Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results

by Shane Parrish

“The fact that other people agree or disagree with you makes you neither right nor wrong. You will be right if your facts and reasoning are correct.”

The people with the best defaults are typically the ones with the best environment. Sometimes it’s part of a deliberate strategy, and sometimes it’s just plain luck.

Rudyard Kipling wrote his classic poem “If—”the one that goes, “If you can keep your head when all about you / Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, / If you can trust yourself when all . . . doubt you”—he made a convincing case for personal strength.[*]

The path to being exceptional begins when you decide to be responsible for your actions no matter the situation.

In order to be right, you must be willing to change your mind. If you’re not willing to change your mind, you’re going to be wrong a lot.

Self-confidence is the strength to focus on what’s right instead of who’s right. It’s the strength to face reality. It’s the strength to admit mistakes, and the strength to change your mind.

everyone is better than us at something. Our job is to figure out what that something is and learn from it while ignoring the rest.

“I never allow myself to have an opinion on anything unless I know the other side’s argument better than they do.”

Charkie, warren Buffett 's partner

Richard Feynman: “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool.”

A supply officer approached him and said, “You don’t understand. You go to the head of the line.” Abrashoff shrugged this off, saying it didn’t seem right to him. He waited in line, got his food, and then sat down with the sailors. The next weekend everyone waited in line and ate together. No command was ever issued. From the start, Abrashoff knew you can’t simply order people to be better.

Atory if leading by example and how effective it is. Waiting in line and eating wuth others

The way I did this was to imagine a film crew following me around documenting how successful I was.

One thing that sets exceptional people apart from the crowd is how they handle mistakes and whether they learn from them and do better as a result.

the definition principle: Take responsibility for defining the problem. Don’t let someone define it for you. Do the work to understand it. Don’t use jargon to describe or explain it. the root cause principle: Identify the root cause of the problem. Don’t be content with simply treating its symptoms.

the bad outcome principle: Don’t just imagine the ideal future outcome. Imagine the things that could go wrong and how you’ll overcome them if they do.

Frederic Maitland purportedly once wrote, “Simplicity is the end result of long, hard work, not the starting point.”

You can learn valuable information even when you don’t agree with their view of the world. Just ask questions, keep your thoughts to yourself, and remain curious about other perspectives.

these questions are from the typical, “Here’s my problem. What should I do?” Remember: the questions you ask help to determine the quality of the information you get.

don’t just ask experts what they think, ask them how they think.

When the cost of a mistake is low, move fast.

the alap principle: If the cost to undo a decision is high, make it as late as possible.

Redelmeier said, “You need to be so careful when there is one simple diagnosis that instantly pops into your mind that beautifully explains everything all at once. That’s when you need to stop and check your thinking.”

Confidence increases faster than accuracy. “The trouble with too much information,”

the things that truly matter in life, like trust, love, and health.

As Jim Collins wrote, “There is no effectiveness without discipline, and there is no discipline without character.”

“Let us prepare our minds as if we had come to the very end of life,” Seneca said. If you want a better life, start thinking about death.

The key to getting what you want out of life is to identify how the world works and to align yourself with it.