science

The Art of Thinking Clearly

The Art of Thinking Clearly is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand The Art of Thinking Clearly rather than just read about it. In short: The Art of Thinking Clearly is a 2013 book by the Swiss writer Rolf Dobelli which describes in short chapters 99 of the most common thinking errors – ranging from cognitive biases to envy and social distortions. The book was written as weekly columns in leading newspapers in Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, and later in two German books.

Key takeaways

The Art of Thinking Clearly belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect The Art of Thinking Clearly to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of The Art of Thinking Clearly from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Art of Thinking Clearly is a 2013 book by the Swiss writer Rolf Dobelli which describes in short chapters 99 of the most common thinking errors – ranging from cognitive biases to envy and social distortions. The book was written as weekly columns in leading newspapers in Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, and later in two German books. The book was in the top ten of Germany's Der Spiegel Bestseller list for 80 consecutive weeks and has been translated into many languages. Outside Germany and Switzerland, the book hit the top ten bestseller lists in the U.K, South Korea, India, Ireland, Singapore, and Iran. The book has sold more than three million copies and has been translated in over 50 languages. Author Nassim Taleb has asserted that the book included sections plagiarised from Taleb's manuscript of Antifragile.

See also Fallacy – Argument that uses faulty reasoning List of cognitive biases The Demon-Haunted World – 1995 book by Carl Sagan

References

External links Official website

Illustrations

The Art of Thinking Clearly illustration

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The Art of Thinking Clearly

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The Art of Thinking Clearly claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to The Art of Thinking Clearly before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about The Art of Thinking Clearly ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of The Art of Thinking Clearly

In research: The Art of Thinking Clearly appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses The Art of Thinking Clearly in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: The Art of Thinking Clearly is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2013 non-fiction books, Books about cognition, Farrar, Straus and Giroux books, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The Art of Thinking Clearly outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study The Art of Thinking Clearly in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what The Art of Thinking Clearly means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain The Art of Thinking Clearly out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is The Art of Thinking Clearly in simple terms?

Why does The Art of Thinking Clearly matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study The Art of Thinking Clearly?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on The Art of Thinking Clearly.