We have reserved critical thinking only for problems related to science and technology, but not for life itself. Why can’t the same spirit of inquiry be present in everything? Without the filter of thought and inquiry, you will be enslaved and exploited. So, pause at every sentence, analyze, and refuse to move on until you are satisfied.
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Acharya Prashant: If there is a problem in physics, mathematics, or engineering in front of you and somebody offers you a particular solution, do you just go to the last step and accept the conclusion? Is that scientific or rational? Do we do that? No, we don’t do that. What do we do? If a conclusion has been offered to us, the conclusion is the last thing we focus on. What do we focus on? We focus on the process; we focus on the assumptions that the problem solver is making.
Have you started, for example, with a hypothesis? Have you made the hypothesis explicit or are you just hiding your assumptions? Then in the problem-solving mechanism, there are, let’s say, 21 steps involved, assuming a simple kind of problem. Is each step of the problem logically related to the previous and next one? Or is it so that step number 12 is disconnected to step 11 and something totally unrelated comes up at step number 13 and we accept it? How does one step follow from the preceding one?
When we are solving problems in academics or wherever this is the way we proceed. And if we don’t proceed this way, we know what happens. The problem does not really get solved, the solution won’t work. If you have written, for example, a computer program, it won’t compile, it won’t run. If you have tried to solve a problem in mathematics, the solution would be false or unattainable. Worst still, there is often an evaluator who will mark you zero on your solution. Why? Because he will be able to see through your thinking by looking at the various steps you are following.
