Macat Blog
Enjoy the latest critical thinking insights from Macat
Whether you see artificial intelligence as positive or negative, the reality is that it is coming to change the landscape of the workplace. In order to adapt to these changes and incorporate AI successfully into existing business models, corporations and educational institutions will need to figure out how to balance the combined powers of artificial and human intelligence.
According to Professor Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, we are currently in the midst of the Fouth Industrial Revolution. As with all three previous industrial revolutions, these technological advancements will inevitably reshape the landscape of the workforce and the job market.
For those of us living in similar industrialised countries like the United Kingdom, Canada, or Australia, it’s easy to think of strict gun control legislation as a foregone conclusion. However, implementing new legislation, particularly in a country where this is a highly controversial topic, is not as simple as it may seem to outside observers.
We know them as geniuses, eccentrics, independent spirits, or even rebels. But what they all have in common is the ability to think creatively and critically about the world, putting aside their peers’ ignorance or assumptions to see new connections in the most mundane situations and change our view of the universe. Here are 10 of the best examples of critical thinking, and the critical thinkers that made them.
As an estimated 10,000 baby boomers each day head into retirement, the number and influence of millennials in the workplace is on a steady rise. In fact, according to Barnes & Noble College, millennials are expected to comprise more than half of the US workforce by 2020. This makes workforce readiness a more urgent matter than ever. But are today’s students learning everything they need to be ready for employment?
The ability to come up with new connections and fresh solutions is the toughest thinking skill to master, but it’s also the most powerful. Great creative thinkers are able to generate ideas at will. They build relationships – between ideas and between people – that nobody else can. They are machines of innovation.
Stockholm’s municipal government is making recent headlines as it is expected to follow London and Paris in banning public advertisements deemed sexist or racist. The city’s effort to eliminate discriminatory or offensive advertising feels right in step with the rise of movements such as #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter. While many people see this forthcoming legislation as a positive reaction to the insidiousness of sexist and racist undertones in the media, others are questioning how far this censorship will go and whether or not it should be left to politicians to determine what is acceptable.
What can be learned from applying the Socratic method to this debate on acceptable forms of government censorship?
Although she began speaking with a smile, confusion soon spread across the face of US Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos at her confirmation hearing in 2017. Her lack of understanding on the difference between measuring benchmark proficiency and relative growth in the classroom skyrocketed the issue into public consciousness. This fumble from a key figure in American educational policy reminds us of the central question at hand in the growth versus proficiency debate: Why measure learning gains? And how central is this ability to good education?
Critical thinking is about to become one of the most in-demand skillsets in the global job market. As automation and artificial intelligence have a greater and greater impact on the role of the human in the workplace, the need to stand out by developing advanced thinking skills like problem-solving, reasoning and creativity grows ever stronger.
Tomorrow’s business leaders will face challenges that are defined by two features: complexity and convergence. As we all know and see in our own day-to-day work experiences, the boundaries between functions, business areas, and roles are becoming increasingly blurred. Individuals are taking on an ever-increasing diversity of tasks, because hyperconnectivity, spurred by the technological revolution, is enabling those tasks to become ever more entangled.
In Singapore, ranked among the best in the world at reading, mathematics, and science, officials are discussing extending critical thinking programs to kindergarten. In the UK, however, we are busy scrapping the Critical Thinking A-level.
It’s easy to believe that the reach of modern philosophy extends no further than the stuffy ivory towers of contemporary academia. That would be a mistake. Philosophy literally means “the love of wisdom,” and this love, when pursued earnestly, can change the way we think about right and wrong—and about ourselves.
“What sort of person ought I to be?” The question is a simple one, but for those who take it seriously, merely addressing it can have profound consequences.
Whilst much of Europe reflected on the events of the 1917 Russian Revolution with apparent nostalgia, official commemorations in Russia were notably sparse. The day marking Lenin’s triumph over the Provisional Government has not been a national holiday since 2004 – when Vladimir Putin wiped it from the Russian calendar – yet this month the veracity of the President’s motives came under fire. What can we learn from applying the Socratic method to the debate surrounding the appropriate Russian response to this year’s centenary?
What makes Hobbes’ masterpiece so special is how relevant many of its concepts remain today. Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan still offers a useful prism through which to understand contemporary events.
