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Employers Find ‘Soft Skills’ Like Critical Thinking in Short Supply

wsj.com

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Re: Employers Find ‘Soft Skills’ Like Critical Thinking in Short Supply

#31

Post by gameshot911 »

guitarbill wrote: post #28
gameshot911 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ironically you just mistook a contrarian with a critical thinker.

Oops. Maybe I don't understand "contrarian" as well as I should. Wikipedia says "A contrarian is a person who takes up a contrary position, especially a position that is opposed to that of the majority, regardless of how unpopular it may be", which to me reads like a reactionary thing. People with different views, that's just how they think. They don't do it for kicks to antagonize people. Right?

The way I think of 'contrarian' is someone who takes an opposing position strictly because it is in opposition to others, and not due to sincerely help beliefs or the actual merits of the position.

But I think I should apologize to you and the parent post. I just saw an opportunity to come off as being a little clever. I have no idea if the parent poster was actually trying to be contrarian or not. And while I'm just trying to boost my ego, here you are still actually trying to have a meaningful conversation and to understand where others are coming from. Good on you, that's truly admirable. I wish I did the same more often.

Re: Employers Find ‘Soft Skills’ Like Critical Thinking in Short Supply

#32

Post by programminggeek »

Employers don't want critical thinking, they want compliance and results. They might say they want more soft skills, but what they mean is they want someone to solve their problems and make them look good.

Usually, that means a yes man. This kind of article is delusional naval gazing.

Re: Employers Find ‘Soft Skills’ Like Critical Thinking in Short Supply

#34

Post by turar »

guitarbill wrote: post #7

Thank god the Wall Street Journal is encouraging critical thinking, and more importantly fostering the discussion by putting articles like this out for everybody to read /s On a more serious note, I don't believe this is true. In every place I've been, school, university, corporate jobs, the "critical thinkers" always got marginalised. This was the case even if they were truly nice people who cared - i.e. not abrasiv…

I found that this collection of Chomsky snippets expands on this quite well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPp69gKVe9o

Re: Employers Find ‘Soft Skills’ Like Critical Thinking in Short Supply

#35

Post by ThomPete »

It is not my experience that we are lacking critical thinking, what we are lacking is creative / constructive thinking.

There are plenty of great critical thinkers out there. The real challenge is to figure out the next step.

Thats' what entrepreneurs do.

Re: Employers Find ‘Soft Skills’ Like Critical Thinking in Short Supply

#36

Post by thecrow1213 »

turar wrote: post #34
guitarbill wrote: post #7

Thank god the Wall Street Journal is encouraging critical thinking, and more importantly fostering the discussion by putting articles like this out for everybody to read /s On a more serious note, I don't believe this is true. In every place I've been, school, university, corporate jobs, the "critical thinkers" always got marginalised. This was the case even if they were truly nice people who cared - i.e. not abrasiv…

I found that this collection of Chomsky snippets expands on this quite well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPp69gKVe9o

Good ol' Chomsky :)

Re: Employers Find ‘Soft Skills’ Like Critical Thinking in Short Supply

#37

Post by wiz21 »

gameshot911 wrote: post #26
guitarbill wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was the point I was trying to make when I said "not abrasive and argumentative, just different". Maybe I should have said different perspective. Incidentally, I find working with people with different perspectives hugely helpful when problem solving, although you can see how vastly different perspectives can also cause problems in understanding. I suspect there's a sweet spot, depending on your role/company/envi…

Ironically you just mistook a contrarian with a critical thinker.

Ironically, you just mistook a critical thinker with someone who agrees with you.

People prefer critical thinkers when they help them in their grand vision. Unfortunately, a critical thinker may have some things he wants too.

Re: Employers Find ‘Soft Skills’ Like Critical Thinking in Short Supply

#39

Post by bdob4xcfH »

ftio wrote: post #30

I think this is a dangerous and fruitless line of reasoning. It halts the conversation. It makes it harder for management to be introspective. If you look at critical or creative thinking as an inherent skill [1] rather than as a measurable outcome of the right kind of environment and incentives, how can you create and improve a workplace in which your people think critically? [2] I find that bad managers sometimes u…

> It's natural for managers (myself included) to go into self-preservation mode when they've failed to give their employees enough direction, but the reality is that it's a relationship.

It is for people who's #1 priority is themselves and not the team or the company at large, and doing the right thing.

Re: Employers Find ‘Soft Skills’ Like Critical Thinking in Short Supply

#40

Post by can09 »

gameshot911 wrote: post #31
guitarbill wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oops. Maybe I don't understand "contrarian" as well as I should. Wikipedia says "A contrarian is a person who takes up a contrary position, especially a position that is opposed to that of the majority, regardless of how unpopular it may be", which to me reads like a reactionary thing. People with different views, that's just how they think. They don't do it for kicks to antagonize people. Right?

The way I think of 'contrarian' is someone who takes an opposing position strictly because it is in opposition to others, and not due to sincerely help beliefs or the actual merits of the position. But I think I should apologize to you and the parent post. I just saw an opportunity to come off as being a little clever. I have no idea if the parent poster was actually trying to be contrarian or not. And while I'm just…

Thank you for reminding me why I read HN comment sections. I appreciate this sort of earnest, well-intentioned dialogue. It is unfortunately not so prevalent on the wider web.
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