The Art of Clear Thinking by Rudolf FleschMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Context & Why I read this book
For 2021 I set myself the theme "a year of ratio & will"; so I am reading mostly on the topics of critical thinking, rationality, discipline, and willpower. Quite late I stumbled upon Flesch's "The Art of Clear Thinking" via the reference section of another book; a no-brainer to be added to my reading list for the year.
What is the book about as a whole?
As the title of this psychological self-help work suggests, Flesch explores what clear thinking is and how it can be achieved. He thereby takes you on an unexpected ride, touching the scientific fields of psychology, linguistics, anthropology, neurology, sociology, history, probability theory, and more.
The book's structure
The book has 21 chapters that are meant to be read in sequence:
1. Robots, Apes, and You
2. Nerves and Thoughts
3. Do You See What I See?
4. Of Thingummies and Whatchamacallits
5. Danger! Language at Work
6. The pursuit of Translation
7. First aid for word trouble
8. The Rise and Fall of Formal Logic
9. How Not to Be Bamboozled
10. Why argue?
11. Legal rules and Lively cases
12. Enter a bright idea
13. How to Solve a Puzzle
14. Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral
15. The More or Less Scientific Method
16. The Harnessing of Chance
17. How Not to Rack Your Brain
18. The Three R's— A Refresher Course
19. Thinking Begins at Home
20. The Mind From Nine to Five
21. Freedom from Error?
One lesson
Flesch presents a tactic intended to solve ordinary-life problems like buying a family home; he calls it "Twenty Questions" since it simply means asking as many as 20 questions from different perspectives before starting to work on the problem. Asking such questions seems like a very suitable kick-off procedure for most of my growth projects or personal goals I set up. So I'll add his examples questions to my goal template:
- What am I trying to accomplish?
- Have I done this sort of thing before? How?
- Could I do this some other way?
- How did other people tackle this?
- What kind of person or persons am I dealing with?
- How can this situation be changed to fit me?
- How can I adapt myself to this situation?
- How about using more? Less? All of it? Only a portion? One only? Two? Several?
- How about using something else? Something older? Something newer? Something more expensive? Something cheaper?
- How near? How far? In what direction?
- How soon? How often? Since when? For how long?
- Could I do this in combination? With whom? With what?
- How about doing the opposite?
- What would happen if I did nothing?
Reading Recommendation / Who should read this?
This book is a 7 out of 10 (⭑⭑⭑⭑) for me. It's a good read, despite minor weaknesses (like that it is a little dated by now) I would generally recommend this book to most people.
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