In a situation where a medic is responsible for many (combat) casualties, the medic has to be able to perform triage. One cannot spend an hour studying one patient that in the end cannot be saved while a hundred that could be saved die. One has to quickly assess and make choices as to what is to be done.
In the intellectual/political sphere, a triage of ideas, opinions, assumptions and logic is an absolute necessity. One cannot go around believing what people say at face value. One certainly cannot take anything organisations put out at face value. One needs to be able to "skip the bullshit".
Not being able to do this, from some mental or emotional handicap such as naivete or the "true believer" syndrome, renders one invalid in the sphere of ideas.
Being invalid in this manner renders one a slave of those who manipulate emotions, cultural narratives, social norms etc.
Being slave in such a way has very serious, physical consequences.
Thus: being able to perform realist triage is vastly more important than discipline at studying or training.
One should have a "head's up display" dissecting the nett effect of anything one encounters.
The alternative to this triage is subjugation and ultimately destruction of the consciousness and physical by those forces that use Ideals to parasite off of those who create.
Some examples of realist triage:
The paranoid/cynic position: almost every individual has a different opinion. Even when people agree with one another, if asked enough questions, you can get them to disagree.
Therefor, one should base analysis almost completely on induction based on hard, physical evidence, almost to the exclusion of opinions. If anything, what is allowed to be said, published and the allowed official opinions in a society are the inverse of what is actually the case.
The conspiratorial view of history: almost every public figure of great power has to be some type of actor or double. Every powerful person would have enemies that would try to eliminate him. When someone really wants to kill you, they will succeed. So, either the person is assassinated sooner or later, or is not the real holder of power, but a puppet.
Almost every piece of information that is officially published is either irrelevant or a fabrication. True information that is relevant would be relevant because of what it would reveal about a powerful group, and these would prevent any author, journalist, publisher or seller to disseminate such information.
Almost every important historical shift is caused by groups, not by individuals. Always be suspicious of historical interpretation that overemphasizes individuals and their character. History is the sum of collective emergent features, and the personal dimension is used to mask this. Everything revolves around the energy of groups, and leading individuals are only the sparks, and they themselves emerge out of their respective groups.
Determining whether it is worth your time talking to someone, eg. are they rational people with experience and logic, or brainwashed sheep that parrot what the controllers of society have told them is THE RIGHT OPINION.
This can be determined by watching for signs of anti-intellectualism promoted as 'cool': oversimplification of arguments and brutalisation of discussion to the level that everything is an Ad Hominem attack.
The other extreme is the fantasy/unrealistic consideration of every possible utterance as worthy of attention, thereby muddying the water and making understanding impossible.
