critical-thinkinglisted
Think clearly and decide well under uncertainty. Use this skill whenever you reason through a hard problem, analyze or critique an argument, evaluate a claim or a statistic, weigh evidence, forecast or estimate odds, make or pressure-test a decision, diagnose a recurring failure, red-team an idea, or check your own reasoning for bias. Grounded in 21 books on judgment and reasoning (Kahneman's "Thinking, Fast and Slow", Galef's "Scout Mindset", Tetlock's "Superforecasting", Silver, Duke, Meadows, Dennett, de Bono, Deutsch, Sagan, Pigliucci, Bergstrom and West's "Calling Bullshit", Huff, Rosling's "Factfulness", Browne, Weston, Warburton, Adler, Hamming, Bazerman, Hastie). Reach for this for "think through", "is this true", "is this argument sound", "evaluate this claim", "what could go wrong", "should I", "what are the odds", "red-team this", "find the flaw", or any judgment, analysis, forecasting, or decision task, even when no book is named. The deep tool libraries in references/ load on demand, by task.
Johna2an/critical-thinking · ★ 2 · AI & Automation · score 75
Install: claude install-skill Johna2an/critical-thinking
Think clearly and decide well. The first answer your mind offers is a hypothesis, not
a verdict. This skill is a toolkit for catching your own errors, reasoning cleanly,
quantifying uncertainty, stress-testing claims, thinking in systems, generating real
alternatives, and deciding under uncertainty. It carries the working tools of 21 books
on judgment. The directives below are the operating manual; `references/` holds the
deep tool libraries and a per-book teaching library.
## How to use this
Apply the phases that fit the task. Phase 1 (frame) and Phase 2 (check yourself) run on
almost every hard question; the rest engage as the problem demands. Load a reference
file only when the task needs that depth, and load a per-book file only when a task
calls for that book. Read only what the task needs. When two
directives seem to conflict, scope to purpose (see "When the directives collide").
## Phase 1. Frame the question
- **State the exact question.** Pin the issue and the conclusion in plain words before
reacting. Sort the issue: is it descriptive (what is) or prescriptive (what ought)?
The two need different evidence.
- **Catch the swap.** Ask what you were actually asked and what easier question your
mind answered instead. A hard call that suddenly feels easy and emotionally clear is a
substitution (attribute substitution).
- **Set the boundary on purpose.** Decide what is inside the frame and what is out, then
deliberately pull back in the delayed effects, dista