How To Teach a Healthy Dose of Skepticism?

c0d3h4x0r writes "It's no accident that 'whatcouldpossiblygowrong' is one of the most common tags applied by this community to stories about proposed ideas or laws. The ability to spot and predict faults is a big part of what makes a great engineer. It starts with having a healthy skepticism about the world, which leads to actual critical thinking. Many books and courses teach critical thinking skills, but what is the best way to encourage and teach someone to maintain a healthy dose of skepticism? Is it even a teachable skill, or is it just an innate part of the geek personality?"

Oh, goody...

[Anonymous Coward]

I posted in this thread before it dissolved into a religious flamewar and all I got was this lousy T-shirt.

What you do is...

[mujadaddy]

...invite your pupil over to kick your football...

...then, at the last possible second, pull it away!

That'll teach em not to be so trusting!

I'm pretty sceptical...

[OzRoy]

I'm pretty sceptical of any slashdot article that doesn't link to another article :/

I learned by picking parents...

[hackstraw]

that would scream and yell at me until I blacked out if I ever made a mistake.

As a systems engineer today, I rarely if ever make mistakes.

So, yes, this is possible to teach these things, in "healthy dose" quanities, I have no experience with them.

Color me..

[prakslash]

I skeptical that such a skill can be taught.

Teaching skepticism?

[Anne_Nonymous]

>> what is the best way to encourage and teach someone to maintain a healthy dose of skepticism?

Teaching skepticism? I doubt it.

Re:Fail a lot?

[Anonymous Coward]

"Fail alot and learn from your failures."

Learn from that one! :)

Teaching skepticism...

[FataL187]

My parents always tried to teach me to be skeptical, however I was never really sure that I believed anything they were saying.

Re:Fail a lot?

[Anonymous Coward]

Surround yourself with failures and observe their demise.

You could pull a few strings here and there as well.
"Hey I saw a meatball in that light socket, take this fork and get it.
I'll even give you half of it!"

Re:Fail a lot?

[zapakh]

alright.

Re:I'm pretty sceptical...

[Anonymous Coward]

It's somewhat ironic that the question is asked on a web site where there's an unhealthy groupthink appearing on a regular basis.

I agree. The groupthink around here is absolutely outrageous!

Re:Fail a lot?

[gnick]

...a well rounded course of study in Maths, Theology/Mythology/Folklore..., Literature, The Arts, and of course Science and especially Computing, etc...

OK, I've mastered math and theology/mythology/folklore. I've observed, appreciated, and internalized all available literature and art. And I've mastered the sciences, computing, etc.

What do you recommend that I study now?

Re:Fail a lot?

[cptnapalm]

Your navel?

Re:Fail a lot?

[HTH NE1]

I prefer this quote:

(It was, of course, as a result of the Great Ventilation and Telephone Riots of SrDt 3454, that all mechanical or electrical or quantum-mechanical or hydraulic or even wind, steam or piston-driven devices, are now required to have a certain legend emblazoned on them somewhere. It doesn't matter how small the object is, the designers of the object have got to find a way of squeezing the legend in somewhere, because it is their attention which is being drawn to it rather than necessarily that of the user's.

The legend is this:

"The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair.")

Alas, that legend is too long to fit in a Slashdot tag.

Re:It's teachable. Actually, it's even easy.

[Opportunist]

Ok, this is /., I forgot. In any other board, this question wouldn't have been asked.

I mean the one that's more popular (or at least, widely known), because so many people can relate to him.

Re:Fail a lot?

[Anonymous Coward]

"Now, what's the difference between an invisible, incorporeal, floating dragon who spits heatless fire and no dragon at all?"

Which is why I don't believe that invisible monsters could possibly make fresh tomatoes bad for you.

Um... hang on a second, I need to go visit the little boys room.

Re:Fail a lot?

[HTH NE1]

Everyone knows invisible dragons aren't really invisible. They only look that way.

Re:Oh, goody...

[Anonymous Coward]

No, you posted in this thread before it dissolved into a religious flamewar, and all you got was modded "Offtopic" which is what you deserved!

Acred cows?

[Anonymous Coward]

I know the Hindus hold them in high regard, but I'm not aware of any cultures that allow cows to own land.

Re:Fail a lot?

[Anonymous Coward]

If at first you don't succeed... Skydiving isn't for you.

Re:It just comes naturally with experience

[drinkypoo]

You need techniques that you apply to everything, including..or even especially, your acred cows.

I don't know if I necessarily agree with this...

P.S. What about my hectared cows?

2012

[crunch_ca]

My kids (9 & 11) are going on about the world ending in 2012 (apparently, there are a bunch of hokey reasons, like the Mayan calendar ending).

I figure they will get a good dose of skepticism by January 2013.

Re:Fail a lot?

[cbelt3]

I prefer Heinlein's Law:
"Stupidity is often punishable by death. Sentecse is carried out immediately. There is no appeal."

That said- teach "Errors Course". Engineers of my generation heard a lot about errors, disasters, etc. caused by bad process, math, theory, materials. Who can forget the cheesy 8mm film of the Tacoma Narrows bridge failing ? Who can forget the Challenger exploding on takeoff, and the Columbia breaking up on re-entry ? And who isn't fascinated with the classic case of the "Unsinkable Titanic" sinking. On it's maiden voyage ?

Learning from mistakes is, as others have noted, often the best teacher.

Re:And when are we being too critical?

[luder]

As child, I could see that the continents of North and South America could plausibly fit up to Africa, yet my science teacher dismissed the idea that they were once joined. As we all now know, they were, in fact, once joined.

Wow, that must have been ages ago. How old are you?

Skepticism is forbidden by the Christian right.

[EWAdams]

Don't even think of trying to teach logic or critical thinking to our children, you satanic commie traitor!

Re:I can prove that wrong (logically, of course)

[uniquename72]

The best pro-God post in the history of /.
Thank you!!

-an atheist

How to teach skepticism...

[frank_adrian314159]

1. Tell student, "I'm not going to kick you in the nuts."
2. Kick student in the nuts.
3. Repeat.
4. Profit.