Good Thinking Habits

Look it up at Amazon: Good Thinking Habits by David G Croucher: available in paperback and as a Kindle Book (including free on Kindle Unlimited).

Good thinking is about making best use of the information available to us. Good thinking leads to more accurate view of reality than that which we would otherwise have, and enables us to draw conclusions with a higher likelihood of success than we could otherwise have done.

Whilst in the short term we barely notice it, in the longer-term Good Thinking Habits have a profound and positive impact on our lives. The optimization of our short-term decisions, our ability to counter our instinctive and intuitive thoughts and habits, our flexibility and open mindedness with regards our beliefs and mindsets, our ability to recognize the faulty logic and deliberate manipulation of others, all build up to give us lives which are as fulfilling as they can reasonably be.

This is a ready reference to Good Thinking Habits in general and to the recognition and countering of the causes of our Poor Thinking Habits. As a ready reference guide, keep this book close to hand, and familiarize yourself with its contents.

Contents:

What’s it about?

Good Thinking Habits

  • Avoid over simplification
  • Be ready to question the authenticity or reliability of information
  • Keep focused on essentials 
  • Openly seek evidence that contradicts your beliefs
  • Accept multiple cause contributions to outcomes
  • Accept that other cultures and behaviors are just different, not better or worse
  • Temper extreme optimism or negativity
  • Err on the side of being positive 
  • Think about what is not there but maybe could or should have been
  • Avoid jumping to conclusions
  • Accept without question that your intuition and instincts are not magically correct
  • Get on and deal with what needs to be dealt with
  • Keep focused on best chances outcomes
  • Focus on the why
  • Be aware of the possibility of Ambiguity
  • The ends do not excuse the means
  • Don’t over prioritize
  • Reward intent and process rather than outcome
  • Hold back from presuming cause and effect
  • Be open minded about criticism and alternative views
  • Be assertive when something is important to you
  • Look for reasons, not excuses
  • Choose rationale judgement when feeling emotional
  • Stop and think; you have a choice.
  • Do not blame others for when things go wrong
  • Make an effort
  • Do today what can and should be done today
  • Show gratitude

Countering Cognitive Biases

  • Actor-Observer Bias or Fundamental Attribution Bias
  • Ambiguity Bias 
  • Anchoring or Focusing Bias 
  • Attention Bias
  • Authority Bias
  • Availability Bias 
  • Bandwagon Effect Bias 
  • The Barnum Effect Bias
  • Belief Bias
  • Benefit Bias
  • Blind Spot Bias
  • Choice Supportive Bias
  • Conservativism Bias
  • Confirmation Bias
  • Congruence Bias
  • Consistency Bias
  • Contrast Bias
  • Control Bias
  • Distinction Bias
  • Early Evidence Bias
  • Early Reward Bias
  • Egocentric bias
  • Endowment Bias
  • Extreme Aversion Bias
  • Observer Expectancy Bias
  • Expectation Bias
  • False consensus bias
  • Familiarity Bias
  • The Framing Bias
  • The Frequency illusion
  • The Halo Effect Bias
  • Hindsight Bias
  • An Illusion of Control Bias
  • Ingroup Bias
  • A Just World Bias
  • A Negativity Bias
  • The Normalcy Bias
  • Omission Bias
  • Optimism Bias
  • Outcome Bias
  • Overconfidence Bias
  • Partsum Bias
  • Pattern Bias
  • Personal Validation Bias
  • Pessimism Bias
  • Recall Bias
  • Restraint Bias
  • Risk Framing Bias
  • Secrecy Bias
  • Selective Outcome Bias
  • Unconscious Bias
  • The Zeigarnik Effect

Recognizing Fallacies

  • The Fallacy of Accident
  • The Fallacy of Amphiboly
  • The Fallacy of Argument By Selective Observation
  • The Fallacy “Ad Hominem”, Argument To The Man
  • An Appeal to Authority
  • A Fallacy of False Balance
  • An Appeal to Consequence
  • The Fallacy of Appeal to Emotions
  • The Fallacy of Appeal to Human Nature
  • The Fallacy of Ad ignorantiam, an Appeal to Ignorance
  • An Appeal to Money
  • A Fallacy of Appeal to the People, Ad Populum
  • An Appeal to Ridicule or Mockery
  • The Fallacy of an Appeal to Silence
  • The Fallacy of Appeal to Vanity
  • The Fallacy of Assuming the Antecedent
  • A Fallacy of Changing the Goalpost, or raising the bar
  • Circular reasoning
  • Cum Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc
  • Fallacies of Composition and Division
  • The Fallacy of Confusing an Explanation with an Excuse
  • Fallacy of the Continuum
  • The Fallacy of Distortion
  • The Fallacy of the Dope Pushers Defense
  • The Fallacy of Double Standards
  • The Fallacy of Equivocation
  • The Fallacy of the Excluded Middle
  • The Fallacy of False Analogy
  • The Fallacy of False Continuum
  • A Fallacy of False Precision
  • The Fallacy Argumentum ad Logicam / The Fallacist’s Fallacy
  • The Fallacy of Group Identity
  • The Fallacy of Guilt by Association
  • A Hasty Generalization
  • The Hindsight Fallacy / Historian’s Fallacy
  • The Fallacy of Hypostatization
  • Implicit Assumption Fallacy
  • The Fallacy of Moderation / Fallacy of the Middle Ground
  • The Fallacy of Poisoning the Well
  • The Fallacy of Positive Ad Hominem
  • Post Hoc ergo Propter Hoc
  • The Prosecutor’s Fallacy
  • The Fallacy of Rationalization
  • The Sharpshooter Fallacy
  • The Fallacy of Single Cause
  • The Slippery Slope Fallacy / The Domino Fallacy.
  • The Spotlight Fallacy
  • The Fallacy of Style Over Substance
  • The Fallacy of Traditional Wisdom
  • The Fallacy of Tu Quoque
  • The Fallacy of the Unexplained
  • The Victim Fallacy

Understanding Probabilities

  • Even-Chance Bias
  • The Gambler’s Fallacy
  • Possible is not Probable
  • It is highly likely that unlikely things will happen
  • Appreciate Regression to the Mean
  • Not everything is Normal
  • Selective Observation Bias
  • Lucky charms and superstitions
  • What are the odds?
  • The Many Abuses of Statistics
  • Appreciate the implication of ‘base rate’
  • Attempt to understand or calculate the expected value
  • Extreme estimation bias

Noticing Influences

  • Authority
  • Social Proof and affinity
  • Scarcity
  • Reciprocity
  • Consistency
  • Likability
  • Repetition
  • Distinctiveness
  • Framing
  • Appeal to Ego
  • Selective Observations
  • Where there’s smoke there’s fire

Overcoming self-defeating behaviors

Attitudes and Mindsets

  • Whilst I am who I am, I can change
  • Whilst I am proud to be a member of my religion, my nation, my group, it is not the totality of who I am
  • I will argue for what I believe but I’m open to alternative views
  • Why Shouldn’t I?
  • The world is not against me
  • I guess this is the way it is

Where to Next