Founder & Developer
Tajammal Maqbool
The software engineer who builds and maintains Critical Thinking Exercise.
I'm Tajammal Maqbool, a software engineer who has been shipping web applications since 2020, working across the stack with React, Next.js, and Node.js. Critical Thinking Exercise is my project: I design the exercises, build the site, write the lessons and explanations, and maintain everything on it.
What I do and don't claim
My background is engineering, not academic philosophy or cognitive science, and I'm careful about that line. I make no claim to be a researcher in either field, and nothing here is a substitute for a formal course. What I can promise is that every exercise states its reasoning in full, every claim that needs a source gets one, and anything I'm unsure about is marked as unsettled rather than smoothed over.
Why I built this site
Most critical-thinking material online is a listicle. You read fifteen fallacies, nod along, and recognize none of them a week later in an actual argument — because reading about a skill is not practicing it.
So this site does the opposite. Every concept comes with scored practice and a full explanation of why the right answer is right and the tempting answer is wrong. No ads, no account, no upsell. If a page can't show its reasoning, it doesn't ship.
Frequently asked
- Who writes and reviews this site?
- I do. I build and maintain the site and write every exercise, lesson, and explanation on it. Where the site says "we," it's shorthand for the project, not a large team.
- Are you a philosopher or a cognitive scientist?
- No. I'm a software engineer. The site's value is in exercise design, source discipline, and showing its reasoning in full — not in credentials I don't have. Where a claim depends on research, I cite the research so you can check it rather than take my word for it.
- How do you keep the content accurate?
- Every claim that rests on empirical research is traced to a primary source before it ships. Questions are drafted so that the correct answer follows from stated reasoning rather than from a judgement call. When a reader shows me an error, I fix it and say what changed.
- How can I reach you?
- Email editorial@criticalthinkingexercise.org. Corrections get priority over everything else.