Third week of March, still alive, still in quarantine. The boredom starts to get me, and I'm still trying to do things to keep my sanity. One thing that I will keep doing during this time is obviously writing, so you could expect at least two posts per week. I think I've discussed too much heavy things last week, hence I decided to do something easier. This one will be about how simplicity changed hot we act and think in the last century. Some people who are close to me know that I've once applied for a UWC scholarship, and for the application I needed to submit a short paper. Through this article I'm going to 'resurrect' that paper.

The Importance of Critical Thinking


Internet and other kinds of technological development are among the most popular answer to the greatest threat in the last century, but what I will about to discuss is something more basic, something rooted strongly in our society - ease and simplicity. Human tend to always choose the easier path to do something, and there is nothing wrong with that; I personally think it is already in our nature, to find shortcuts - least action, most results. However, what is so dangerous about them?

By keep looking for shortcuts, we have less sense of struggle than the people in the previous era. There is nothing or nobody to blame for this, as I already said before. However, what is so special about the development of ease in the current era. It is so fascinatingly fast, that even sometimes we could not even keep up with it. This is where human development could be the one and only way to balance the scale.

The following paragraph discuss the particular situation in my home country, Indonesia. Feel free to share the situation in your home country, or country you are studying in right now.

The biggest role in human resources development is of course the education system, and now we are at the weakest point. Curriculum changes without any clear reasons, students learned materials that they have learned in the previous year, and they do not learn what we should learn. Schools are adding extra classes after school, giving students a huge pile of homework, to make sure they get good grades, for something that they do not even know why they are studying this. Teachers are paid unbelievably low, and it effects the teachers’ motivation in teaching. Most of teachers nowadays only download videos from the internet, show them in in the class, then distribute the test papers. I personally really respect teachers who still educate their fellow students with all their heart out, kudos to you all.

Separating Truths and Lies 


There are two pillars in education : ideas and knowledge. Most people understand the term 'education' as the formal and informal ones : learning in classes, taking online courses, etc. However, what I want to emphasise is education as a term to describe self-development, even in the smallest steps : learning how to listen in a conversation, getting better at giving advices to someone, even maybe just learning how to assemble an IKEA furniture.

Information, we gather them every second. With our eyes glued to the screen, the flow of informations are most of the time so unbearable, that our brain will decide automatically which ones are important and which ones are not. These informations are what I call as knowledge. The more informations you process, there is a better chance that it will be easier for you to be able to connect with other people.

Then, what are ideas? Ideas are something that we come up by ourselves. It has to be original, but it doesn't mean that it have to be new and not influenced by the informations we already got on the first place. Gathering informations and coming up with ideas are what I call as the two process of learning. Unfortunately, most people stop on informations, without continuing to pursuit ideas from what we have learned on the first place.

Ideas are important not only because it will make us more creative, but it has something to do with our daily life : it helps us to judge if the information we gathered is indeed true or just a hoax. Maybe you might think that knowing more informations is enough to separate truths and lies, but I do not think so. Common sense is something that we develop, not earn. Knowing more things does not mean that we have developed our common sense, but our experience with the informations added with the concepts and ideas that we come up with is the key to a better common sense.

Critical Thinking and Scientifically Literate


These are two things that I consider connected really close to each other. Why? Because both of them are just the cooler way to say ideas and knowledge. Information shaped our society, it shaped how we interact to each other. Information is so essential that sometimes it is a luxury to be able to protect it.

With the current development of machine learning and those other stuffs, maybe we do not have to rely on ourselves any more to separate truths and lies, but what does it mean to our brain? According to evolution, our brain is always getting bigger, we rely more and more on our brain than brute force. I still could not find quantitative data about the development of our brain size, hit me up if you find one. However, one thing is certain : our brain develops because we keep using it in our daily lives - and that means we do both thing : receiving information and make use of it. When we only receiving information without develop it, what will happen?

This is absolutely a fictional post based on an observation in the current era, but something that we have to keep doing : develop our common sense. The amount of information we got each day will not get less, so it is completely up to ourselves, what we want to do with each of them. The development of technology in the 21st century may be really useful for our daily life and it is certainly make everything easier. However, what long-term effects does it have for humankind? 

p.s. I will continue to discuss a topic that is really closely related to this one. Until then, stay safe and healthy.