Challenging and inspiring!

I liked Patrick King’s “The Art of Clear Thinking”, especially his thoughts on how bias inhibits clear thinking and strategies for overcoming bias. I also enjoyed the performance by Russell Newton. Therefore, I’m grateful for having received a free copy of this audiobook.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

4 people found this helpful

GREAT USEFUL INFO!

It's always good to get a reality check on things. I found The Art of Clear Thinking very informative and interesting, and I definitely found some useful information that I will keep in my "toolbox"

I thought this audiobook was well written, helpful and I think it would help anyone looking to learn more about clear and critical thinking.

Check it out! :)

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
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3 people found this helpful

Good for those new to critical thinking

I was given this free review copy audio book at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

So, I have mixed feelings about this book. The claims in the synopsis are a little too conceited, in my opinion. "Learn to stop making mistakes" is kind of a silly claim. It would be better to say improve your critical thinking and reduce your liklihood to make mistakes. Granted, that is a bit of me splitting hairs, but it bugged me. Like many books in this area, it is a great intro to the concept of critial thinking or basic reasoning. As in, thinking through a topic in a more detailed and logical way in order to form stronger conclusions. Kind of like the scientific method you learned about in high school science class, but at a slightly higher academic level. I don't mean that to be insulting to the book, its author or narrator. If you've ever been exposed to this sort of thing, you'll find this book to be very familiar and you may not get much out of it. If you've never really explored the topic of critical thought, I would highly recommend this book. I think you'd get a lot out of it.

3 people found this helpful

This is a beneficial book!

If you want to learn without being influenced by common pitfalls that are meant to deter you from getting to the bottom of things, this is for you! Great tools and insights to clear thinking! I received my copy free, and happily leave this review and honest feedback! I consider The Art of Clear Thinking essential to my learning at a deeper level.

2 people found this helpful

Well thought out, and organized!

This was an easy listen, and very well thought out! There are many useful concepts, including a section on perspective that was very well done. If you find yourself in a constant state of confusion, or are always getting stuck in the blame game this book is for you! Even if you are not it will open your mind in all the right ways! Narration was very clear and easy to listen to, even at faster playback speeds.

2 people found this helpful

Not great - Take a critical thinking class instead

The book is dated and goes against prevailing decision making science. Most people can’t separate emotions the way this book describes and this book offers rudimentary advice on bias mitigation. The book also feels very familiar to any “rationalist 101” creed. Skip it.

1 person found this helpful

Another tool to your learning toolbelt

This another tool to add to your toolbelt if you are looking to improve your skills. It is short and concise and provides the reader with facts, examples, and ways to improve thinking. A counterpoint to this work would be Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. Both have very valid points backed with data. I think high school and college level students would benefit from work like this. I wish I would have had this then.

1 person found this helpful

Well thought out ideas

I listened to this book twice, and tried to absorb the information.
A couple of my takeaways were:
1. You are never thinking clearly if you are not willing to look at every angle of an idea. You can not pre-rule out any side of the story, and maintain a solid mental structure. This is super hard for me to do. I think all of us have a built reality that excludes many sides of an idea.
2. Ego can be as blinding as a pillow case over your head. One must be humble, even if they are an expert, in order to continue to learn.

I recommend this audio book. The narrator has a nice deep voice that helps the ideas sound authoritative.

Interesting subject with good narration

Really interesting topic that this book covers and which I have discovered from my own experience that if you narrowly focus on what you want to prove you will find facts that prove it, and it is very easy to not pay attention to other facts that compromise your thesis, so this book very well covers how and why this confirmation bias happens, and what to do to avoid it.
For example, it is very common to ask: Are you "Patrick"? if you expect to meet Patrick for the first time, however you would be surprised how many people answer "Yes" to this question, even women! That is what almost happened to my Uber driver when he picked her up with similar question - luckily she did not have to go to airport like I did, so the Uber driver did figure out the mistake when I got to the car.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Love Patrick immense, but don' know about this one

Out of work, little depressed, thought this would offer some insight and clear my head. But oh my god, after listening for an hour, I felt so depressed I had to shut it off. Maybe try listening to when in better mood, probably not. His other stuff is awesome. Makes a poor psychologist.

1 person found this helpful