This episode is about the need for, nature of, and development of thought tools.
I was having a conversation with my daughter. If you’ve listened to the podcast, you know my daughter is 23 and she’s beginning her career, just having graduated college She’s trying to figure some things out. She’s confronted with some new issues that really have become very prominent. And I think most folks do this when they exit all that structure of modern education. We were talking about an idea, and she said, “Well, let me think about it.”
A couple of things struck me. One is when people say, “Let me think about it.” I’ll confess that I have used “let me think about it” as just a “get off my back”, postponement kind of tool. I think I’m not totally unique on that front. So there’s that category.
But when we really want to think about something. We’ve got the sense that we don’t have a clear path forward. We don’t have a clear yes or no on a question. We don’t have a clear decision.
What exactly are we going to do when we say, “I’ll think about it”. What action do we envision taking? If it’s not just a put off, then what are we envisioning that we’re going to do to help us move forward with this situation? To make a decision? To make a commitment to some course of action? To choose some alternative out of the options that we have?
This episode is going to be about that. It’s an important topic. I certainly believe we should consider before we take any course of action. But what are we going to do to enact this “need to think about it”.
The last episode was about paper, and I talked about paper as this great mechanism for capture. I think many people believe that it’s also a great thought tool. That’s one hypothesis for the value of journaling and support for the people that love that. I talked about how when we get stuff out of our skulls, it provides some fairly light constraint, but some constraint nonetheless, that helps us formulate our thoughts.
Let’s spend some time considering thought tools.
Drucker’s question and thought tools
- Drucker asked us to improve the productivity of knowledge workers. Okay, how do we do that? Can we improve thought tools?
- Knowledge work is mushy, thought tools can make it more concrete
- I think that developing thought tools can answer Drucker’s question
- Thought tools are useful in:
- “Is the work done?” – Financial model? The value of time invested?
- Decision making – what option to pursue
- Your profession may have thought tools: accounting, architecture, engineering
- Modeling tools, etc.
- I’m motivating the use and development of thought tools
Even if we just need to “Percolate” on it
- Percolate is different from ruminating. We need to set the problem up clearly
- Thought tools probably apply to both: ‘active’ and ‘passive’
- Framing the problem is a good use of thought tools
- A thought tool probably is associated with a process.
Examples of generalized thought tools
- Journaling
- Journaling as a thought tool
- Maybe structure some journal questions – what would person X do?
- Reading as a thought tool
- Excel as a thought tool
- Annie Duke – numeric thought tools
- Thinking In Bets – betting to clarify one’s thinking
- The Organized Mind – medical decision thought tool
- Financial modeling as a thought tool
Decision making
- “Decisive” – decision making PROCESS
- Example of a thought tool
- Question: “Whether or not to do X”
- “Do it or don’t” is not a great structure for decidability
- Emotional/psychological biases
- Instead, clearly frame the other side of the question – “Do A or do B”
- “Resulting” – what makes a good decision? A good process…
- Getting a clear result even if you disagree with the tool’s recommendation
- Have a habitual process
- A process allows you to record and activate learning a decision making process is a subclass of thought tools.
Takeaways
- Since we think for a living, we should become better thinkers – tennis players do it, why don’t we?
- Structure your thinking with thought tools
- Attention compass includes a couple of thought tools – see episodes 22, 23, 24
- I want to develop this aspect of AC more thoroughly – ‘generic’ thought tools for Knowledge Workers
- And look at AC from a thought tool perspective
Books referenced in this episode:
- Decisive – Chip and Dan Heath
- Thinking In Bets – Annie Duke
- The Organized Mind – Daniel Levitin
Links to podcast episodes: