Unfortunately for Mr. LeGault, I am actually a student of critical thinking, and I am not overly impressed with his critical thinking skills. Here is the reason why I do not recommend his book.
First, his criticism of Malcolm Gladwell's book, Blink, is dishonest. The point he is criticizing is inaccurate, and the illustration he uses to prove his point is a poor comparison of BlinkThink vs critical thinking skills, which is what his book is truly about. In the end, it is evident why he named his book Think and targeted Blink - he wants readers to buy his book, and associating it with a well-known author will attract some to read it. It did for me! However, in reality, his book is not a criticism of Blink but rather a dissertation on how people need to exercise critical thinking skills and a warning that our society is not moving in that direction. I completely agree with that point, but what he claims as his premise on the front of his book is not the actual premise in the book, and thus it is dishonest.
Second, his book is dull. Mr. Gladwell does an excellent job of taking scientific research on how the brain functions and simplifying it so that the average person can begin to understand more complex science. Mr. LeGault should praise rather than criticize the work that Mr. Gladwell is doing. In fact, after reading a Gladwell book, one is left with the desire to think more and question more, rather than making hasty conclusions. Even in his book, Blink, Mr. Gladwell was not encouraging people to make snap judgments. He was stating that some people, after having a great deal of experience in certain fields, have the ability to quickly reach conclusions. Mr. LeGault completely missed this point. Again, Mr. LeGault wants to sell books, and picking on a well-known author, even dishonestly, helped him achieve that.
Third, one gets the impression that there are very few original thoughts from Mr. LeGault in Think. He cites numerous sources, to the extent that one starts to prefer reading his sources rather than his uninteresting book. It reads like a research paper, and his examples are brief and often uninteresting. Mr. Gladwell understood that to write a book about a dull subject like psychology and sociology, one must use interesting examples and studies to maintain the reader's interest. For instance, Mr. LeGault has a chapter on "fear" and how fear prevents people from thinking rationally. It's a great topic. However, he does little to make it engaging. He could have described studies conducted to show how fear makes people do certain things. Instead, he just talks about it as if we should simply stop fearing and control our emotions. Everyone knows that. Obvious! Show us the science. Describe the science. Explain the consequences. Teach, don't lecture.
Lastly, the only group his book is beneficial for is the group that is least likely to read it - the non-critical thinkers. If you read books like Mr. Gladwell's, then you don't need this book. You are already well on your way to thinking critically. On the other hand, if you mostly read novels, then this book could be of some benefit to you. Yet, I would highly recommend Mr. Gladwell's books, or Thomas Friedman's books, or many others that have made it to the top-10 bestseller list.
When my only thought as I progressed further and further through the book was how negative a review I was going to write, one might wonder why I didn't just put the book down. Because, after all, even a bad book teaches us something - which authors to avoid. If the author ever reads this review, please drop me a message through GoodReads. I would enjoy debating these points with you.