Every year on the first day of April, everyone puts on their thinking cap and knowingly views much of what they hear or see with a healthy dose of scepticism. Instead of doing this only on April Fool’s, treat every new piece of information as if it’s April 1 to think more critically every day.
While it might be harder to completely take people for suckers on April 1 nowadays, many industries — in particular the health and fitness industry — count on you letting down your guard during the other 364 days of the year, and serve up often bogus information to win over your time, energy, and money.
So, says George Hrab in the TEDx Talk above, treat every day like it’s April Fool’s Day. Look at everything you see and read on the internet through a lens of scepticism. Take a step back and see if the concepts and ideas therein are legit, and ask lots of questions.
He dives into the differences between sceptics, cynics, and denialists, stating that exercising scepticism is “evidence-based thinking” — which is to say that not all information should be taken at face value. At the 13-minute mark, he mentions the “4/1” concept. Check out the video above for more.
Rethinking Doubt: The Value and Achievements of Scepticism [TEDx Talks]
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