‘Necessity is the mother of invention’ is one my best quotes. It shows us that we, as humans, invent things that didn’t exist before when great need comes in our lives, and that forces our God-given brains to think critically to solve the problem that is facing us. Then our brains come up with something that is very new, and the implementation of these new ideas become the solution of the problems in life. Hence, the ability to think critically is an essential tool that helps us learn effectively and live productively. That is the topic I wanted to discuss in this very short post.
To begin with, schools and universities usually take many years of our lives. Have you ever wondered why do we spend so much money and time in these institutions? The answer to this question is clear. We want to increase the ability of our brains to think critically. While we are learning we interact everything we read or study. Our brain criticizes, agrees and sometimes disagrees the new ideas we learn in school. In different courses of study, our brains are being trained in gaining higher levels of critical thinking. For example, when writing an essay for an assignment or doing a calculus quiz, each student thinks critically to gain the highest grade of that piece of task. These continuous tasks make our skill of critical thinking grow in our schooling years. Thus, critical thinking is the key to any successful learning that takes place.
Secondly, whenever you finish your school, the application of your critical thinking skills acquired in school starts. To support a very good example to this, I had this friend who graduated from college and started his first job as sales manager in a store. When he sat for the interview to get that job, there was a question he told me that the owner of the store asked him. He said he gave me his ‘Bic Pen’ and asked him to sell that pen to him. “I was astonished for a second” my friend said. “Then I realized that I needed to advertise the pen so that the owner gets convinced to buy the pen” my friend added. After advertising the pen, the owner took the pen from me and said, “I am buying this excellent pen”. My friend at that point reasoned the question he was asked and then got the right answer. This is very good example that in life we always need to reply to questions and even take decisions only after we have critically thought about it. When we do this, we often end up with achieving what we wanted, and that is when a productive life begins for us.
In conclusion, any successful learning and productive life always requires critical thinking. The key to make any fruitful tasks in these two main areas of life greatly depends on the skill of critical. Therefore, we always need to develop our skill of critical thinking to solve the real problems that we always face in life.
Abdilahi Dualeh 