Candidly, it is gosh darn hard to ponder deeply, to be genuinely curious, and avoid predictable biases. That takes conscious effort.
Why Thinking Well is Challenging
Thinking well requires mental effort, and human beings tend to avoid effort. For our early ancestors, conserving energy whenever possible was a way to ensure they would have energy when needed, perhaps to fight a tiger or think their way out of a dangerous situation. They passed this tendency down to us.
Cognitive biases are thinking shortcuts. Many of them evolved to conserve energy. But cognitive biases are tricky because we’re often unaware of our biases. Often, we can spot other people’s biases easily, but our own biases are invisible to us.
Why It’s Important to Make the Effort to Think Well
Sure, thinking well is hard, but everything worthwhile you ever did was hard. But there are many benefits. Some are obvious. Thinking well will improve your problem-solving and decision-making. Almost all of us can improve our thinking.
Other benefits may not be so obvious. When you make the effort to think well, you improve your self-awareness. You become more aware of your cognitive biases. Your performance at work will improve, too.
Pick Your Spots
Important issues merit clear thought and sincere advocacy. That is as it should be. Perhaps the defining difference between a vital issue and a trivial one is whether it is worth the effort of deep thinking. Trivial issues aren’t worth the trouble of articulating your understanding persuasively. Vital matters are worth the pain and difficulty of protracted discussion and negotiation.
How to Think Better
There’s no strict program for thinking well, but several things seem to work for most people. Here are four.
Practice active listening. Listen intently. Ask questions to deepen your understanding. Check your understanding by paraphrasing and reflecting what you hear. Ask the other person if your summary is close to what they meant. If it was off by a lot, revise your summary and ask if that version is what they said.
Seek out diverse opinions. Ask questions to ensure you understand the reasoning behind an opinion.
Ask for the story of an issue. Stories are the way human beings make sense of complex information. Paying attention to the story of an issue will give you insight into the issue, opinions about it, why it’s important, and its history.
Avoid reaching a conclusion about an issue until you have gathered as much information and insight as possible.
Thinking well is hard work, but it’s worth the effort. It can help you improve your problem-solving, decision-making, and self-awareness. Consciously practice deep thinking when you confront an important issue.
~
What’s your experience with the hard work of thinking well?
-o0o-
Terry Moore, CCIM, is the author of Building Legacy Wealth: How to Build Wealth and Live a Life Worth Imitating. Read his “Welcome to My Blog.”