Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Resources for critical thinking and communication skills?

news.ycombinator.com

21–27 of 27 posts

Re: Ask HN: Resources for critical thinking and communication skills?

#21
post #7

“How to win friends and influence people” by Dale Carnegie is probably the worlds best book on the basics of communication. Highly recommend it.

I'd like to vote against this recommendation. The people that live by Dale Carnegie's book can be spotted from a mile away and tend to come across as fake. This could be a cultural thing.

I respect this viewpoint.

Having read this book many times, I have grown to appreciate it. Particularly because I try to approach it from a position of seeking understanding, rather than attempting any manipulation.

I managed lawyers, engineers, and scientists for many years. It is not easy, but it was worth it. And this book helped.

I would rather read a great book 10 times, than 10 average books.

Here is a one page summary:

http://www.csus.edu/indiv/l/luenemannu/pdf/communicationprin...

This Dale Carnegie book is available in all public libraries and even online.

Re: Ask HN: Resources for critical thinking and communication skills?

#22
My recommendation for communicating better is "Nonviolent Communication" by Marshall Rosenberg.

The gist of it is: be careful to separate observations from judgments, whether by yourself or others. When in a difficult conversation, try to confirm what the other person is feeling. Say what you are feeling.

Re: Ask HN: Resources for critical thinking and communication skills?

#24
I have no recommendations but I want to make a point. I am not sure if by 'communication' you mean speech or writing, but IMO writing is superior to speaking when you have to communicate ideas that result from analyses and critical thinking.

Such results often tend to be elaborate (or long winded depending on who is listening) and need the listener to participate actively. Unless you are an invited speaker tasked with dissecting a topic, no one is going to have patience, and courtesy, to allow you to finish what you have to say. If you are going to be doing that at company meetings, the interruptions will be worse. The person in the chair might even cut you short by asking you to get to the point in a passive aggressive way. One could argue that developing good speaking skill is all about conveying ideas succinctly, to avoid this very situation, but I differ. Your speech is only as effective as your audience allows it to be.

Writing, on the other hand, provides a better means to communicate such ideas. Firstly, your speech idiosyncrasies, like accent, pronunciation, voice etc, won't become an obstacle. Secondly, you don't demand the listener to be patient and attentive to what you say. The engagement mechanics are better. The reader can always reread a portion any number of times till they understand, or can take a break and revisit a portion if it gets a bit involved. Then, it provides a better means of recording exactly what your thoughts are, one that lasts for a time much longer than spoken words. This not only allows your thoughts to reach people farther down the timeline, it also serves as a snapshot of what your ideas and inclinations were at the time of writing. Retrospection (along with introspection) is a key factor in growing intellectually. Finally, it doesn't suffer from the Chinese Whispers Syndrome when disseminated.

Now, I don't mean you have to develop essay writing skills because not every argument needs an essay. While writing essays is a very good intellectual activity, a short and coherent paragraph or two suffices most times.

Critical thinking is very addictive. You might start off with something small, like why a club must have a player, or why a product design is not good, which might be communicated reasonably well via speech, but you will slowly get to bigger topics where what I wrote becomes applicable.

Re: Ask HN: Resources for critical thinking and communication skills?

#25
What critic of the West is deeper than Nietzsche? Following his trail and that of his successors you can get oil. Do not stop reading Richard Rorty either. Jünger will also give you to think: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ju5HFoD20U

Vattimo:

(2004) Nihilism and Emancipation: Ethics, Politics and Law, edited by Santiago Zabala, Columbia University Press, 2004

Reality:

https://www.waterstones.com/book/of-reality/gianni-vattimo/r...

Ferraris:

https://academic.oup.com/monist/article-abstract/97/2/200/11...

Re: Ask HN: Resources for critical thinking and communication skills?

#26
Socializing and playing chess are going to help you in those areas and possibly in tandem.

Ribbonfarm.com is a good website that has blog essays which deal with many topics and some about social strategies which are a lot like chess strategies.

Also maybe getting into debates with people as long as it isn't something so controversial that it becomes too heated.

Re: Ask HN: Resources for critical thinking and communication skills?

#27
post #19

These are, to me, very different skill sets. But, the biggest challenge is to do them both at the same time. Maybe that is what you mean?

Yes,that's what I meant: To think critically and communicate my thoughts well. Although they are different skills they do work in tandem. Without communication skills, critical thinking would not be as useful since my thoughts won't be communicated well. For someone doing technical work, good communication skills are great but not so much without applying critical thinking (imo).

Makes good sense to me. It is really hard to focus on both at the same time.
Post reply on HN