Product Description

After most people ask why they didn't think of a particular idea they just go on thinking as usual and repeat the same mistakes. Charles McCoy explains how to break the cycle and move into a creative mode that enables the solving of complex problems.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #273222 in Books
• Published on: 2002-04-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

About the Author
Charles W. McCoy is a judge at the Los Angeles Superior Court, California's highest court. In addition to his judicial duties, he serves as an adjunct professor at two law schools: Pepperdine University of School of Law, where he teaches courses on decision-making and trial practice; and Southwestern University School of Law, where he teaches trial advocacy.

Customer Reviews

Critical Thinking for the Sheer Pleasure of It
Page after page in this book bristles with anecdotal evidence of the obvious: that critical thinking pays, while uncritical thinking bodes disaster. But who ever would have guessed that a book on critical thinking could be, not just cerebrally challenging, but pleasurable as well? From law to business, from the Bible to the checkered history of war, there is sheer joy in eavesdropping on the best and worst of human thinking. I confess I found myself too mentally lazy and impatient to solve the scores of brain-twisters and visual conundrums generously provided throughout the book (lending embarrassing support to McCoy's basic thesis), but I was clearly inspired to use my mental capabilities and intuition in far more productive ways than in the past. The key word being inspired. McCoy has that gift. Which is why he wrote the book, and-ruefully-I didn't. As an author myself, page after page I kept saying to myself enviously, "This book was a great idea. Why didn't I think of that!"

Clever title
Clever title. Clever, self-centered thought processes. Presents a how tobamboozle the other guy type of stilted logic.

Excalibur
Charles McCoy has written a relatively short and readable book. Informed by his years of experience including time as a judge in the Los Angeles Superior Court he's given structure to help find workable and sound solutions to complex issues. Perception, Deliberation, Quality and Systematic Thinking, Imagination, Intuition, Empathy and Careful Consideration - each one of the eight chapters could be used as a basis for a teaching or learning opportunity. Useful demonstrations and anecdotes bring home the ideas he descibes. I've yet to fully put into practice but at last I've found a tool that will help find a way through "the woods and the trees"; feeling perhaps as Arthur may have felt when he withdrew Excalibur the sword set in stone and was recognized as a King in England!