Enhance critical thinking by brain hacking

#brainhacking #neuroscience #brain #brainscience #personaldevelopment #criticalthinking #leadershipdevelopment

© 2025 Zoryna O’Donnell

This article was first published by The Maverick Paradox Magazine on 04/06/2025

It is hardly surprising that in our new AI-infiltrated (and filled with “fake news”, propaganda and disinformation) world having critical thinking is non-negotiable not only for leaders, but for everyone. Critical thinking is essential in various areas of life, from education to business, science and to everyday decision-making.

The WEF Future of Jobs 2020 report stated that top skills, which well over 60% of surveyed companies see as rising in prominence, are critical thinking and analysis, closely followed by problem-solving and self-management.

Diane Halpern, a widely-recognised authority on critical thinking, defined it in her seminal book, Thought and Knowledge as follows: "Critical thinking is the use of those cognitive skills or strategies that increase the probability of a desirable outcome. It is used to describe thinking that is purposeful, reasoned, and goal-directed - the kind of thinking involved in solving problems, formulating inferences, calculating likelihoods, and making decisions ...”

It can be argued that critical thinking is a powerful cognitive tool which enables us to navigate the complexity, uncertainty and ambiguity of the modern world. It is particularly valuable when we are dealing with the challenges of a “post-truth” era. You can find more about it from the video by an award-winning neuroscientist and best-selling author Daniel Levitan.

Our brains are well equipped for critical thinking. Despite this, our brains don’t like thinking critically. As late Dr Daniel Kahneman pointed out in his book Thinking, Fast and Slow, our brains strongly prefer System 1 thinking which is fast, automatic, intuitive and operates below our consciousness with little or no effort. This mode of thinking allows us to make quick decisions and judgments based on patterns and experiences. But it is also prone to biases, mental shortcuts and mistakes. System 2 thinking, which is used for complex problem-solving and analytical tasks, is slow, deliberate and conscious. It requires intentional effort and a lot of energy which our brains don’t like. Therefore, it is not surprising that many of the barriers to critical thinking are influenced by our brain’s preference for System 1 thinking.

You can use the following hacks and strategies to enhance your critical thinking. …

Please read the entire article here. [ https://themaverickparadox.com/enhance-critical-thinking-by-brain-hacking/ ]

Image credit: Kenny Eliason via Unsplash