This chapter discusses proactive learning, problem solving, and decision making. These are the missing basics of critical thinking among today's young talent. Proactive learning is about keeping an open mind, suspending judgment, questioning assumptions, and seeking out information, technique and perspective; and studying, practicing, and contemplating in order to build one's stored knowledge base, skill‐set, and wisdom. Problem solving involves mastering established best‐practices, proven repeatable solutions for dealing with regularly recurring decisions, so as to avoid reinventing the wheel. Using repeatable solutions to improvise when addressing problems that are new but similar. Decision making is about identifying and considering multiple options, assessing the pros and cons of each, and choosing the course of action closest to the desired outcome. The chapter explains how to teach proactive learning, problem solving, and decision making, with lesson plans for each.