Steve Patterson's Substack
Patterson in Pursuit
Critical Thinking | Zooming In and Zooming Out
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Critical Thinking | Zooming In and Zooming Out

A critical thinker must have the ability to zoom in and zoom out - to hyper-focus on cause and effect and to see how things interconnect in the big picture.

It's a common and critical error to be too-zoomed-in or too-zoomed-out. The over-focused mind is like the mathematician who doesn't realize the assumptions of his model are non-mathematical and likely wrong.

The under-focused mind is like the mushroom-enthusiast that's content concluding "All is one", with no finer-resolution of analysis.

The careful thinker must be constantly zooming in and zooming out, gathering ideas from all levels of resolution.

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Steve Patterson's Substack
Patterson in Pursuit
Philosophy in the real world. Interviewing intellectuals across the globe. Grappling with the biggest ideas.