Free course · Thinking skills

Thinking Lab — train the way you think, not just what you know

Free — no account needed to read

Critical, logical, creative, systems, strategic and decision thinking, argument and questioning, in 36 lessons across 11 modules with worked examples. Plus 37 mental models, 48 step-by-step thinking methods and the big ideas of 119 books.

Each module starts with a hard question before any lesson, then teaches the idea with a worked example: the same situation read quickly, then read again with the idea. Exercises say what a considered answer tends to contain — never a mark scheme, and nothing here scores how well you think.

The modules

• Thinking Foundations — Notice how your own mind is working (4 lessons)
• Critical Thinking — Evaluate claims and evidence (4 lessons)
• Problem Solving — Break complex problems into manageable parts (4 lessons)
• Creative Thinking — Generate possibilities and new approaches (3 lessons)
• Logical Thinking — Reason consistently (4 lessons)
• Decision Thinking — Make better decisions under uncertainty (4 lessons)
• Systems Thinking — Understand connections and consequences (3 lessons)
• Reflective Thinking — Examine your own reasoning (3 lessons)
• Strategic Thinking — Think beyond the immediate next step (3 lessons)
• Argumentation — Build and evaluate arguments (2 lessons)
• Questioning — Ask better questions (2 lessons)

Reference

• Mental models — 37 models for reasoning, deciding and spotting where thinking goes wrong — each with where it misleads.
• Thinking methods — 48 step-by-step procedures, from Pólya’s four steps to the premortem — each with what it will not do.
• Thinking books — The big ideas of 119 books on thinking, in our own words, turned into exercises.