Method Matters: A Practical Guide to Achieving Your Goals Through Critical Thinking

Educational and interesting, Method Matters: A Practical Guide to Achieving Your Goals Through Critical Thinking by Brandon Quinn would be a wonderful self-help book or study aide for high school and psychology students. Exploring the major topics of critical thinking, observation, and reasoning, Quinn breaks down each category into an applicable life lesson with case studies, examples, and factoids. For instance, under the umbrella of “Reasoning,” Quinn explains the many different terms a reader may encounter in their daily life as a part of this: premise, inference, interference, inductive reasoning, etc.

Expanding on each term’s definition, he then provides commentary with elementary explanations of how this may be viewed. For example, under his explanation of abductive reasoning (a process that starts with one or more facts or observations to determine what conditions caused something), he expresses that simply stepping outside and noticing that the ground is wet from the previous night’s rain is a form of this. Breaking down these more complicated terms into straightforward explanations, Quinn uses this as a foundation for further discussion, providing case studies from his own life and others to help the reader apply each term.

As stated previously, this novel would be a helpful study aid or basic introduction to psychology for a high school student. Since Quinn uses a lot of examples from his personal life, both in his teenage and college years, he comes off as relatable and genuine to this age group. These readers can appreciate how well he outlines more complex topics in an easy-to-read, simple guide that is not bogged down in jargon and difficult-to-follow examples. Rather, he does a great job of disentangling and clarifying terms that may otherwise be hard to interpret and actually apply to one’s daily life.

The ending section of this book is centered around goal setting, specifically driving one’s goals using critical thinking and other earlier terms to make better decisions. In this segment, Quinn helps readers take these prior thoughts on observation, reasoning, brainstorming, biases, etc., to define goals, create subgoals, and finally create methods for goal completion. In this way, he is encouraging the reader to set a framework, taking everything they have learned thus far to successfully achieve the goals they desire.

Reiterating, specifically for the fourteen- to eighteen-year-old age group, this book can be a great guide and useful tool for navigating decision-making, putting thought into action, and sorting through otherwise confusing psychological terms!