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The book, which\ncovers how to use scientific thinking\nto navigate the modern world, left me\nthinking more deeply about the role of\nscientific thinking in my own life and in\nour world as a whole.\n\nIn five main sections, the book\nfocuses on different aspects of critical\nthinking: how we make decisions, how\nto navigate and understand uncertainty,\nhow to identify our gaps in knowledge, how our different attitudes and\napproaches help us problem-solve, and\nhow we can integrate the many facets of\ndecision-making into our lives. Most of\nthe book focuses on these processes on an\nindividual level, while the last couple of\nchapters extend to a societal level.\n\nBroadly, the book explores what critical thinking means through the lens of\nscience with the goal of helping us choose\nwhat to believe, who to listen to, and how\nto make decisions while constantly weeding through overwhelming amounts of\ninformation. The book presents blueprints for thought at both the field-specific\nand general levels, woven together with\nthought-provoking examples and stories\nfrom each of the three authors. Beyond\nthe emphasis on the scientific method,\nthe combination of different academic\nbackgrounds provides an interesting\ntake on how these scientific approaches\ncan be implemented. Anecdotes cover a\nrange of topics, including Dr. Perlmutter’s\ntime performing astrophysics research,\nDr. MacCoun’s studies on drug policy,\nand Dr. Campbell’s thoughts on human\nperception. These varying points of view\nhelp make the book more generalizable\nand approachable to the reader.\n\nOn the level of individual solutions\nto improve critical thinking, this book\nis successful. Aspects of science that are\nexplored, like probabilistic thinking,\nconsidering uncertainty, and having\nan optimistic but realistic attitude, are\nall components that I did not realize I\nutilize every day to make decisions and\nform opinions. This latter idea especially\nresonated with me, both while recouping\nfollowing weeks of unsuccessful experiments and while trying out a new baking\nrecipe at home. After reading the book, I\nhave a greater appreciation for when these\napproaches pop up on a day-to-day basis, along with motivation to use them more\nfrequently. I now find myself estimating my confidence in a statement after I\nsay it, only to discover that I have a bad\nhabit of relaying stories I find interesting without checking important details,\nsomething that I am now working on.\nUsing scientific principles is a completely\nvalid approach to decision-making that\ncould be more concrete than many other\napproaches, especially in an overstimulating environment where many may crave\na more tangible strategy. After all, the\nscientific method is a problem-solving\ntechnique, a basic premise that many\npeople entrenched in doing science every\nday can take for granted over time.\n\nOn the level of population-spanning\nsolutions, though, I’m left with too few\nsatisfying resolutions. The sheer diversity\nof thought and even variance in information that individuals receive makes\na one-size approach to decision-making\nimpossible, and the book leaves the bigger\nquestion of how society can work together\nin decision-making largely unaddressed.\nThe authors briefly touch on this challenge later, but I find this elephant-in-the-room topic the crux of implementing the\nbook’s principles on a societal level. Issues\naround mistrust in science and scientists,\nwhich hinder scaling up the book’s ideas,\nrequire huge changes in how scientists\ncommunicate their work to the public\nand how society views the role of new\ntechnologies in our lives. While perhaps\nbeyond the scope of this book, these ideas\nare central to the large-scale implementation of the authors’ framework and are\nworthy of more discussion.\n\nOn all levels, we need a reliable way\nto deal with decision-making—and fast.\nFor better or worse, most of us have a\nwealth of information and, unfortunately, misinformation in our pockets.\nThis crisis of information has become\nincreasingly pertinent. The prominence\nof social media, surge of generative artificial intelligence, lingering distrust of\nscience following the pandemic, and current volatile American political climate\nhave all coalesced in a way that requires\na tangible and measured solution. While\nsuch answers to our mounting issues have\nbeen few and far between, Third Millenium Thinking is a thought-provoking\nand optimistic start for thinking about\nhow we might be able to get there.","image":{"publicURL":"/static/aa0b21e254ffb6c05c85999fbae7d32c/fba0bfb7204590f7ca85650b1b539d51.png"},"authors":[{"id":"692fe77ca1914505ee622de1","name":"Maddie Webb"}],"designers":[{"id":"674cdb0f54c55417f913843c","name":"Sophia Adler"}],"categories":[],"magazine":{"id":"6a1b3daba1914505ee622e6e","title":"Spring 2026","issue":50}},"recent":{"edges":[{"node":{"id":"Article_6a1b7b70a1914505ee622e8a","title":"A quarter-century of BSR","authors":[{"id":"6930d4c5a1914505ee622e05","name":"Eleanor Wang"}],"categories":[],"image":{"publicURL":"/static/e2535987c5657a0ccb90aefc70d390fa/d0381637f7e57d0c526bc22c6b39f421.png"},"published_at":"2026-05-31T19:32:44.843Z"}},{"node":{"id":"Article_6a1c7dfda1914505ee622e93","title":"A taste of Ohlone 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