Critical thinking

Biases, reasoning, method: learning to doubt properly, oneself included.

Critical thinking is not the art of contradicting: it is the art of doubting properly — your sources, your figures and, above all, yourself. This section gathers what helps to practise it at work: understanding how judgement goes wrong, spotting the situations where it goes wrong most, and having methods to protect yourself.

You will find the cognitive biases (one page per bias, with real cases, warning signs and reflexes), the methods that neutralise them, and a page showing the scale of the scandals these biases have caused.

Cognitive biasesWhat we get wrong when we look, and how to see it in time: the biases that lie in wait for IT project delivery and team management.73 pages The great scandalsA world map and a list of the scandals, disasters and resounding failures cited in the cognitive bias entries, with a link to the detailed case.Photo gallery of researchersThe researchers whose work underpins the cognitive bias entries: an illustrated portrait, a summary, sources and the site entries that cite them.