I’m a former academic philosopher of science. Now I work as an independent educator and consultant, helping individuals and companies develop their capacity to think critically, communicate persuasively, and make smart decisions that promote their true goals and values.
- As a solo entrepreneur, I develop learning resources (video courses, podcasts, ebooks) and run a membership site dedicated to helping individuals develop their critical thinking, argumentation and persuasion skills. One can think of this work as located at the intersection of critical thinking education and personal development.
- As an educational consultant, I give talks and run workshops on the topics related to critical thinking education, teacher training and curriculum development.
- As a business consultant, I work with the amazing team at Lenker Consulting, where I bring my skills as a writer, researcher, analyst and philosopher to help businesses fulfill their aspirational goals and make a positive impact on the world.
020 – Critical Thinking in China
This past month I was fortunate to be a guest of Xidian University in China for two weeks. On this episode of the podcast I share stories and reflections from my adventures as a first-time visitor to China, and I give an overview of some of the public talks and lectures I gave.
The episode has four distinct parts. The first 20 minutes is stories from my trip and observations about Chinese culture. Then there are three discussions on philosophy, science and critical thinking topics:
(1) on circular reasoning in the appeal to science and nature to justify social and political views;
(2) on the elements of science literacy and why public science education doesn’t teach it; and
(3) on the history of critical thinking in the west, and the challenges of talking about the value of critical thinking to audiences in modern China.
019 – Understanding Your Divided Mind: Kahneman, Haidt and Greene
Argument Ninjas need to acquire a basic understanding of the psychology of human reasoning. This is essential for improving the quality of our own reasoning, and for mastering skills in communication and persuasion.
On this episode I take you on a guided tour of our divided mind. I compare and contrast the dual-process theories of Daniel Kahneman (Thinking, Fast and Slow), Jonathan Haidt (The Righteous Mind) and Joshua Greene (Moral Tribes). The simple mental models these authors use should be part of every critical thinker’s toolbox.
My other goal with this episode is to help listeners think more critically about dual-process theories in cognitive science, to better understand the state of the science and the diversity of views that fall under this label.
017 – White Belt Curriculum (Part 2): The Tao of Socrates
In episode 017 I give an update on new content at the Argument Ninja website, and I finish reviewing the white belt curriculum for the Argument Ninja Academy program. The third and fourth learning modules in the white belt curriculum are titled “Socratic Knowledge” and “Socratic Persuasion”. In this episode I also have an extended case study of a challenging persuasion case over the following issue: Do Christians and Muslims worship the same God?
016 – White Belt Curriculum (Part 1)
The Argument Ninja training program that I’m developing is inspired by martial arts training principles. The curriculum is spread over nine belt ranks (white belt, yellow belt, orange belt, etc. ). In this episode I give an overview of the learning modules that make up the white belt curriculum, and dive deep into the second module, an introduction to Argument Analysis.
015 – The White Belt Experience
In this episode I explore learning and teaching techniques in the martial arts, from the perspective of the beginning student and from the perspective of the experienced instructor. I extract a number of important training principles from this exercise that I hope to incorporate in the Argument Ninja training program.
014 – Why CURIOSITY is a Valuable Resource for Critical Thinking
On this episode I talk about the various ways that curiosity is an undervalued resource for critical thinking. I explain how curiosity plays an important role in generating the kind of background knowledge that supports critical thinking, and why it has important and underrated debiasing properties, meaning that it can reduce many of the harmful effects of cognitive biases on our thinking. I’m also going to talk about my personal relationship to curiosity, and how it has influenced many of the decisions I’ve made in my career.
013 – Avatars for Critical Thinking (Brainstorming the Argument Ninja Academy)
In this episode I talk about how the program I’m developing for the Argument Ninja Academy will differ from the Critical Thinker Academy, and outline my instructional design goals for the new program. I also describe the kinds of personality types, or “avatars”, that are most strongly attracted to this kind of material. I’ve named these avatars the Scientist, the Philosopher, the Persuader, the Analyst, and the Butterfly. Do you see yourself in any of these descriptions? Let me know!
012 – Trump, Persuasion and Hypnosis
This is the first episode since Donald Trump won the election, so you know I’ve got to talk about Trump! In this episode I take up the question that Scott Adams has framed for us: is Donald Trump some kind of “master persuader” who uses persuasion techniques familiar to anyone trained in hypnosis? And is this the reason why he won the election?