Critical Thinking
Many years ago, I was introduced to James Bach and his work on critical thinking for testers. I even invited him into my organization at EMC to teach his testing class to our test teams.
It was so much less about tools and tactics, and so much more about becoming more critical in your thinking as a tester and a better communicator of the results of that thinking.
To this day, I often associate critical thinking with James and Michael Bolton’s work.
It’s also something that I’ve tried to develop in my leadership and agile coaching journey.
Yesterday, I was reminded of it in an article I read by James Averbook titled—
Think for Yourself. Seriously.
Critical thinking isn’t a personality trait; it’s a muscle, and most of us stopped training it long before AI made that dangerous.
James’ article reenergized my memory of and appreciation for critical thinking. I’d encourage you to read the entire piece. It made me realize that I’ve become a bit lax over the decades, and I need to sharpen my practice. Particularly in this new age of AI.
I’ll close with this snippet from near the end of his post—
The pause is the practice
The next time something makes you feel a strong emotion, positive or negative, pause for a second, because that reaction is telling you something worth examining. Ask yourself why you’re reacting, what belief is being confirmed or threatened, and whether you’d feel the same way if the same idea had come from a different source.
That pause is where the whole thing lives, in the gap between hearing something and deciding what you actually think about it, and almost nobody spends any time in that gap anymore, which is exactly why we’re in the mess we’re in. I am working on this daily!
Stay agile, my friends,
Bob.
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