It’s important to think critically about the information you receive at any given time. For example, earlier, this girl told me that “boys go to Jupiter to get more stupider.” I could have simply accepted that as a fact, as I am sure many do. I however deployed the power of critical thinking against this statement. Upon examining the words carefully, you can find a few factors that appear to undermine its assertions. Firstly, there is the idea that anyone, let alone boys, could go to Jupiter with our current levels of technology. Jupiter is very far away, and even adults have only ever set foot on Earth’s moon, which is much closer. If they can’t cross the distance that would be required to get to Jupiter, how can boys? Secondly, the gravity of Jupiter is so high that it would crush the bodies of the boys who went there. You may argue that crushing the boys does indeed reduce their capacity to reason, therefore making them stupider, but then why wouldn’t the girl have said, “boys go to Jupiter to get crushed by its high gravitational forces”? Another potential explanation is that the boys are only going into orbit around Jupiter, but again, the girl could have simply said “boys go into orbit around Jupiter to get more stupider,” so, again, we must return to take the original statement at face value. Thirdly, I want to bring into question the idea that Jupiter does indeed make you stupider. The fact is that nobody really knows what Jupiter does, because nobody has been to Jupiter, at least thus far. It’s entirely possible that Jupiter has no particular effect on intelligence. Moreover, a costly and time-consuming trip to a planet as dangerous as Jupiter seems wasteful when we have many easily available ways to become stupider right here on Earth. That is to say I will retain a skeptical stance toward boys going to Jupiter to get more stupider until I am presented with something more than speculation and circumstantial evidence, or at least until recess is over.