Critical thinking is one of those subjects that sounds simple (“think carefully”), but becomes surprisingly deep once you study it seriously. At its core, critical thinking is the disciplined process of evaluating claims, arguments, evidence, assumptions, and reasoning before accepting a conclusion.
A useful way to think about it:
Intelligence helps you generate ideas.
Critical thinking helps you determine whether those ideas are actually true.
Vault Map
| Section | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Cognitive Biases | Systematic errors in thinking |
| Logical Fallacies | Flawed argument patterns |
| Mental Models | Lenses for understanding reality |
| Claim Analysis | Evidence-weighted belief tracking |
| Paper Reviews | Reviews of academic papers |
| Forecasts | Prediction + calibration training |
| Thinking Journal | Daily reflection and practice |
Recommended Books
Beginner
- Thinking, Fast and Slow — Daniel Kahneman
- The Art of Thinking Clearly — Rolf Dobelli
- You Are Not So Smart — David McRaney
Intermediate
- How to Read a Book — Mortimer J. Adler
- The Demon-Haunted World — Carl Sagan
- How We Know What Isn’t So — Thomas Gilovich
- The Scout Mindset — Julia Galef
- Predictably Irrational — Dan Ariely
- Why People Believe Weird Things — Michael Shermer
- Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me) — Carol Tavris & Elliot Aronson
- Why Everyone (Else) Is a Hypocrite — Robert Kurzban
- Influence — Robert B. Cialdini
Advanced
- Superforecasting — Philip E. Tetlock
- Rationality — Steven Pinker
- Denialism — Michael Specter
For Scientific and Technical Thinking
- How to Lie with Statistics — Darrell Huff
- The Book of Why — Judea Pearl
Moral Philosophy & Ethics
- Moral Philosophy Reading List — a 12-book sequence on ethics and reasoning about values (Levinas, Nietzsche, Parfit, Aristotle, Kant, Mill, Rawls, Scanlon, Ross, Cuneo, Slote, Moore)