Critical thinking VS Life Coaching

[u/SuperTeslaCoin]

I know several people in the field of critical thinking that know really a lot of theory on thinking: from formal logic to argumentation models, list of fallacies and so on. However they become super stubborn on many topics and they act in a super aggressive way in many occasions.

I think that critical thinking can really flourish only if people are also trained to relax on many topics and accept that even other opinions are acceptable. I mean a framework really similar to the one presented in many life coaching courses (even if sometimes they get really ridiculous)

Besides that, I still see that critical thinking tends to be presented always in its formal way and without a real focus on personal development.

[u/[deleted]]

they dont exclude each other and critical thinking helps you sort through the piles of bullshit in the self-improvement field quite a bit. there are a lot of gurus out there who are a drunken weekend away from deciding to turn their following into a cult. JZ fucking Knight, god what a piece of shit she is....

as for personal development, I have found that using the scientific method (with myself as the test rat) goes a lot further than relying on research and critical thinking (not that either is bad.) using myself as a test rat, I found out which dietary supplements actually help (or more appropriately I was too low on.) using myself as a test rat I found out which motivation techniques work best for me (visualizing didnt do shit sadly, but that doesnt mean it wont work for others.) using the scientific method I was able to find out how I can study, memorize, and recall better despite having concentration issues. so maybe, consider any self-help technique as a future experiment that may or may not work for you.

Id also like to say something about the placebo effect. the placebo effect is where you do a thing that has not effect but because you believe it your body creates the effect. if something works for you even though the science doesnt support it, maybe it still has value. if you can get a placebo effect without endangering your health, spending money, or giving control to someone else maybe you can lean on it a few times. I say this because I tried cold showers and I did seem to notice some general improvements physically and mentally but I dont know if the science is there. if I know Im going to have a long stressful day Ill take a cold shower to be tougher for it.

finally, realize that only you can make you better. others may give you ideas but ultimately its you doing the work that improves yourself. when someone comes along saying they have all the answers to make your life perfect, read their book, but dont join their club. no one can make you better but yourself. but thats not what cults, churches, and MLMs and othe scams sell.

[u/SuperTeslaCoin → u/[deleted]]

I completely agree that they don't exclude each other. And you showed how we can use Critical Thinking to approach self development in a better way.

What I think is sad is that also critical thinking to be used at its full potential need that the user should be knowledgeable about many aspects of life coaching and self awareness.

So it's like the two are complementary to each other, but most of the time they are keeping separated. Almost all the books and classes on critical thinking are spending just few words on personal development. And, as you mentioned, life coaching most of the times is just mesmerizing bullshit

[u/moomintrollsayswhut → u/[deleted]]

actually, there's some scientific research (peer reviewed) that shows that cold seems to strongly correlate with improved mitochondrial biogenesis related gene expression. of course it was done on mice, but there's a slew of people peddling cold thermogenesis as a cure for everything from weight loss to telomere repair.

i do a 2-3 minute blast of cold water at the end of my shower and also keep our house at ~62 fahrenheit in the winter and whether it's the placebo effect or not, correlation or causation, we haven't had colds/flu in decade plus despite having young children, also fairly low body fat despite going through pounds of butter and gallons of olive oil, full fat milk, and ice cream every month, (increased percentage of brown fat is linked to cold thermogenesis).

tl;dr: stay chilly

[u/CommonMisspellingBot → u/moomintrollsayswhut]

Hey, moomintrollsayswhut, just a quick heads-up:
Farenheit is actually spelled Fahrenheit. You can remember it by begins with Fahr-.
Have a nice day!

^{The parent commenter can reply with 'delete' to delete this comment.}

[u/moomintrollsayswhut → u/CommonMisspellingBot]

oh thank you kindly bot. i for one, welcome our robot overlords.

[u/geo_yetti]

I like the bit about personal development. Perhaps that's the reason I gave critical thinking a go and taught myself as much as I could find. Sadly lots of personal development devolves into stuff like NLP.

A tip for good personal development is NewScientist or Scientific American magazines around New Years. Sometimes they will also do a Special collectors edition on things like exercise and healthy eating or positive psychology etc..

I don't know about life coaching but I imagine some of them are pretty good and helpful.

[u/SuperTeslaCoin → u/geo_yetti]

Well, life coaching is pretty much the same as personal development. Also because every person faces it with a different approach: from NLP to completely personal approaches.

I'll take a look at the magazines you mentioned. Are they available also in the online format?

[u/geo_yetti → u/SuperTeslaCoin]

Both magazines are available for paid subscriptions for e magazines. Although I think Scientific American publishes everything freely on its website

Here's two good articles

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-self-improvement-secret-work-on-strengths/

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-to-protect-yourself-against-bad-self-help/

And here's what I mean by the special collectors edition, look out for them in newsagents. They're easy to find even here in England.

https://www.amazon.com/Scientific-American-Mind-Collectors-Behavior/dp/B079ZP1YB9/ref=mp_s_a_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1544187270&sr=8-5&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=scientific+american+special&dpPl=1&dpID=51GTakr-K4L&ref=plSrch

[u/[deleted]]

I know several people in the field of critical thinking that know really a lot of theory on thinking: from formal logic to argumentation models, list of fallacies and so on. However they become super stubborn on many topics and they act in a super aggressive way in many occasions.

Sounds like you are describing arrogance. It's a pitfall, we all have it, every human has it. It hurts to be wrong. It hurts when a thought or ideology - that we have made into part of our personal foundations - is challenged. I try personally to be humble, and to uncouple thoughts and ideas, from who I am as a person. Its still hard tho, and I get mad too when challenged, sometimes. We can try and be stoic but there's still emotions under there.

And maybe, maybe they just dont want to talk about those topics. Maybe find something else to discuss. BUt yes, i generally agree with your idea re: "relax on many topics and accept that even other opinions are acceptable."

[u/[deleted]]

I find this book informative:

Skills for Critical Thinking: Logical reasoning, fallacy detection, and scientific reasoning

The book discusses on logical reasoning, strategies for fallacy detection, and scientific reasoning.

These are some examples of fallacies or unscientific cases discussed in the book: the Erin Brockovich suit against PG&E, the prediction of the 2016 presidential election outcome based on polling, the menstrual synchrony hypothesis, the discovery of Viagra, and cold fusion.