1. What are some standards that are most important in your life?
Some of the most important standards in my life are honesty, rational, reliable, and testable.
Honest sort of speaks for itself. One must be honest in their dealings with others and one must value honesty in return. In my line of work my word is often all I may to offer a client and it is important that I follow through on my commitments and not be dishonest or unreliable. Reliablity is another standard that I must maintain. My clients have needs that must be met and I task them with actions that I expect to be met. If there is a failing it can damage our professional relationship.
Rational and testable are the other two standards that I weigh many things against. I try to balance my actions against what a logical choice may be. I feel that too much emotional emphasis on decision making can lead to bad choices. As mentioned in my previous post, one must have emotional intelligence but that shouldn't mean that choices need to be emotional in nature.
Testability is also important, mostly as a managerial tool. When attempting a new process or change it is important to have a metric that is testable. This allows for feedback and process improvment.
2. In your day-to-day life, how do you go about telling what you should or should not believe among the things you see or hear and read?
It is a constant battle with my biases. If it comes from Fox News my first inclination is to throw it in the trash. This may be a bit extreme but I admit to having a filter. We live in a world where information is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and from multiple sources. This allows us to pick and choose what we want to hear; thereby living in a constant world of confirmation bias. It is my opinion that people are having a tougher time sorting through cognitive dissonance situations when it is so easy to go back and hear whatever makes you feel better about the world.
I struggle with this myself but I think that being aware of how easy it is to confirm my own biases makes it easier for me to analyze my biases. I will often search for conflicting information in order to examine my positions.
In my job I often have to take clients at face value until proven otherwise. I know that certain people are not reliable or trustworthy and that does effect the services provided. Others are the exact opposite.
3. Analysis and evaluation. What are some things in your life that you analyze? What are some things you evaluate?
On any given day I analyze the job readiness, addiction-status, seriousness, abilities, and skills of at least five or six people. I usually don't have a great deal of time with each person so I have to be able to work quickly. I try to ask open-ended questions, read body language, and assess cognitive skills or addictions so I know how best to serve my client. It has been a crash-course in human behavior. At the end of the sessions I usually evaluate myself by asking a few questions. What did I do correctly? What did I do incorrectly? How can I improve the next meeting? This allows me to provide the best service possible.
4. Generate some questions about how critical thinking standards fit into your personal history.
I have often wondered why I place such value on being logical? It isn't like I was a giant fan of Mr. Spock although I enjoyed the series.
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