The book emphasizes the importance of having both factual knowledge and critical thinking skills, rather than favoring one over the other. It argues that critical thinking cannot be taught in the abstract and requires a substantial amount of factual knowledge. It compares learning critical thinking to training for a marathon, where gradual accumulation of knowledge is essential. The idea that one can simply Google information and think critically without prior knowledge is refuted, as critical thinking draws on long-term memory and requires a foundation of knowledge.