Making friends and influencing people

[coberst]

Making friends and influencing people

 

A common refrain I often hear from readers is that “there seems to be no way I can convince anyone to change their mind about anything”. I am very sympathetic with that difficulty.

 

I would like to suggest that the positive thing we can do is to learn Critical Thinking and after we do so to challenge the other person to do the same thing. The more a person knows how to think the better that person will be in making good judgments.

 

Critical Thinking is now being taught in our schools and colleges. Our educational system has decided that teaching students what to think is useful training to get good jobs but is insufficient for later life. Since most adults have never been taught CT they must learn it on their own.

 

Those who are already Critical Thinkers can go immediately to step two and start the effort to convince others to become Critical Thinkers.

 

If you are not familiar with CT a good place to start is with Bertrand Russell @

 

http://www.bu.edu/wcp/Papers/Educ/EducHare.htm

[infamous]

Making friends and influencing people

 

I think Dale Carnegie has entered the house.........just poking a little fun at the title of this thread my friend. On a more serious note; Critical thinking is something we could all invest a little more time and energy toward and maybe we could start by giving others the benefit of doubt. I will admit that at times, because of preconceived understandings, I may not listen well to the ideas of others. I'll be the first to confess that I need to make a greater effort to listen honestly to the voices of alternative persuasion. But understand, there are limits that must be placed upon this accommodation. In summary, I think you make some excellent points here coberst.......Infy