Decision Making
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Predictions and Planning
Predictions: “No airship will ever fly from New York to Paris. That seems to me to be impossible,” wrote Wilbur Wright, the co-inventor of the airplane, in 1909. Just 10 years later, in 1919, a British airship crossed the Atlantic. “The growth of the Internet will slow drastically,” wrote Paul Krugman in 1998. “Most people Continue reading
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Craftsman & Artist
Rick Rubin writes in ‘The Creative Act’- If you know what you want to do and you do it, that’s the work of a craftsman. If you begin with a question and use it to guide an adventure of discovery, that’s the work of the artist. Being open to possibility gets you to a place Continue reading
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Invert, always invert
Great mathematician Carl Jacobi who had notable contributions in the fields of differential equations, matrix theory, number theory and elliptic functions is attributed with the principle of ‘Invert, always invert’.Simply put, the idea behind the principle was that, to solve a problem, try to invert the problem and solve for the inverse.A simple mathematical example Continue reading
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Upstream
Too often, we get bogged down in solving a series of problems without taking a step back and think the source of problems. Author Dan Heath beautifully captures this in his book ‘Upstream’. You and your friend are having a picnic by the side of a river. Suddenly you hear a shout from the direction Continue reading
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Reading, Thinking and Writing
Reading is essential. Quality content from books, blog posts, podcasts exposes you to great ideas. Thinking brings the knowledge from this information. However writing will help you to get wisdom from this knowledge. Turning thoughts into words sharpens your understanding. Hoping to be on the journey of writing regularly in 2023. Continue reading
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The First Instinct Fallacy
‘Trust your first instincts is the key learning we get early in our life, especially for educational settings; while giving an exam. We carry this learning or a similar form; ‘leaning on the popular beliefs’ in our personal and professional lives when things start looking complex. The latest psychology research has proved that when students Continue reading
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Quote I am pondering
He refused to specialize in anything, preferring to keep an eye on the overall estate rather than any of its parts. . . . and Nikolay’s management produced the most brilliant results. Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace Continue reading
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Beware of silos and overspecialisation !
This interesting example comes from the 2008 financial crisis. In the aftermath of the crisis, a federal reserve program launched in 2009 incentivized banks to lower monthly mortgage payments to homeowners who were struggling but still able to make partial payments. It was a great idea on paper but this is how it worked out Continue reading
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Gaining Insights – a different approach
In my last post How do we gain insight? I described the Wallace model. In this post I look to explore another approach which comes from research psychologist Gary Klein’s study of numerous cases of insights. In his study, Gary came with five different strategies for gaining insights. Depending upon the situation you might pursue one Continue reading
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How do we gain insight?
Graham Wallas, a co-founder of London School of Economics, in his 1926 book, The Art of Thought described a model of how insight work. In his four stage model (Preparation, Incubation, Illumination & Verification), Graham suggests that we can purposefully build a process to reach to an insight when we are stuck with a problem. Continue reading
Thinking Space 