A critical thinker must have the ability to zoom in and zoom out - to hyper-focus on cause and effect and to see how things interconnect in the big picture.

It's a common and critical error to be too-zoomed-in or too-zoomed-out. The over-focused mind is like the mathematician who doesn't realize the assumptions of his model are non-mathematical and likely wrong.

The under-focused mind is like the mushroom-enthusiast that's content concluding "All is one", with no finer-resolution of analysis.

The careful thinker must be constantly zooming in and zooming out, gathering ideas from all levels of resolution.

Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe

Critical Thinking | Zooming In and Zooming Out