(August 5, 2014 at 10:49 am)BlackMason Wrote: My point of contention is that it is focused on arguing. I'm not a professional debtor nor do I aspire to be one. There seems to little in the way of real problem solving. Not every life situation needs to be argued.
I can sense your frustration, but don't undervalue informal logic as a critical thinking skill for the purpose of problem solving. In my experience many problems go unsolved, because the actual problem is buried in reports, power point presentations and associated technical jargon and business speak. Critical thinking can help wade through the cover my ass bullshit in order to expose the real problem that can then be addressed.
And make no mistake, everything that happens leading up to a decision is an argument: how do we prioritize our problem solving, what's the resource allocation split, do we implement the optimum solution or take on a certain amount of risk for a less expensive solution, how do we price a new product/service, how much risk does our competitor's new activity really represent, does it deserve a response, can we do something internally, do we need to find external expertise, etc.
Another great skill to have is an understanding of statistical analysis and data interpretation. People trying to bullshit you will throw around numbers to bolster their arguments and it's not uncommon with a few simple questions regarding the data set to conclude that the numbers don't represent the conclusion being drawn.
