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Clear thinking

There is nothing stronger than biological instincts hardwired within us. They control us often without us even knowing.

For instance, like all animals, we are naturally prone to defend our territory.

Territory can also be psychological. When someone criticizes our work, status, or how we see ourselves, we stop listening and go on the attack. We instinctively defend ourselves.

We react without thinking.

We have a set of defaults that our brains will automatically execute when triggered unless we stop and take the time to think.

The emotion default.

We tend to respond to feelings rather than reasons and facts. Emotions can drive us away from clear thinking. Emotions can multiply all of your progress by zero.

Sleep deprivation, hunger, fatigue, emotion, distraction, stress from feeling rushed, and being in an unfamiliar environment. If you find yourself in any of these conditions, be on your guard.

The ego default.

Our ego can turn confidence into overconfidence or even arrogance. We get a bit of knowledge on the internet and suddenly everything seems easy.

When someone steps on how we see ourselves, or how we want to be seen, the ego leaps into action, and we often react without reasoning. The ego default urges us to feel right at the expense of being right.

The social default.

We fall in line with an idea or behavior simply because other people do. The social default encourages us to outsource our thoughts, beliefs, and outcomes to others.

We want to belong to the crowd. We fear being an outsider. It comes from our history. Survival inside the tribe was hard but survival outside the tribe was impossible. Our individual interests became secondary to the group interests.

The inertia default.

We resist change even when it is for the best. Keeping things the way they are requires almost no effort.

The inertia default leverages our desire to stay in our comfort zone, or the "zone of average", relying on old processes and standards even when they are no longer optimal. It's the point where things are working well enough that we don't feel the need to make any changes.

Groups create inertia of their own. Group dynamics end up favoring people who don't deviate from the defaults. People are rewarded for maintaining status quo.

Protect yourself from yourself

We can't eliminate our defaults. But we can reprogram them into forces for good. We need to learn to manage them. Which defaults do you struggle with the most? How do you think clearly? Which tools do you use to protect yourself from yourself?

"Clear thinking" by Shane Parrish

What do we mean by Excellence?

Is it a grand aspiration or a destination at which we arrive one glorious day? No. Excellence is not a finish line. It's a way of being.

I believe we are what we repeatedly do, and therefore, excellence is not an act but a habit. It isn't complicated. Just hard.

Few of us can watch a video or get something explained and then know how to do it. We have to do it several times to absorb it. If it doesn't become a part of us we lose it the second we experience difficulty.

Don't focus on getting into shape. Focus on becoming the kind of person who never misses a workout.

For example, "Prioritization is so hard.", many say. To become great at it we should do it more than once a year then.

Unfortunately, the harder a thing is, the less often we do it.

Find the painful things you want to become extremely good at, and start practicing them. Deliberate repetitions with feedback. Outside your comfort zone.

Working with a master firsthand is one of the best educations. Learn from people who've done it before at a higher level than you. Apprenticeships have existed for centuries, helping people develop skills and transfer knowledge across generations.

You unconsciously adopt the thoughts, attitudes, behaviors and standards of the people around you. The master's excellence demands your excellence. Their standards become what you measure yourself against.

Is excellence the pursuit of perfection then? No. To be excellent in some areas, you must let others go. Know when to push for the very best and when to settle for good enough.

Over time, the habits you build become your culture, and your culture becomes your excellence.

What is excellence for you?

The resilient resists shocks and stays the same; the antifragile gets better.

Man-made smoothing of randomness produces the equivalent of John's income: smooth, steady, but fragile. Such income is more vulnerable to large shocks. Natural randomness presents itself more like George's income: smaller role for very large shocks, but daily variability. Such variability helps improve the system (hence the antifragility).

The barbell strategy

Optionality

• Look for optionality; in fact, rank things according to optionality.
• Preferably options with open-ended payoffs.
• Do not invest in business plans but in people, so look for someone capable of changing six or seven times over their career.
• Make sure you are barbelled.

You have been there. You are introduced to someone. You shake hands, your eyes meet, and then ...

What do I say after I say Hello?

Are you good at asking the right questions in the right context?

Here are some questions I will ask more of.

When you hear things are impossible, problematic or difficult, try to lift the cognitive load of reality and let the person play with the imagination, and solutions may become more accessible.

• What would it look like if it were possible? What would it look like if it were easy?
• Imagine a miracle happened and your problem was solved. How would you know?

Instead of examining something problematic, difficult or bad in isolation, try to get clarity from contrast.

• "This is so hard / bad / problematic ...", ... compared to what?

Have you met people who are very confident and firmly believe they are right and that they know the answer or solution? Be curious, and ask some questions.

• How do you know that? How do you know that this is the right thing to do?
• What leads you to that conclusion or to that assumption?
• What might happen if it's wrong?
• What are the uncertainties in your reasoning?

When you are presented with new strategies, directions or processes, don't you sometimes wonder ...

• Do we have to change in an obvious way in order to execute this strategy?
• What do we need to do in order to deliver on this? What do we need to stop?
• How do we know if this new strategy, process or whatever is successful? How do we recognize a successful execution?

Sometimes I feel overwhelmed and stressed over all the problems and opportunities that should be addressed and solved.

• But what happens if we do nothing? Maybe that's a question we should ask more often.

Have you ended up in a deep rabbit hole where the discussion leads nowhere?

• What are we trying to accomplish here?
• What are we up against here?
• How would you like me to proceed? How can we solve this problem?

Learning is important for me. These fun questions are difficult to answer, but they at least trigger some reflections.

• What have surprised you the most?
• What's the most difficult thing you did the last X weeks/months, and what did you learn from it?

I am not good at small talk with new people, so here's at least one opening I use.

• What are you currently working on that you are most excited about?

What questions do you tend to ask and why?