There are many things that we learned this semester in Critical Thinking.

But, three of

them stood out that I feel need to be talked about more; Fixed vs. Growth Mindset, Spotting Fake

News, and Impulse Control. These three skills I think are essential for everyone to have in order

to be able to become a more well rounded and intelligent human being.

First off is Fixed vs. Growth Mindset. What is Fixed vs. Growth Mindset? In a nutshell, it

is the idea that a person’s mindset can either be stagnant and reluctant to progress, or that their

mindset is that they are open to ideas in order to progress. We’ll first talk about fixed mindset.

When someone has a fixed mindset, they want to look smart for others but that often leads to

negative consequences in the way that person thinks and acts. For example, people with a fixed

mindset tend to avoid challenges in an effort to not be seen as a failure by failing to complete

something. They also tend to give up quite easily when the going gets tough for the same reasons

to not be seen as failures and not wanting to learn from their mistakes. They also tend to not

value the effort of getting a certain achievement and just focus on the result. This often leads to a

person not valuing the time they or others have spent on something that doesn’t win and they see

themselves or others as failures instead of enjoying the time they spent working on what they

were doing. They also tend to ignore useful feedback because they think that no one can tell

them what to do and that they know what they are doing even if it’s clear they need help. Lastly,

they also have a tendency to feel threatened by other people’s success as they take it as a

challenge to their pride and ego and don’t focus on the fact that it is a great opportunity to get

inspired and learn from others in order to win the next time. On the contrary, people who have a

growth mindset take anything as an opportunity to learn and grow as a person. They are much

more open to challenges as they take it as an opportunity to learn something new and don’t care
about being seen as failures. They also don’t give up when hard challenges come about and

rather they embrace it as an opportunity to learn. They also see the value in effort and they also

tend to enjoy doing something more than people who have fixed mindsets as they take the time

to put in as much work as possible into something to make it as perfect as possible while also

having fun. They can also take criticism from others as they see it as useful feedback rather than

insults and they always use that criticism to improve the product they are working on. Lastly,

they never get jealous of the success of others. Rather, they see it as a way to get inspired and

learn from others to make their product as good or better than theirs. This topic is super

important in my opinion because many people tend to fall into having a fixed mindset since it is

the one that is easier to fall into, but with just a few simple changes to how you view things like

effort you can become someone with a growth mindset and that can really help you get on a path

to success as you get to become a more well rounded person that is also able to learn many

things whilst enjoying doing assignments and competitions.

Secondly it is spotting fake news. This one is pretty self explanatory. It is the ability to be

able to spot when a person or news article is lying and also helps with determining if a source is

reliable or not. So what is fake news? There are many types. First is disinformation for profit

which is when a site creates fake stories in order to gain advertising revenue. Another one is

disinformation for political gain which is when a state funded site creates fake stories in order to

hurt their political opponent. Another one is hacking which is when a website is invaded by

another person or group of people and starts maliciously creating fake stories. Finally there is

reporting a hoax as fact which is when a hoax that is well written starts spreading so fast that it

gets the attention of major news articles and they start covering it. There are also certain things
that aren’t fake news that certain people think are such as joke websites. Also, news, or

journalism you don’t like is also not fake news. There are many ways to check for fake news.

These include checking the sources the article used, reading the whole article and not just the

headline, looking for the opinions from experts, looking at the author and date, and checking

other news articles to see if they say the same thing. Spotting fake news is important because it

allows you to not be fooled by things others say online which can also help you detect when

people lie in real life.

Lastly, there is impulse control. Impulse control is the ability to be able control your

thoughts and needs and desires.There are many examples of impulses which include eating,

sleeping, social media, risky behavior, shopping, breaking things, etc. These impulses are trying

to fulfill certain needs and desires such as hunger, energy, boredom, comfort, coping with stress,

distractions, challenges, etc. It is very important to be able to have impulse control because

certain impulses can lead to addictions which are really hard to get out of and sometimes takes

years to do.

We learned many important things we learned in critical thinking this year. But, fixed vs.

growth mindset, spotting fake, news, and impulse control are the most important ones we learned

this year as I think they are the ones that are most helpful in order for you to become a more well

rounded and intelligent human being who doesn’t fall into the trap of believing everything you

see and is able to find new opportunities to progress and grow as a person.