How to be a free thinker

I'm not sure how many people are familiar with Scott Berkun, who is an accomplished author of several popular books such as Myths of Innovation and Making Things Happen, but he routinely posts essays that often alludes to metaphysical, epistemological, and philosophical discussions. He recently wrote an essay entitled How to be a free thinker, which identifies several limiting flaws within social norms and the practice of emulation in lieu of demonstration within several disciplines. Here is an excerpt:
"Even under the guise of what we comically call education, most of us, most of the time, are taught to copy. To memorize. To understand someone else’s theories....The beginning of wisdom starts with asking two questions. Why do we believe what we believe? And how we know what we know". Scott issues 3 very interesting challenges that may invoke free thinking.

Is free thinking real or imagined?