About This Site

I started this site with the intent to explore the topics of critical thinking and communication.

I took Philosophy 101 (Critical Thinking) on a fluke. A friend strongly suggested I take it, even though I already fulfilled all my gen ed and elective requirements. If he hadn't recommended it with the conviction he had, I would not have bothered taking it, but I am all the better for it. Being able to assess an argument's validity/strength and soundness/cogency, and being able to identify fallacies (especially inductive fallacies) has improved my understanding in many subject areas. Critical thinking helped me to be less reactionary, less inclined to be clouded by and fly off of emotions, and instead be more clear-headed with intent and purpose in mind.

When it came to communication, I felt that my skills were more than adequate to thrive in life. But those edge cases, man, those edge cases! There were times when communication broke down, and though these incidents were few and far between, I kept mulling over them in my mind. I would wonder for days afterward, what happened to lead to such nastiness? How did the situation degenerate to such a state where we're on the verge of physical violence? I consider myself a respectful person, being respectful by default to every person I interact with. But if anyone showed me any disrespect, I threw that right back in their face. With wisdom gained, though, one begins to realize that this is a negative-sum game for all participants involved, and society as a whole. Reacting violently to violent stimuli simply spreads more violence. Brutality does not deter brutality, but propagates it. When this realization was just dawning on me, I happened to hear Marshall Rosenberg on the radio, giving a seminar on nonviolent communication, and he blew my mind. Even though much of what he said sounded like gibberish to me ("...it's a violent act to say others make you feel as you do." What?! What does that even mean?!), and I could not grasp much of what he was proposing, still I sensed that his philosophy of a needs-based approach to communication held answers I was searching for.

And so I explore these topics in this site, not as an expert, but one who desires to understand better, and help others to explore and understand as well.

Tangential to the topics of critical thinking and communication, I also use this site to work on various full-stack engineering projects, utilizing back-end and front-end technologies.