Concise Expression, Lists, and Deliberate Encounters

Seven Ways to Become More Capable—How to Sharpen Thinking There are many ways to sharpen thinking. One is concise expression: write and speak as concisely as possible. That is easier said than done; concise expression demands far more intensive thought. Good writing strips clutter from every sentence: every useless word and unnecessary modifier weakens its force. Beyond improving language and concision, three tools can help thinking. First, a creativity table. Break a problem into dimensions and recombine them in a table to generate ideas. This is effective for multidimensional thinking. Look at the original book for an example. Second, a list. List the things you want to do. Lists force thought and encourage divergence. First generate possibilities, then narrow them: remove optional or especially impractical items, leaving an action guide. Third, disorder. Countries, societies, companies, communities, classes, and families are complex systems with many factors operating together. An orderly arrangement strengthens some factors while weakening others. Grouping students into small classes, for example, emphasizes age-related similarities while overlooking individual differences. Apparent order may conceal other forms of disorder. To break through that order, deliberately introduce disorder, randomness, and surprises as soil for new ideas. When Steve Jobs designed a new workplace, he placed a large atrium at its center with meeting rooms and dining facilities. People initially disliked it, but found it encouraged frequent encounters and conversations. Surface disorder produced more creativity. Thought is not as stable and solid as we imagine. It jumps, flows, and changes. Its movement depends on the terrain carrying it. Lists encourage us to enumerate more things and lengthen the list. Tables encourage combinations across dimensions. Disorder encourages unexpected elements to mix and recombine, generating inspiration. Capable people use such tools to sharpen their ideas. #Dedao audio summary of 精進 ---- Robin: ‘Deliberately creating disorder and conflict sometimes makes an organization more creative and energetic. Hence the catfish effect: Norwegian fishers found sardines could die from inactivity during transport to port. They put a predatory catfish among them. Swimming continually to survive, the sardines reached port lively and active.’ The catfish effect describes introducing a strong competitor, new talent, or a new system—the ‘catfish’—into an overly comfortable organization lacking competition. The resulting pressure breaks stagnation and encourages previously idle or habitual members—the ‘sardines’—to stay active and become more productive.