This is Water

This is a very inspiring speech given by David Foster Wallace to Kenyon College's 2005 graduating class. The video below is an animated version which has had over 2 million views.

One of the key messages he tries to give to the students is this:

The value of the totally obvious...

It isn't really about the capacity to think, but rather the choice of what to think about. 

It's worth a listen and for that matter a watch. The use of the animation brings it alive.

Critical Thinking

I came across this video on Robin Goods Scoopit post which is titled Curators Key Requirement: Critical Thinking. This is a very helpful overview of what critical thinking means.  The process of evaluating information and our thoughts helps to assess what is valuable and relevant and what is not and why this is so. He lists the following key takeaways from this video:

• Critical thinking refers to a diverse range of intellectual skills and activities concerned with "evaluating information" as well as our own thought in a disciplined way.
• Critical thinking is not just thinking a lot. To be an effective critical thinker you need to seek out and be guided by "knowledge" and "evidence" that fits with reality even if it refutes what the general consensus may want to believe.
• Critical thinkers cultivate an attitude of curiosity and they are willing to do the work required to keep themselves informed about a subject.
• Critical thinkers do not take claims at face value but utilize scepticism and doubt to suspend judgement and objectively evaluate with facts the claims being made.
• Critical thinkers should evaluate information on the basis of reasoning and not by relying on emotions as claims the factuality of a claim cannot be solely based on the level of emotion that accompanies them or the fact that they may be believed by certain groups.

A useful infographic on Critical Thinking

Source: critical-thinkers.com via Sue on Pinterest