Critical Thinking

Critical Thinking is one of the greatest things attributes of humanity, and dolphinmanity, and some types of crow and ravenity. Drawing on experience as a basis for making logical connections and decisions is pretty cool.

I was pondering critical thinking just the other day, at about 2:45 in the morning while trying to sleep in a hotel in Cairns. This hotel was modern and well designed, with the rooms on each level encircling a large, open courtyard and access between them on open walkways. It was architecture which created a sort of futuristic space-station vibe. And I digged it, until I realised that having no walls between every room and floor of large hotel on a Friday night is a bad idea.

Basically, somewhere in the hotel a woman was locked out of her room and was trying to rectify this situation by banging a gate against its metal frame and screaming, "Billy" as loudly as possible. Other variations included, "Billy, let me in." and "Billy, I need my fucking phone."
The gate banging and yelling continued for quite some time, but not with enough rhythm to effectively filter it out and get back to sleep. It reminded me of trying to sleep when neighbourhood dogs are barking. Just when you think the yapping is completed another burst occurs.

During this banging and yelling I thought about what I would do in this situation. The obvious answer was to go downstairs to the 24 hour reception desk, ask the receptionist to call Billy, which would hopefully wake him up, and problem solved. "Critical Thinking!" I thought to myself, pleased, between rounds of banging.

After a few minutes had passed it seemed like Billy's girlfriend also had a moment of critical thinking. The banging paused, and then returned with doubled volume and frequency. This lasted another few minutes and then it all stopped entirely. I suspect her solution may also have been effective.