thinking skills and research-1

Thinking skills and research
By K.L.Woon

• Our brain is like a hardware (computer) while
our thinking skill is the software.

• Individuals who are healthy is born with the
same brain (same computer hardware)
biologically.
• So why the some people are smarter than the
other? Discuss.

Can one significantly increase his/her intelligence during his/her
adult life? There are so many people who while growing up have
not had the opportunity to develop their potential because of
stupid parents, unhealthy life styles, psychiatric drugs, poverty,
etc.. Even more frustrating is how our ability to learn decreases as
we age, as if mother nature was telling us: `you didn`t make it
then, now deal with it!!` [Jacques].

• Of course, intelligence (defined as the ability to understand) can be
greatly improved during one's lifetime. However, it is very difficult, if not
impossible, to achieve anything without aiming for it. Once we establish a
need to Understand - it is up to us to determine the amount of effort,
make the committment and then act on it. Needless to say, we have the
freedom of choice to do whatever we feel like. The easiest thing of course
is not to do anything...
In essence, if you make an effort to understand something today, no
matter how elementary, and you achieve it - you increase your ability to
understand other things tomorrow. As you know, lifetime has many days...
I disagree that the ability to Understand decreases with age. It does only
for those, who stop learning and/or misuse their potential. @2000 years
ago a great man expressed it as follows "Whoever has something will be
given more, and whoever has nothing will be deprived of even the tiny bit
that person has..."
In essence "use it or lose it" principle of Nature seems to apply not only to
muscles, but also to our Intellect. [Tom]

• Intelligence is something that you can
cultivate and grow yourself.
• What you need is the willingness to think and
improve.

• Why understanding so important?
If you memorize, you forget . If you understand, even the basics
of it, you can reconstruct the knowledge back and even come out
with new insights and understanding.
Memorization cannot

Imagine that you are allowed to take only 100
kbytes memory with you to your examination
(=life ?). What would you store there? Data?
Family pictures? Software? What software?
I would store a program about learning how to
learn. When I am able to learn how to learn - I am
also able to learn anything that I choose to, even
if I cannot remember anything else

In order to improve thinking skills, you need to
learn “how to learn” skills
Even if you forget everything and/or find yourself in a
totally new environment this single skill ALONE will
determine how much you will enjoy and benefit from the
experience.

For example, when their car suddenly broke down in the middle of
nowhere - many people panic and feel helpless. Only people with
enough "How to Learn" skill will try to learn how the car works and
how to fix it, even if they have never done it before. These are
usually the same people, who "know a little bit about everything",
simply because "I need to know HOW things work" and "I want to
figure out HOW to learn this" is their natural attitude

• Doing research gives you an unique
opportunity to develop “How to learn” skills
• “How to learn” skills are transferrable to
everyday life and priceless.

• Luckily there are several techniques that can
acquired to improve your “how to learn” skills

• Paying attention to the process of YOUR OWN
thinking and understanding is a very good
"accelerator" of understanding. Since your
thinking is totally private and individual, only
YOU can establish what is the best way for
YOU to learn.

• So, the next time your mind "clicks" to a new
understanding, try to figure out "HOW did it
happen? Why didn't it happen yesterday or 10
years earlier? What prevented you from
achieving the understanding earlier? Are there
any barriers that you create yourself?"

• You have to be CLEAR of what you know, what
you don’t know and what you assumed you
know.
• Building knowledge what is assumed to be
FACT is dangerous and can waste your time.
(self-verification of assumed fact)

• Conclusions are only as good as assumptions
adopted in reaching them.

• Think FUNDAMENTAL.
When you interpret your results or observations,
think at the most basic and most fundamental
law of physics.
What you assumed to be true is often best
illuminated with fundamental laws

• Experimental design
If you are not sure which fundamental laws
should be applied on interpreting the results,
then you should design a simple experiment
that can differentiate that

• The answers you get are determined and
limited by the questions you asked.
If you ask a stupid question, you will get a stupid
answer. Eg Why liquid is a fluid?
If you ask a very good question, it might get you
a NOBEL prize or BIG MONEY.

• Examine extreme cases
You can learn a whole new level of
understanding by imagining extreme cases. Eg
water is very cool and very hot places…what
physics that is involved that make it look so
different?

• Use good analog to explore what you cannot
see.
A long straight road like a prefect
superconducting wire. What if I put some
obstacles on the road? What if I introduce
some defects on the wire?

• Think holistically and interconnected.
Try to relate what you have understood and learn in
your life to the problem at hands. Think like
spider-web
The law of physics cannot be compartmentize into
optics, electronics, thermal physics, quantum
physics. The laws are inter-linked and often one
law from one topic influence the other law in
other topic.

Critical Thinking
- purposeful reflective judgment concerning what to
believe or what to do.
- It gives due consideration to the evidence, the
context of judgment, the relevant criteria for making
the judgment well, the applicable methods or
techniques for forming the judgment, and the
applicable theoretical constructs for understanding
the problem and the question at hand
Please self-reflect the statements

Critical thinking
• Involves not only logic but a broad intellectual
criteria such as clarity, credibility, accuracy,
precision, relevance, depth, breadth,
significance and fairness
Please self-reflect the statements

• We talk so much about ‘IQ-related stuffs’…
research also shown that IQ alone doesn’t
make you a ‘successful’ person.
• You need EQ to work together with IQ.

What is emotional intelligence?
• the ability, capacity, skill; or, in the case of the
trait EI model, a self-perceived ability to
identify, assess, and control the emotions of
oneself, of others, and of groups.

EQ and research
• Self-awareness – the ability to read one's
emotions and recognize their impact.
• Self-management – involves controlling one's
emotions and impulses and adapting to changing
circumstances.
• Social awareness – the ability to sense,
understand, and react to others' emotions while
comprehending social networks.
• Relationship management – the ability to inspire,
influence, and develop others while managing
conflict.

EQ and research
• Self-management:
self-discipline, time-management, perseverance

EQ and research
• Relationship management

EQ and research
• Social awareness

EQ and research
• Self-awareness

EQ and research
• Emotion is the sum of reaction of thoughts
and imagination that you have in your mind
• You can verify yourself when you have a
certain emotion. Observe the thought you
have.
• The key of controlling the emotion is to
change the thoughts and belief system.

thinking skills and research-1

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