Rational Thinking and Rationality

How To Think Rationally and Start Forming Your Own Opinions

Rational thinking is slowly becoming a thing of the past,

It's not the first time that I see someone express an opinion, someone else disagrees with him and he immediately changes his mind.

In my head I'm saying 'come on bro, are your beliefs so weak that it took someone saying the opposite for you to change them?'

Don't be like this person,

I'm going to teach you what I've found to be the most reliable way to form rational opinions (based on proof).

But what is rational thinking?

Rational thinking is the act of coming up with your own conclusion on the information that you have and the proof that you've seen. Choosing the thing that makes the most sense based on logic.

The Pushover

The guy I spoke about in the introduction.

All type of rational thinking goes out of the window if someone else tells him something,

This guy will change his mind just so that he doesn't have to disagree with anyone,

Now this can come as a result of low self-esteem but that's a problem to discuss another day,

He'll agree even though deep down he doesn't,

Now, you may be this guy or you may not be, that's not the point,

The point is to understand that it's not good,

You should be strong in your beliefs,

I mean these are the thoughts you think about things, why you believe things are a certain way,

Just by you throwing away your judgement so quickly it indirectly says that you don't trust it.

It shouldn't be so easy to change your mind.

I mean look at the world's presidents,

Do you think that by you disagreeing with them they'll change their mind so easily?

No, right?

These are people who have deep trust in the way they think and in the things they think are right.

In this aspect we should be more like them

The Hard Hat

Now this is the complete opposite,

Imagine trying to get a rock through a hard hat, good luck, it's not gonna happen,

This person has their own flaws,

But is not always open to hear them,

Sometimes because of pride, indifference, or just a refusal to change.

Rational thinking also doesn't apply to this person,

For this guy rationality existing and rationality not existing is just the same, because he doesn't and he won't use them either way.

Not for being too weak minded like the pushover but because he is too close minded to see things in another light than his own,

While I think it's not as bad as the other one this type of person tends to stick to old methods too much,

I know a guy who'd like this and no matter how much proof you give him that his method doesn't work he'll keep using it.

These people are too in love and too attached with the ideas they hold in their head,

So much so that it's actually detrimental for them.

The hard hat, or hard headed person whatever you want to call it will not change his mind no matter what, no matter how much evidence is provided,

Sometimes I say to myself that if everyone in the world was like this person we wouldn't have gone past the stone age,

The wheel would have never been invented, neither would have planes,

All cause 'it's fine how it is',

It's best just not to argue with this type of person, there's no need to, it won't get you anywhere.

The Rational Thinker : The Astute

Rationality is this guy's middle name,

This person is the one you should imitate,

This is what this article comes to.

How hardheaded should you be?

How open to new ideas should you be?

Well, I believe that you should trust in your thinking,

HOWEVER, if an idea that will help you presents itself,

If this idea is better than the one you already have in your mind than you should be strong and humble enough to change your belief and adopt a better one.

This is what has served me very well,

Sometimes our ideas are not as good as we think, we just think they are cause they're our own.

Have the humility to admit when something is better and instead of getting angry at it, use it.

This person is the example for rational thinking and rationality, he doesn't let emotions blind him to facts,

This type of person is very shrewd, he has very good judgement cause he passes things through a process in his brain,

He asks himself;

Does this make sense?

Is this a better angle to look at this?

Could my previous version be wrong?

And uses the answers to these questions to come up with his own outcome, with his own opinion,

YOU SHOULD MAKE A CONCLUSION TO THINGS, NOT OTHER PEOPLE MAKE THE CONCLUSION FOR YOU

That's the secret, YOU SHOULD COME UP WITH AN ANSWER,

Not him,

Or her,

Or anybody.

Rational Thinking Summary : 

• Be astute, use rational thinking and rationality to come up with the BEST solution to your problem
• YOU should be the one coming up with the solutions. It's okay to get help but ultimately you will be the one that has to take a decision
• What is the meaning of rational thinking? It is the ability to think using facts and ideas, and not letting emotions do your thinking.
• Emotional decisions are usually very rash, foolish and hurried
• Decision coming as a result of rational thinking is usually planned and calculated

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