Some thing which is lacking in today’s world is critical thinking. But the question is, how does one think more critically?
Empirical
Put more faith in which you have experienced in real life in the flesh, rather than hearsay.
Also, become insanely skeptical of everyone and everything.
Furthermore, no faith in the media or the Internet. Only faith you could put on is your own self and experiences.
For example, with muscle and fitness, it is impossible to put faith in any other human being but yourself. Why is that? It looks like everyone out there is either trying to make a buck, or trying to gain some sort of influence or fame. This leads to people either exaggerating the truth, or, hiding something critical.
For example, the disingenuity of someone like Chris Hemsworth; he gets super duper swole for his role in Thor, which he was probably doing steroids or some other human growth hormone, and then a few years later he advertises some sort of fitness app, giving people the wrong idea that just by doing bodyweight stuff, and light weights, you could look like him in Thor.
What to avoid
I say, if you want to become the uber critical thinker, things to cut out include social media, the news, Twitter, magazines, podcasts, or anything that has advertising in it.
Also even nowadays, a lot of published hardcover business books are just advertisements for the fame of the author.
Better to trust dead people than people who are still alive
With thinking, more faith in dead people than people who are still alive. Why is that? The truth of people have not yet been fully revealed while they are still alive, while the truth of people who are dead is typically more accurate. For example, learning more about the skeletons of Steve Jobs after he died, via Walter Isaacson.
And this is the tricky thing, any modern day living biography on Elon Musk will not be useful, as he will not know until after he dies, did he make it to Mars or not?
Who should I put faith in?
Funny enough, more faith in people who are considered “assholes” or “arrogant” than the nice guys. For example, I have zero faith and credence in Dwayne The Rock Johnson, because he juices out his eyeballs, yet he advertises the virtues of “hard work.” He should just be honest and tell everyone that he does steroids or other testosterone injections or whatever, if he really wanted to be authentic.
Also, my deep distrust of Ellen DeGeneres, who preaches the gospel of “be kind“, yet probably treats her staff as subhuman. A tip that I got from Nassim Taleb is this; when you meet seemingly “altruistic“ people who does all this philanthropy, see how they treat waiters and waitresses at gala events.
Also, do not trust Bill Gates. How he cheated on his wife.
In fact, do not trust anybody who cheats on their wife.
Also, the disingenuity of Beyoncé, after her knowing and making public that Jay Z blatantly cheated on her, she still “forgave” him, and got back to gather with him. Beyoncé would have just been much more honest if she just divorced him. Perhaps this is where Kim Kardashian is actually more honest than Beyoncé, Kim Kardashian actually having the guts to split ties with Kanye.
In other words, put zero trust in Beyoncé whenever she talks anything about female empowerment, or feminism. It seems that all she cares about is being famous and being rich.
How to not be suckered by conspiracy theories
What is a conspiracy? It literally means people who share the same air. That you have a bunch of dudes in a single room, breathing the same air, and seemingly plot some sort of sinister thing. However, the reason why conspiracy theories probably do not exist is because even if you get a room full of intelligent people in the room, and intentionally try to plot something evil, nobody is actually responsible enough to get the evil thing done.
For example, let us consider a bunch of academics who come to a round table, and try to plan on co-writing a book. They might plan to take them five years, but in fact, it might take them 20 or 30 years, or, it actually never gets done.
Also, I think the human biases that we put too much faith in other human beings. Most people are quite inept, even the intelligent ones. Just look at Bill Gates and his beer gut, he apparently is one of the worlds worlds richest men, yet also one of the most obese? He could afford to hire the worlds best physical trainer, yet, he looks like he lacks any muscle mass, and is over fat. Put no faith in “plant-based diets”.
Trust non-experts
The funny thing, is with me, I am famous for photography, not for health or fitness or any of that other stuff. Therefore, ironically enough, perhaps you should actually put more faith in me than a famous fitness star or YouTuber. Why? I literally have nothing to gain from my thoughts on diet health and fitness. It is simply my side hobby, something I’m interested in superficially for fun.
Or my thoughts on powerlifting and hypelifting. Also, because I put no advertisements on YouTube, and I also do not make money on YouTube, you should put more faith in my videos than other people who put advertisements in their videos.
Follow the money
Money talks and walks. Ultimately, in today’s capitalist world, in which we are all a part of, even the hippies, money drives all of us. Some of us are more driven by money than others, but all of us are honestly tied to money.
A simple thought is this; if somebody has a certain opinion or thought, yet, might have potential financial gains from it, should you trust his or her opinion? No. Why? Whether the individual likes it or not, he or she will bias his or her opinion for the thing, given that he or she can make a direct or indirect financial gain from it.
Also funny enough, you should actually put less faith on people who are either married, in a relationship, or has a family. Why? Anybody will do unsavory things to “support their family,” just like the CEO of Coca-Cola and also the CEO of Phillip Morris. Ethics are important; by promoting a product that either directly or indirectly causes heart disease cancer, and obesity, how can you trust them?
Follow the links
This is also why you should also never trust websites with advertising, or affiliate links.
For example, if I link to a product on Amazon, and by clicking it, and you purchase it, you give me a 3% financial gain from it, is it really in my best interest to tell you the full truth of it? Will I really tell you the full gamut of pros and cons? Probably not.
Therefore, a simple thing to do is whenever you see a hyperlink, copy it, and inspect the URL. Does it have any funny code that links to some sort of affiliate program? Don’t trust it.
Don’t trust anybody on social media
Only put faith on people who own their own website/blog. This affords people greater freedom of expression, because what happens with social media is that the algorithm programs you to write uninteresting things, in order to maximize your likes, shares, and follows. The best way you could become a more critical thinker is uninstall YouTube, uninstall your podcast app, uninstall Twitter, uninstall Facebook, and also uninstall Instagram.
Better to just read books. For example, read Zero to One by Peter Thiel, and also read invent and wander by Jeff Bezos.
What is the point of critical thinking?
I think the point is not to be suckered, and not to be a fool. Everyone wants to live a better life, yet, we get suckered in vacuous directions. If you want to make more progress in life, and advance your own personal aims, you must become more critical, judge mental, intelligent and wise.
What is the purpose of wisdom? To advance yourself.