has variations in its performance act at different times and moods of the day. It’s been thought of, that the learning portion of the brain is most impressionable in the early morning and at nights. This thesis might not work for every individual but it has a verifiable fidelity if well examined. Suffice to add that you need to identify the time your brain is most impressionable and avail it to the maximum in a process called THINKING SMARTNESS. You don’t just waste your time for critical thinking by substituting it with a less cerebral work like exercise. This way, your ten-minute thought at this time is more valuable than your thirty-minute thought at other times. The brain is also expansible in capacity, and can be worked upon to produce wonderful results.

Similarly, what you are to think should be factored in, before you determine the best time that will do for the thinking. For instance, thoughts for poetic and emotional works are not best fit for the afternoon when most environments are noisy. However, this time could be very relevant for absorptive or observation thinking. This is the time you can deliberately absorb ideas and visions in the microseconds as it ‘filters’ across your mind. Usually, the stimulants for such thinking are embedded within the environment; hence you must have the capacity to absorb such thoughts or visions, which are to be worked upon (cerebral work) later during the time for cerebral, intellectual and critical thinking (usually at nights) when distractions are minimum. This explains the phenomenon of SELECTIVE THINKING.

Beyond the preceding example, you need know that not every thought that visits your brain should be hosted. That’s why the term ’filter’ has been used to refer to processing of thoughts in above paragraphs. You may not have the control over the things that come to your mind but you have an option of choosing which of them should be hosted or entertained. DANGEROUS THOUGHT is the term used to describe thoughts that deserve no hosting in the brain. For instance, thinking of suicide as an option or panacea to any problem is a thought in this category except in extreme cases of medical termination of lives and its correlates. However, such thoughts are not impossible to pay uninvited visits to your brain in a dampened economy like that of our nation – Nigeria.

Some thoughts that will destroy your life and the thoughts, which mould it, pass through the same channels. That is why persons with psychiatric deviations/disorders are exempted to be tried as accused in the law courts.
For instance, RAPE is a dangerous act that has been premeditated and hosted in the brain as dangerous thoughts for a long time before it reaches a threshold and bursts out to manifest in the act. Thus your cognitive ability to identify good and bad thoughts and filter them through your mind is the THINKING MANAGEMENT level you must reach.

Here is a spice to how you can deliberately filter and manage your thoughts as they come to your mind. As thoughts come, you must first link them to results and consequences. It is very risky to host and build an idea you have not thought out the consequences, no mater how positive or negative they are! Then imagine you are to die in the next few minutes and ask yourself- will I like to have that consequence in my epitaph after my death? Similarly, there is a place of conscience – it is that thing that helps you see why a good is good and why a bad is bad. Usually, deciding good or bad thought doesn’t take much time like processing the thoughts. The conscience has a pre-programmed ability to identify the good and the bad and it usually does this in not more than a few minutes/seconds after the thought hits the mind.
The moment you drag for minutes with your conscience in identifying a good or bad thought, it is usually an indicator that the thought is faulty but you are seeking motivations to engage in it. After identifying whether the thoughts are good or bad, then deliberately ward off the unpleasant thoughts. You must identify the source of that thought and remove it. If it is; an object - remove it; your location - exit the place; people around you – excuse yourself and so on. This process of how you think is another must-reach level called THINKING TECHNOLOGY.

THINKING CONDITIONING is one of the ways to boost the mind for effective thinking performance. Here, you must know the things that ‘put you in mood’, your ‘excitants’ for a particular thinking performance. This also varies with people; for some, it is music while others tap inspiration, (a result of critical thinking) from reading. For some, it is brainstorming that sharpens the mind, while others are ‘put in the mood’ by compliments and applauds. Take for instance, you want to …….. Those things that make you think critically about that subjects are the excitants. You need to have the ability to connect to these excitants to achieve effective thinking. If you have done thinking related to that before, just reminisce/recall the things that were constantly repeated shortly before the thoughts flow. Then connect to them to condition yourself to such thinking. Sometimes it might even be colours. You may have noticed that some colours make you think well more than the others. This is a testimony to the fact that colours are cerebral communicating languages. Some writers can’t write effectively without background music because the thoughts would not flow while such easily distracts some writers. Some cannot think without being well fed; some go to the oceans because it opens their mind to think. Some people are better thinkers in dim lights than bright light. Hence thinking conditioning is the process of making available, all the possible excitants that make you think effectively on a particular subject. Just putting your brain in that congenial atmosphere will do.

Coming practically, you may have noticed that going to funerals usually help you think and appreciate the value of time and speed in your life. This is a typical example of thinking conditioning. Sometimes it happens subconsciously. Low or no noise and being alone help you think with ease.

After good thinking, what next do you do? You need to arrange your thoughts and translate them to results. This phenomenon is called THINKING PROFICIENCY – thinking to get desired results. Here is a clue to arranging your thoughts. It’s called the MIND MAP. To do critical thinking, you need to first identify with thinking smartness, condition your mind to think and open your mind to think. Sit back and write everything that comes to your mind as they come. Initially it may appear distorted like it makes no sense but just write it down. Do not develop the ideas initially because you will be closing the gate to entry of some new visitors, brighter ideas that will amaze you. You get to a limit where continuous flow seem to seize, then link your points/ideas up with arrows or dotted lines and you will find sense in the ‘nonsense’ you thought on paper. From there, group them and further develop the ideas that come lately as you think on each group. This way, you have ordered maintained a constant flow of thoughts, arranged and ordered your thoughts to produce the desired result.

In all, you must think by the day, think by the minute and do split-second thinking when the need arises. This will help you grow immensely, measure your thoughts and succeed gradually by the day. Remember, the brain is expansible in capacity and you do this by thinking consistently. Just like any unused machine, thinking is a lubricating fuel to the brain; hence any unthinking brain eventually seizes production and dries out in a BRAIN DRAIN. So think well, splendid and excellent things that would mould and not fold your life. You must grow by thinking! I welcome you to the thinking college.





September 3, 2008 | 3:26 AM