The Little Blue Reasoning Book: 50 Powerful Principles for Clear and Effective Thinking

294 Pages·2010·1.84 MB·English

by  Brandon Royal

THE
LITTLE BLUE
Reasoning
Book
50 POWERFUL PRINCIPLES
FOR CLEAR AND EFFECTIVE
THINKING
Brandon Royal
Published by Maven Publishing
© 2010 by Brandon Royal
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical — including
photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval
system — without permission in writing from the author or publisher.
Reviewers, however, may quote brief passages in a review, and
individuals wanting to reference material from this book for academic
or non-commercial purposes may do so provided the book, with title
and author’s name, is cited as a source.
Published by:
Maven Publishing
4520 Manilla Road
Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2G 4B7
www.mavenpublishing.com
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication:
Royal, Brandon
The little blue reasoning book : 50 powerful principles of clear and
effective thinking / by Brandon Royal.
ISBN 978-1-897393-60-4
Library of Congress Control Number: 2009909356
In addition to the paperback edition, this book is available as an eBook
and in the Adobe PDF file format.
Technical Credits:
Cover Design: George Foster, Fairfield, Iowa, USA
Editing: Jonathan K. Cohen, Irvine, California, USA
Illustrations: Ashley Vercekaites, Calgary, Canada
This book’s cover text was set in Minion. The interior text was set in
Scala and Scala Sans.
Contents
Preface 7
Introduction 9
Quiz 11
Chapter 1: Perception & Mindset
Selective Perception 15
The Magic of Coincidence 16
The Four Classic Mindsets 19
Chapter 2: Creative Thinking
Overview 27
Lateral Thinking 27
Divergent vs. Convergent Thinking 33
Mind Maps 38
Devil’s Advocate Technique 39
Idea Killers and Idea Growers 42
Brainstorming 49
Reframing Problems 54
Selling Creative Ideas 55
Chapter 3: Decision Making
Overview 59
Pros-and-Cons Analysis 60
Matrixes 66
Decision-Event Trees 76
Probability Trees 81
Weighted Ranking 81
Utility Analysis 88
Sunk Costs 91
Hypothesis Testing 93
Prisoner’s Dilemma 98
Chapter 4: Analyzing Arguments
Overview 105
The ABCs of Argument Structure 106
Evaluating Arguments 107
The Five Common Reasoning Flaws 114
Testing Critical Reasoning 127
Putting It All Together 145
Chapter 5: Mastering Logic
Overview 149
“If … Then” Statements 150
“No-Some-Most-All” Statements 153
Mutual Inclusivity and Exclusively 155
Statements of Logical Equivalency 157
Testing Logic-based Reasoning 159
Appendix I – Summary of Reasoning Tips 1 to 50 171
Appendix II – Fallacious Reasoning 177
Appendix III – Avoiding Improper Inferences 188
Appendix IV – Analogies 190
Appendix V – The Ten Classic Trade-offs 196
Appendix VI – Critical Reading and Comprehension 205
Appendix VII – Tips for Taking Reading Tests 209
Answers and Explanations 225
Quiz – Answers 281
Selected Bibliography 283
Index 285
About the Author

Preface
Henry Humidor purchased a box of very rare, very expensive
cigars and insured them, among other things, against fire.
Within a month, having smoked his entire stockpile of cigars,
he filed a claim against the insurance company. In his claim,
Henry stated the cigars were lost “in a series of small fires.” The
insurance company refused to pay, citing the obvious reason: he
had consumed the cigars in the normal fashion.
Henry sued and won!
In delivering the ruling, the judge agreed that the claim was
frivolous. He stated that the man nevertheless held a policy
from the company in which it had warranted that the cigars
were insurable and also guaranteed that it would insure against
fire, without adequately defining what is considered to be an
“unacceptable fire,” and was obligated to pay the claim.
Rather than endure a lengthy and costly appeals process, the
insurance company accepted the ruling and paid Henry $15,000
for the rare cigars he lost in the “fires.”
But …
After Henry cashed the check, the insurance company had him
arrested on twenty-four counts of arson! With his own insurance
claim and testimony from the previous case used against him,
Henry Humidor was convicted of intentionally setting fire to his
insured property and was sentenced to twenty-four months in jail
and a $24,000 fine.
Welcome to the wonderful world of reasoning.
7

Introduction
Some 2,500 years ago, Socrates gave birth to the art and science
of what we now call critical reasoning. Through a system of
inquiry, known as the “Socratic method,” Socrates used a series
of probing questions to obtain answers and then critique those
answers. In this manner, he sought to reveal the key issues
behind perplexing problems, to uncover the merit and flaws in
commonly held ideas, and to expose those contradictory beliefs
that often hide behind smooth-sounding but empty rhetoric.
It is indeed humorous to reflect on Socrates’ observation that
one cannot necessarily rely on the “sound” judgment of those
individuals occupying positions of authority; they may be prone
to think in a muddled, whimsical, or irrational manner.
Critical reasoning, also referred to as critical thinking, may
be defined broadly as “the process by which we evaluate
information.” Often, the information we seek relates to problems
or opportunities, and the process relates to how we arrive at our
conclusions based upon the information we have. Individuals
who possess critical thinking skills can identify problems or
opportunities, gather relevant information, analyze information
in a “proper” way, and come to reliable conclusions by themselves,
without necessarily relying on others.
Notwithstanding our ability to read, no other single skill is more
important than our ability to reason. Yet, strangely, no required
course dedicated to reasoning skills exists as a part of our
regular school curriculum or as part of any on-the-job training
program. This book provides a distillation of the most useful
academic and real-life reasoning concepts. Teaching in our
school systems — primary, secondary, and post-secondary — has
traditionally been skewed toward instructing us “what to think”
as opposed to “how to think.” An all-rounded education must
balance the teaching of course content with new and better ways
of understanding and interpreting the material at hand.
9