Thinking and Decision Making

Thinking and Decision Making

Critical thinking is a vital part of everyday living and learning. There are as many different way to think critically as one can imagine. Critical thinking impacts our everyday lives in so many ways from what we decide for breakfast to what elements to put in an essay for school or the best decision for advertising a new company. Two of the most basic types of critical thinking skills are Realistic and creative thinking styles. These two styles are very opposite from each other and impact critical thinking skills in different ways; one being more creative and the other being more down to earth and basic.

Realistic thinking:

Realistic thinking is a very crucial aspect to thinking critically. In short it allows us to see the problem that really is, and what can realistically be done about it. In the long version, one must remember to think about what the problem really is, not what we want to think or imagine what the essential problem may be. The other half to this is to start with the essential problem and find the most basic, probable causes of that problem or problems are and fix each problem in order and by the means that are available to you not the way it would be done in an ideal world.

An example of this might be say a planer that is not providing the required surface to a board. Planers are very sensitive to the slightest mistake by the operator or equipment malfunction. There are many causes a planer can foul up; the many blades on a planers that can get dull, chipped or just pushed out of alignment or the rollers can be too tight or not tight enough, the machine can overheat and start to burn the wood or any of a million gremlins in the machine causing changes in hydraulic fluid or power surges and so on. One must apply critical thinking and be observant of what the outcome was in order find the problem many times. One must start in the beginning of the process and make assessments of the entire system as you go. A common problem with planed boards is that they may turn out to have many waves down the length of the board. There could be several factors involved or just one. I the best case scenario in this situation a previous board may be too large for the adjustment opening and may have knocked the holders out of place and the board is just moving up and down in the machine. In a worst case scenario not only did the holders get knocked out of adjustment, but so did the knives on the planer and the rollers. Each system would have to be checked individually before moving to the next system. If one was not thinking critically about the problem in a realistic manner they could just fix one problem and assume the problem would be fine and continue about their merry way or they may blindly adjust all of the systems and causing extra hours and money being spent on the job. Realistically a company will opt for the cheapest most efficient response to the problem, trying to save any money they possibly can; rather than pay for something like a system overhaul and the operator or mechanic would have to take this factor into account.

Creative thinking:

Creative Thinking is one of most important facts of being a critical thinker. It is a change process for an existing fact to make it more effective. It is needed not only in corporate life but in all the life aspects, you can be creative in your personal life to make things easier, more effective