I think the term "inductive reasoning" is a misnomer - unless perhaps if you're a two year old. Generally, I believe that simple minded folks reason according to consensus, rather than according to induction. Induction is an important concept, but it doesn't have to do with reasoning, per se. Furthermore, those who pride themselves on their "logic" - are generally playing word games and idea games. They don't reason the issue through with all those details in their mind. They just write that way... and it's more about pressing their agenda, then it is about demonstrating how the system which they are describing actually works.

Indeed, induction, insomuch as it means "generalizing," is a very important tool to understand and to learn how to use.

Inducing is really a thing that has to do with making communication easier, and making the thought processes flow smoothly. It's not a reasoning method, as much as it is a tool for those two purposes.

Any critical thinker is careful about conscientiousness when drawing conclusions. It's unfair to accuse a critical thinker of jumping to conclusions or reasoning according to consensus just because he isn't expressing his ideas in a way you agree with, or in a way which is easy for you to understand.

People commonly use the historical event of the discovery of black swans to describe induction. However, back then it wouldn't have been the critical thinkers who were insisting that there never could exist a black swan. It would have been the general public who would have been insisting that. They were the ones who had to deal with fibbers and tellers of tall tales, and who generally would have had an ethic of reasoning according to consensus.

No one has the world of information in their minds at any one moment. The field of view in your mind is actually quite narrow at any given moment. So a very deep thinking person... who goes through many different topics over the course of the days months and years... is going to draw conclusions with the tool of induction being a part of that process. But every time he draws a conclusion, he will have a qualifier or two or three in mind. For example, he might think to himself, "If it is the case that I see x to be true in some other circumstance, then there will be an exception to my generalization."