Think better. We all want to. What's the pathway? Here are some quotes from Shane Parris' book, The Great Mental Models.
"The quality of your thinking depends on the models that are in your head." Remember INVERSION from Carl Jacobi. Opposite George from Seinfeld.
"We...tend to undervalue the elementary ideas and overvalue the complicated ones." Fall in love with easy.
"Understanding only becomes useful when we adjust our behavior..." Education changes behavior.
"There is no shortcut to understanding. Building a circle of competence takes years of experience, of making mistakes, and of actively seeking out better methods of practice and thought."
"It takes courage to solicit external feedback." Everyone benefits from coaching. I recently shared how Atul Gawande hired another surgeon to oversee his work.
"Why do I think this? What exactly do I think? How do I know this is true? How can I back this up? How do I know I am correct? What if I am wrong?
"To improve something, we need to understand why it is successful or not."
"The genie never gets back in the bottle. You can never delete consequences to arrive at the original starting condition."
"Stupidity is the same as evil if you judge by the results." - Margaret Atwood Build better process.
"Arguments are more effective when we demonstrate that we have considered the second-order effects." (What can go wrong?)
"We must ask ourselves the critical question: And then what?"
"In a fat-tailed curve there is no real cap on extreme events." UMBC beats UVA.
"No one likes to fail...But failure carries with it one huge antifragile gift: learning."
"Avoiding stupidity is easier than seeking brilliance."
"He wins his battles by making no mistakes." - Sun Tzu A game of mistakes...
"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof." - Carl Sagan
"I need to listen well so that I hear what is not said." - Thuli Madonsela
Coaching transforms the possible into reality.
Lagniappe: DME (Defensive mistakes and errors)
Screenshot of a recent high school game with the ball in one corner. The purpose is solely for illustration. Coaches notice:
- Ball pressure, defensive position, and stance
- The post defender is playing behind the post. Is this by design versus 3/4 or fronting?
- Are helpside defenders (e.g. Helpside I) engaged (vision, decision, execution)?
After post entry, she takes a dribble to the middle and then makes an excellent front pivot off the left foot for a layup. She makes a statement about how future post defense should deny easy entry.
This BOB had potential but the pass got entered to the 2.
Lagniappe 3. "Love your losses." Our team fell behind by 20 in the first half to a superior team...but did not quit. We closed the deficit to 8 with four minutes left but couldn't get closer. The message was to "raise your game" to match an opponent's skill and intensity.