My “Three Amigos”
I’ve never met these three guys in real life, but they’ve been my “amigos” for many years and I’ve learned so much from what they’ve created for us all.
They also believe in bringing all this clear thinking goodness “the last mile” and into everyone’s daily lives.
So when you’re ready to move on from the Clear Thinking Campaign here are three great places to check out next…
Jesse Richardson
Jesse is an Australian educator who is determined to see that Clear Thinking Skills are taught to everyone in school, and is working on an effort to bring that experience to anyone anywhere through a virtual environment.
Like we all do, he believes strongly that we should be shown HOW to think, not WHAT to think.
His entertaining, insightful and essential TEDx Talk illuminates his vision of this virtual school (provided to you here). Everything related to it can be found at SchoolOfThought.org.
In addition, he and his team have created two of the most amazing and remarkable posters I’ve ever seen. There are even playing cards and online games one can play that are part of this set.
You can click on the photos of these two posters here, and you can go to the link provided above and download your own free high-res poster sized PDF version of each.
Kevin deLaplante
Kevin deLaplante is a Canadian university educator who left his comfy job and went on his own to be more effective at bringing Clear Thinking Skills into all our lives.
His approach has evolved and has become centered on the martial arts model. His website is called ArgumentNinja.com. It’s the place to start with Kevin’s voluminous offerings.
You can also see lots of his videos on his YouTube channel HERE.
The resources Kevin has created and shared is breathtaking.
If you don’t know where to start you can try the video podcast episode to the right that really gives us our bearings and helps us get centered because we all have a tendency to jump around at random. Kevin talks about the 5 Essential Components of Critical Thinking. Then as we jump around, we’ll have a sense as to how things fit into the big picture.
Bo Bennett
Bo is in a class by himself – he has an encyclopedic mind and he’s really funny too. This first introductory 5 minute video here is about his book and, well, you gotta see it.
Even though Bo doesn’t know me, I know him. I keep my personally signed copy of his book I ordered from his website always in easy reach – in my library in the bathroom – so I can learn useful things 5-10 minutes at a time. 😂 (It reminds me of Neil deGrasse “Tyson’s Astrophysics for Busy People” which is also in my “library”). One bite at a time is a great way to improve our thinking.
Seriously though, I love this book and I refer to it constantly. Bo also has a bazillion videos on his YouTube channel HERE for us to enjoy and learn from. He’s so much fun to listen to and he’ll talk about anything.
Bo is a treasure to all of us who want to think clearly. His work is at LogicallyFallacious.com.
I selected a couple of Bo’s 2-minute “shirt sleeve” videos that are examples of what you’ll find and you can play them here.
When you watch “Declinism” you’ll notice that sometimes a term can seem technical but actually it’s something we all immediately recognize.
He also tells us where this bias comes from, and now we’ll NOTICE declinism all the time and be able to bring it up in conversation when we want to fascinate our friends and family!
For instance, when you hear pundits say “our society is the most polarized it’s ever been” you can now see more clearly why this just isn’t true, but it may seem that way. Declinism – the world is getting worse.
Plus, as we learned in the “Oversimplification” section of the Clear Thinking Campaign, the mere act of using the term “polarized” confuses people AND further perpetuates this wrong idea which doesn’t exist in the first place. (This is true for terms like gay/straight, blacks/whites, liberals/conservatives, etc. None of these actually exist.)
This is an example of how things smear together. Oversimplified terms feel black and white, create confusion, and directly contribute to the feeling that we can’t get a grip on this stuff and talk about it meaningfully, and thus the world seems polarized and getting worse.
Thanks Bo!
ClearThinkingCampaign.org
© 2022 Mark Halvorson. All Rights Reserved.
This campaign and website imagined, created and maintained by Mark Halvorson. This is a living document. All media is properly licensed, attributed, and usage rights are respected.
Get out there and practice, practice, practice thinking clearly with your friends and family. Help refine what people say rather than reject it. Try to say what you want in the form of a question. You can also send people here and not say a word. The huge benefit from all this is that it won’t be long until people and the world won’t be able to mess with you anymore. People will notice that about you and will want to know how you did it. Be strong and have your own ideas, style and identity. We’re all in this together.