Critical Thinking
On April 1, 2016, I was excited and full of optimism. After months of negotiation, we were about to sign a purchase agreement to sell our company. Although I had mentally braced myself for the buyer saying the deal was off in an attempt at an April fool’s joke, we closed the deal that day. Three yea
Most of the time we believe what we hear. And too often we hear—and then believe—things that are not true. But imagine how hard it would be to question every fact and underlying assumption you hear or read throughout the day.
Nothing is more important or more valuable than thinking and communicating clearly. Thinking before acting helps you minimize expensive and painful mistakes. Clear thinking allows you to prioritize effectively, produce more, and make better decisions. Good communication starts with good ideas. So, y
Questions guide your attention toward a destination. Imagine you could look at a map depicting every important decision you’ve made. You would see that at every fork in the road you had faced a question. Your answer to that question determined your next step, which determined your path forward.
Our interpretations of the world can often be wrong due to bias, optimism, pessimism, or bad information. Yet most of us think we are right and other people are wrong. This can cause us to overlook or dismiss crucial information and lead to bad decisions.
I want to share one of my favorite mental models called inversion. Mental models provide shortcuts to higher-level thinking, forcing your brain to think about a problem or decision from different perspectives. Inversion helps you flip a problem around and approach it from the opposite end of the nat