Jack White Is Probably a Critical Thinker.

This song came on my Pandora station this morning:


I thought while I was getting ready, "Wow, Jack REALLY knows about the scientific method.  I wonder if he was conscious of this while writing this song."

Interestingly enough, I was just talking to a student yesterday who wondered how to apply psychology to daily life without sounding heartless.  It was a little tough to answer, until I realized that it really came down to what Jack is talking about.  You really CAN'T take the effect and make it the cause.  It's illogical, not to mention that it is full of hindsight bias.  I bet Jack is a pretty smart guy.

So how do you apply psychology to a situation without sounding like a tool?  My standard line is "That sounds like an interesting topic.  I'd like to know more about it, where did you read that?"  If they didn't read it, can't cite a source, or claim 'it's just true', it opens the door for the old critical thinking skills to strike.  "REALLY, you don't know?, I'm skeptical about that.  I think it would make an interesting study.  I recently read otherwise, believe it or not..." and so forth.

It might not make me sound like the most pleasant guy to hang around, but when I do hang around, life is full of interesting conversation, and that might be the best part of critical thinking.