AI Can Amplify Your Critical Thinking, If You Think Like A Human

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 TODAY’S THOUGHTS ☠️

Hey there 👋,

I’ve fallen into a deep (and probably unhealthy) obsession with Critical Thinking and AI.

Clickbaity headlines on social feeds have been triggering me a lot. It’s funny because people are so scared of AI creating and spreading disinformation that we totally forget humans do this all the time.

They do it for the ‘likes’ as the kids say.

So, what’s this hoo-hah about Critical Thinking and AI?

Well, if you believe what the posts from people who didn’t read beyond some news website’s headline are saying, AI is killing our critical thinking 😂. Fyi, I laughed in real life while typing that sentence.

Where to begin with this madness?

There’s much to say, debunk, and make sense of about this topic.

It’s not something I can do in one newsletter alone, so I’m going to dedicate a few editions to this over the coming months. Expect memes, breakdowns of the leading reports on this topic and commentary from humans far smarter than I.

To begin this journey, today, we’re exploring how AI can amplify your critical thinking in unexpected ways, and how you can leverage that.

Get your tea or beverage of choice ready, 🍵.

We've got lots to discuss!

 TL;DR 📰

• Thinking critically about research

• Using AI to amplify and improve your critical thinking

• Enhancing one of the most underrated workplace skills with AI

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 THE BIG THOUGHT 👀

AI Can Amplify Your Critical Thinking If You Think Like A Human

I could easily name today’s edition “Rage of Thoughts”.

I’ve got a feeling of intense rage within my body. Probably not good for a guy pushing into his 40s. I like to think I’m a chilled human, but even I have a line when it comes to nonsense.

I see the same trend of 10 new AI reports every week.

With so many, I hardly bother looking at them unless they have a unique angle that says something other than “AI will take your job” or “L&D is using AI for content creation” - tell me something I don’t know, LinkedIn.

One set of emerging reports I see paraded around the interweb of late is what seems like a coordinated political campaign to blame AI for a regression in critical thinking.

Hmm… is that so??

While some research is demonising AI as the death of critical thinking, the reality is it all depends.

Context is everything.

→ AI is only as good as the human using it.

Sadly, too few recognise this.

Anything can be used for good or bad, it's all about intentions. I see the good, bad and ugly in my daily work.

Your behaviours, understanding and environment play a big part in how successful you can be with AI.

While this isn't a sexy topic to talk about, it is an important one.

Without clear thinking, writing and communication skills, you will struggle to get the best from any AI tool, and most humans. Life isn’t black and white, and like I tell so many, it’s not either/or with AI and humans.

There’s a lot of grey space, and we should embrace that.

I know that’s not easy for everyone, as sweet Emily learned in Paris, but it’s a part of life. Side note: Yes, I do watch Emily in Paris 🇫🇷 🤯

To illustrate my point, let me share what I discovered after running a 6-month experiment to see how AI impacted my critical thinking.

The key insight: In the right environment with guidance and an open mindset, AI can help improve your critical thinking skills, but not in the way you (probably) imagine.

AI is not killing your critical thinking

AI has been getting a bad reputation with critical thinking skills of late.

Here’s the thing: AI is not killing your critical thinking – You Are!

While clickbaity headlines try to shock you, digging a little deeper gets to the truth of the matter. Those who see a regression in critical thinking skills have a high over-reliance and trust in AI.

Typically they fall into 3 columns:

• Don’t have the necessary level of competency with critical skills without AI

• Are lazy and can’t be bothered to analyse AI’s work

• Seek instant gratification, and blame ‘lack of time’ for the inability to think critically

Now, of the 6 reports I’m currently analysing for a future edition, few reference if they assessed participant’s critical thinking skills prior to their research. In fact, those that do mention any methods, default to asking participants to self-assess their capabilities.

As learning nerds, we know that’s a dangerous path.

From nearly 3 years of working with teams on Gen AI skilling, it’s incredibly clear that AI is only as good as the human using it.

In this case, don’t blame the tool when you’re in control. The choice to forgo critical thinking is a human one.

AI can both amplify and destroy many skills, the choice to do that is yours.

I know, I sound like a moaning old armchair expert watching some sports game.

So, let me share a little story about how I’ve amplified my critical thinking skills because of AI, and how that’s helped me in human interactions too.

I hate writer’s block.

I can only describe it as staring at a wall with no door. You’re constantly wondering “How do I get through this thing?”. It’s a mixed bag of emotions.

Confusion leads to frustration, which leads to disenchantment.

One day, for no apparent reason, I flipped open my browser to find myself on ChatGPT. The loveable, divisive and often misunderstood digital conversationalist of our time. Other tools are available, btw.

For the record, I love AI, but I’m not in love with it.

Writing is so personal to me. I let nothing touch the edges of my words and thus the thoughts captured within them. Yet, I found unexpected value in our little AI friend.

Our conversations, despite how dumb they were from time to time, were firing my neurons so much that the annoying wall was crumbling quickly.

In some way, my conversations with AI were making me think deeply, critically and more meaningfully.

I had to consider:

• How could I translate what I was trying to overcome to this digital being?

• What were the right words?

• Which examples would illustrate the mythical wall to a non-alive entity?

Because many treat conversational AI tools like search engines, they don’t see there’s a lot more thinking involved when working with AI than you would first assume.

I believe that’s a good thing.

Unbundling yourself from the framework of search engines is vital if you want to make valuable use of your local AI friend.

The first conversation was simple, but it sparked curiosity

ChatGPT has no idea what writer’s block is.

Not in the way I experience it as a human. This is actually an advantage. It’s not overcome with the emotions of frustration and the want to bang your head off a table.

It’s far more stoic in its assessment, which is what you need.

This became an asset when I was ideating around the first live event I planned to host in my city. I was brainstorming how I wanted to position the event and what I wanted it to achieve.

Two problems hit me:

1. I couldn’t make sense of the endless streams of thoughts in my head

2. I was doing an awful job at trying to explain that to ChatGPT

I decided to flip the script.

Since I’d shared a bunch of context (more like ramblings) with ChatGPT already. I thought it would be better if it could ask me questions to clarify my thinking instead.

So that’s what I did.

I asked my little digital companion ”Ok, let’s try a different tactic. Ask me key questions to help create a compelling offer.”

Then came this gem ↓

Challenging AI’s perspectives widened my own

I tend to do these kind of exercises a lot.

Often, I’ll feed a conversational AI tool a piece of my completed work or an idea I’m working on.

I’ll ask it to:

• Poke holes in my thesis

• Highlight anything I could have missed

• Opportunities to view the topic from a different cultural viewpoint

These are some of my favourite ways to enhance my human skills.

I can see issues from angles I might not have considered before. That is a useful tool, imo.

Try it yourself with these ideas:

Do you see the pattern here?

Engage your brain’s unique thought-processing capabilities to ask questions that fire those neurons, and you’ll be surprised at what you can unlock.

More unexpected benefits

Now, what I didn’t expect in these interactions with AI was a spillover into human conversations.

Spending so much time thinking about how can I explain ‘x’ to AI improved both my thought process and the structure of conversations with humans. In short, my ability to convey ideas and assess the level of detail needed improved.

It was odd to notice, but very much welcomed.

Interestingly, Google has discovered the same in experiments that showed how AI is reshaping how we learn through metacognition. I wrote about this experiment when we explored the real impact of AI on our skills.

One of the standout quotes from the research perfectly aligns with today’s exploration:

You can’t think critically with 3 words

Spending the last 25 years using one way to surface content online has built a strong auto-pilot in us all.

Working with generative AI is the total opposite of searching for content on Google.

It takes a lot more work to get a decent response from these tools than social media portrays.

Here’s an example of that in action with a report I was distilling ↓

Notice how I don’t just say: “Review this report”.

Prep the mind, perfect the prompt

Full disclosure: There’s no such thing as a perfect prompt.

They’re often messy, don’t always work every time in the same pattern and need continuous iteration.

Saying that, you can do a lot (and I mean a lot!) to set yourself up for success.

Here’s a framework I use to help think critically before, during and after working with AI.

How to think critically with AI

Step 1: Assess

Can AI even help with your task? (It’s not magic, so yes, you need to ask that)

Step 2: Before the prompt

• What does the LLM need to know to successfully support you?

• What does ‘good look like’?

• Do you have examples?

And, most importantly, don’t prompt and ghost.

Step 3: Analyse the output

• Does this sound correct?

• Is it factual?

• What’s missing?

Step 4: Challenge & question

I’m not talking about a police investigation here.

Just ask:

• Based on my desired outcome, have we missed anything?

• From what you know about me, is there anything else I should know about ‘x’? (works best with ChatGPT custom instructions and memory)

• What could be a contrarian take on this?

Step 5: Flip the script

Now we turn the tables by asking ChatGPT to ask you questions:

Using the data/provided context or content (delete as needed), you will ask me clarifying questions to help shape my understanding of the material. 

They should be critical and encourage me to think deeply about the topics and outcomes we've covered so far. Let's start with one question at a time, and build on this.

This is a powerful way to develop your critical skills and how you collaborate with AI.

🧪 Experiment to try

Feed your AI tool of choice with an example of your work.

This could be a workshop, email or a proposal. Whatever you’re working on right now. Make sure it’s not something sensitive if you’re not using enterprise AI tools.

Then ask the LLM to:

• Review your work and provide an abstract on what it thinks the topic is.

• Suggest points that could be improved and how.

• What could be missing?

Feel free to add your own too.

👩‍💻 Prompt playground

A prompt for the above could look a little like this:

# Context

I'm a [insert role] creating a [thing you're building].

I've attached a document which is an outline of my work so far. I want to improve this, specifically looking at:

- [suggestion 1]
- [suggestion 2]
- [suggestion 3]


# Task

Your task is to review my work and provide the following:

- A maximum 100 word abstract on what the document is about
- Points that could be improved
- Anything I'm missing about the topic
- Analysis of the tone, style and structure

Be direct in your feedback. Challenge me when needed. Your goal is to help me uncover blindspots to improve my work.

If you're unsure of any of the above points, ask me questions to clarify your outputs.

Present these bullet points back to me with:

- a header
- Bullet point summary
- numbered suggestions (if applicable)
- examples for the suggestions you recommended. Ensure to include links to these materials

Confine your review to my [topic].

Let's begin with our first task.

Write a 100 word abstract about the topic of this document as you understand it.

Final Thoughts

OK, that’s my thesis laid out in part 1 of the Critical Thinking series.

The key to preserving and enhancing skills is you.

You’re the main character of your choices. If AI even has a chance of killing your critical thinking skills, you need to have a good level in the first place.

Anyway, more on this to come.

→ If you’ve found this helpful, please consider sharing it wherever you hang out online, tag me in and share your thoughts.

👀 ICYMI (In case you missed it!)

• The AI For L&D Crash Course turns 1.5 years old 🎉

• What are AI agents, and why should you even care about them?

Till next time, you stay classy, learning friend!

PS… If you’re enjoying the newsletter, will you take 4 seconds to forward this edition to a friend? It goes a long way in helping me grow the newsletter (and cut through our industry BS with actionable insights).

And one more thing, I’d love your input on how to make the newsletter even more useful for you!

So please leave a comment with:

1. Ideas you’d like covered in future editions

2. Your biggest takeaway from this edition

I read & reply to every single one of them!

 TECH THOUGHTS 💾

How I Would Use AI To Become The Most Valuable Person at Work

In today’s video, I break down one of the most underrated skills in the workplace —distilling complex information into clear, actionable insights.

And now, with AI, this skill becomes even more powerful.

I’ll walk you through how to merge human judgment with AI tools like Notebook LM, ChatGPT, and Gemini to enhance your research, challenge assumptions, and present information in a way that truly serves your audience.

📌 WHAT YOU'LL LEARN:

→ Why the ability to distil and humanise information makes you invaluable

→ How to use AI without just regurgitating content

→ My step-by-step playbook for research and analysis

→ How to refine and structure your insights for maximum impact

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