Chitchat S'poreans lack critical thinking

[Thick Face Black Heart]

Singaporeans lack critical thinking because they lack exposure, and they lack the incentive to think critically. Its as simple as that.

You can't throw a bunch of people into a room and tell them to start asking deeper questions, look at issues from different angles, or read literature with a questioning mind, and expect them to produce results, if all their life's experiences thus far has been confined to a few mundane friendships, a boring job, and a lackluster school life.

Critical thinking has to be fuelled by prior exposure to the worldly affairs. A person with limited exposure to a wide variety of real life situations and different kinds of people will not know what kinds of questions to ask, and will not be able to identify what is wrong. He will lack depth of perception because he lacks knowledge. Singaporeans lack critical thinking skills because they are ignorant.

Critical thinking is also honed by a lifelong habit of taking charge and assuming responsibility for one's own life. It is a skill that arises from a mindset of self-reliance, which requires you to solve problems without the comfort of a safety net or government hand-holding. People who grow up in a nanny state, who are spoon-fed solutions, will not develop critical thinking skills.

 

[scroobal]

Here is an interesting use of critical thinking. MI5, the UK Intelligence Agency has long stopped recruiting people with impressive academic credentials for their field agents and analysts. They give you an essay no different to a GP paper. Then they asked you to answer a series of questions. What they are looking for is critical thinking. You pass that and then you go onto the next series of assessments.

 

[scroobal]

Agree. The spoon-feeding and conditioning is there for everyone to see.

In the past this might be true, but this is the modern age of the internet. All you need is a small level of curiosity. And if you have that, then you check out other alternate websites like this, TRC, TOC, Mr Brown, etc. If you did that, you will get many alternate views other then what the PAP puts out in the shit times. By then exercising your brain to decide what is right and what makes sense, you have just engaged in critical thinking. Its practically spoonfed to them now if they are willing to take the time and small amount of effort. Compare the old days when you have to read newspapers, etc. Even back then, I held many debates with my friends going back to secondary school about the govt policies, and what not. its there that you sharpen your critical thinking because among your friends, you wil always have die hard PAP supporters, fence sitters, etc.U need to have critical thinking to debate with them and make your points across to them.

 

[winnipegjets]

Singaporeans lack critical thinking because they lack exposure, and they lack the incentive to think critically. Its as simple as that.

Sinkees don't lack exposure ...they go overseas to study, they hang out amongst themselves; they compare the foreign way of life with sinkapore and then think the latter is the world's best.

They read foreign newspapers and conclude that the PAP Press is the best source of news. They let the PAP tell them how to interprete world events.

Sinkees are just plain stupid.

 

[ginfreely]

Singaporeans lack critical thinking because they lack exposure, and they lack the incentive to think critically. Its as simple as that.

You can't throw a bunch of people into a room and tell them to start asking deeper questions, look at issues from different angles, or read literature with a questioning mind, and expect them to produce results, if all their life's experiences thus far has been confined to a few mundane friendships, a boring job, and a lackluster school life.

Critical thinking has to be fuelled by prior exposure to the worldly affairs. A person with limited exposure to a wide variety of real life situations and different kinds of people will not know what kinds of questions to ask, and will not be able to identify what is wrong. He will lack depth of perception because he lacks knowledge. Singaporeans lack critical thinking skills because they are ignorant.

Critical thinking is also honed by a lifelong habit of taking charge and assuming responsibility for one's own life. It is a skill that arises from a mindset of self-reliance, which requires you to solve problems without the comfort of a safety net or government hand-holding. People who grow up in a nanny state, who are spoon-fed solutions, will not develop critical thinking skills.

Yes no need to look far, just from this forum you can see so many sinkie smart alec who have no brains and yet love to judge people on superficial grounds like what time people sleep and insist others not falling in their silly mould must be having self deception. Lol.

 

[scroobal]

You raised a number of good points - exposure, incentive to think critically, assuming responsibility for one's life etc. In terms of exposure, this generation has been most exposed yet they do not seem to pick any learnings from it. There seems to be a mental block of some sort.

I do remember when talking about these things to colleagues and friends, the frequent reply would be that these adults know that they have to complete their education, quickly find a partner, apply for HDB flat, save up for renovation ( and we know how renovations are important unlike the West), etc etc. When they finally get married and move into their new flat, they spent their time planning which restaurant in which mall to go for dinner. Everything else becomes incidental.

One thing I was quite certain and it refers to world affairs, they are close to clueless.

Singaporeans lack critical thinking because they lack exposure, and they lack the incentive to think critically. Its as simple as that.

You can't throw a bunch of people into a room and tell them to start asking deeper questions, look at issues from different angles, or read literature with a questioning mind, and expect them to produce results, if all their life's experiences thus far has been confined to a few mundane friendships, a boring job, and a lackluster school life.

Critical thinking has to be fuelled by prior exposure to the worldly affairs. A person with limited exposure to a wide variety of real life situations and different kinds of people will not know what kinds of questions to ask, and will not be able to identify what is wrong. He will lack depth of perception because he lacks knowledge. Singaporeans lack critical thinking skills because they are ignorant.

Critical thinking is also honed by a lifelong habit of taking charge and assuming responsibility for one's own life. It is a skill that arises from a mindset of self-reliance, which requires you to solve problems without the comfort of a safety net or government hand-holding. People who grow up in a nanny state, who are spoon-fed solutions, will not develop critical thinking skills.

 

[ginfreely]

Sinkees don't lack exposure ...they go overseas to study, they hang out amongst themselves; they compare the foreign way of life with sinkapore and then think the latter is the world's best.

They read foreign newspapers and conclude that the PAP Press is the best source of news. They let the PAP tell them how to interprete world events.

Sinkees are just plain stupid.

When you study overseas say Australia, you don't see the truth of people. You only know the truth when you work with them. Who are the nice cultured ones, who are the low class criminals type.

 

[ginfreely]

You raised a number of good points - exposure, incentive to think critically, assuming responsibility for one's life etc. In terms of exposure, this generation has been most exposed yet they do not seem to pick any learnings from it. There seems to be a mental block of some sort.

I do remember when talking about these things to colleagues and friends, the frequent reply would be that these adults know that they have to complete their education, quickly find a partner, apply for HDB flat, save up for renovation ( and we know how renovations are important unlike the West), etc etc. When they finally get married and move into their new flat, they spent their time planning which restaurant in which mall to go for dinner. Everything else becomes incidental.

One thing I was quite certain and it refers to world affairs, they are close to clueless.

Yes there are many such sinkies who work with sinkies only and very narrow mind thinking Singapore govt is superior, other govt is inferior. Or think Spore newater is superior and no other nations with prowess in making water and worth consulting.

 

[mojito]

When you study overseas say Australia, you don't see the truth of people. You only know the truth when you work with them. Who are the nice cultured ones, who are the low class criminals type.

Who are the low class criminal types? Who? Tell us please.

 

[ginfreely]

Who are the low class criminal types? Who? Tell us please.

I shared before my Australian ex colleague who used the company premise to rent out for his own benefit. Low class criminal or not?

 

[mojito]

I shared before my Australian ex colleague who used the company premise to rent out for his own benefit. Low class criminal or not?

Low class yes. But not a crime! Come now, you can do better.

 

[ginfreely]

Low class yes. But not a crime! Come now, you can do better.

Why not criminal? Earn money for himself from renting out company premise storage space.

 

[Thick Face Black Heart]

You raised a number of good points - exposure, incentive to think critically, assuming responsibility for one's life etc. In terms of exposure, this generation has been most exposed yet they do not seem to pick any learnings from it. There seems to be a mental block of some sort.

I do remember when talking about these things to colleagues and friends, the frequent reply would be that these adults know that they have to complete their education, quickly find a partner, apply for HDB flat, save up for renovation ( and we know how renovations are important unlike the West), etc etc. When they finally get married and move into their new flat, they spent their time planning which restaurant in which mall to go for dinner. Everything else becomes incidental.

One thing I was quite certain and it refers to world affairs, they are close to clueless.

A couple of further thoughts:

Inability to think critically has been on the rise around the world, not just singapore. Witness the exponentially rising number of people subscribing to homeopathic medicine, literal interpretation of religious texts, pseudo science, etc. Another indicator: when was the last time you read a really solid op-ed?

The current crop of Singaporeans are the most well travelled and most technologically connected, no doubt. One problem faced however is information saturation. Another issue is my point on incentive: all the travel is no good to you if all you seek are shopping outlets, luxury goods, etc. Also it is well known that Singaporean students abroad rarely venture out of their own cliques. What a waste of a golden opportunity!

 

[gatehousethetinkertailor]

Here is an interesting use of critical thinking. MI5, the UK Intelligence Agency has long stopped recruiting people with impressive academic credentials for their field agents and analysts. They give you an essay no different to a GP paper. Then they asked you to answer a series of questions. What they are looking for is critical thinking. You pass that and then you go onto the next series of assessments.

I know of an extremely bright British-born Pakistani lad who was identified as a recruit - he'd gone to public school (in the English sense), then to Oxbridge and Harvard.

This was around the time of 9/11 there are an even greater urgent need to have good intel officers on the ground and in the East Asian community so he was an obvious choice. The whole recruitment process took much longer than he had expected. In-between the wait he decided to apply for a British scholarship (as a back-up of what to do next) for professional qualifications in law - soon after he sent off the application he got asked to attend the next meeting in a cafe in Soho.

He turned up and was bollocked for not telling them about the scholarship application he had made. He was genuinely shocked as he was rather studious yet streetsmart but as he was still just interviewing he did not think anything of it. He had done all sorts of tests over a period of months and had progressed on smoothly.

Suffice to say that was the end of that.

 

[Papsmearer]

Singaporeans lack critical thinking because they lack exposure, and they lack the incentive to think critically. Its as simple as that.

You can't throw a bunch of people into a room and tell them to start asking deeper questions, look at issues from different angles, or read literature with a questioning mind, and expect them to produce results, if all their life's experiences thus far has been confined to a few mundane friendships, a boring job, and a lackluster school life.

Critical thinking has to be fuelled by prior exposure to the worldly affairs. A person with limited exposure to a wide variety of real life situations and different kinds of people will not know what kinds of questions to ask, and will not be able to identify what is wrong. He will lack depth of perception because he lacks knowledge. Singaporeans lack critical thinking skills because they are ignorant.

Critical thinking is also honed by a lifelong habit of taking charge and assuming responsibility for one's own life. It is a skill that arises from a mindset of self-reliance, which requires you to solve problems without the comfort of a safety net or government hand-holding. People who grow up in a nanny state, who are spoon-fed solutions, will not develop critical thinking skills.

that does not explain the following facts:

Tens of thousands of singaporeans have studied and worked in western countries. Those that have studied in the US and such countries have been train to critically think in their unis. The same with those that have worked overseas for MNCs. These unis and MNCs do exactly what you say. they throw a bunch of people in a room and ask them to look at the problem from different angles. Why is it then that when they return to singapore, this critical thinking is missing? To begin with, we can safely say that 30% of the population can critically think or else they would have voted for the PAP too. But that does not explain the thousands who have gone through PSC and SAF scholarships and who appear to have left their brains back in those countries.

People from singapore also travel extensively, and have been exposed to many cultures and many types of people. Something must have rubbed off on them. Like I said. They know and have been trained to critically think. Maybe not in the singapore school system. Nor in the singapore culture. But it has been somewhere along the line exposed to them. Whether they do it or not is a function of their willingness to look at alternate news media source. if they don't want to do it, perhaps its not lack of critical thinking that they posess, but rather laziness and stupidity.

 

[Papsmearer]

I know of an extremely bright British-born Pakistani lad who was identified as a recruit - he'd gone to public school (in the English sense), then to Oxbridge and Harvard.

This was around the time of 9/11 there are an even greater urgent need to have good intel officers on the ground and in the East Asian community so he was an obvious choice. The whole recruitment process took much longer than he had expected. In-between the wait he decided to apply for a British scholarship (as a back-up of what to do next) for professional qualifications in law - soon after he sent off the application he got asked to attend the next meeting in a cafe in Soho.

He turned up and was bollocked for not telling them about the scholarship application he had made. He was genuinely shocked as he was rather studious yet streetsmart but as he was still just interviewing he did not think anything of it. He had done all sorts of tests over a period of months and had progressed on smoothly.

Suffice to say that was the end of that.

So, in other words, scholars are not critical thinkers. u should tell that to gay loong.

 

[Papsmearer]

I find that taxi drivers are some of the most critical thinkers in singapore. and most of them do not have a high level of education. but they seem very good in interpreting what is really happening in singapore.

 

[Thick Face Black Heart]

that does not explain the following facts:

Tens of thousands of singaporeans have studied and worked in western countries. Those that have studied in the US and such countries have been train to critically think in their unis. The same with those that have worked overseas for MNCs. These unis and MNCs do exactly what you say. they throw a bunch of people in a room and ask them to look at the problem from different angles. Why is it then that when they return to singapore, this critical thinking is missing? To begin with, we can safely say that 30% of the population can critically think or else they would have voted for the PAP too. But that does not explain the thousands who have gone through PSC and SAF scholarships and who appear to have left their brains back in those countries.

People from singapore also travel extensively, and have been exposed to many cultures and many types of people. Something must have rubbed off on them. Like I said. They know and have been trained to critically think. Maybe not in the singapore school system. Nor in the singapore culture. But it has been somewhere along the line exposed to them. Whether they do it or not is a function of their willingness to look at alternate news media source. if they don't want to do it, perhaps its not lack of critical thinking that they posess, but rather laziness and stupidity.

Point taken.

I am also at a loss to explain why Singaporeans when returning back revert to lobotomized state. Maybe succumb to pressure to fit in with the rest of the sheep, or as you say, laziness. I think complacency plays a big role and people assume life will somehow work out for them if they simply go through the motions.

 

[mojito]

Why not criminal? Earn money for himself from renting out company premise storage space.

Company rules lah. Break rules does not always mean break country law. So not criminal. Dun need to argue lah.

 

[mojito]

Point taken.

I am also at a loss to explain why Singaporeans when returning back revert to lobotomized state. Maybe succumb to pressure to fit in with the rest of the sheep, or as you say, laziness. I think complacency plays a big role and people assume life will somehow work out for them if they simply go through the motions.

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