Most significant problems reside within complex systems that are difficult to interpret and solve.
Simple answers are rarely available, or someone else would have found them. Don’t think you’re that smart (that was mainly to myself). All that means is that we should be slow to jump into solving a problem in the hope of not making it worse.
We should take time to understand the system in which the problem lives. In science and medicine, they call this diagnosing. This goes hand-in-hand with hypothesizing and aiming for falsification to solve the problem better (and quicker).
This principle is one of my dearest as it completely changed my perspective (i.e., how I see). Whenever I come across a meaningful challenge, I slow down and diagnose the problem. This allows me to come to better solutions and provide the thought process behind them (see: intentional).
It’s one of the more radical mental models I’ve adopted that’s instantly improved my outputs. Figure out the problem fully (diagnose) before deploying a hypothesis to test and learn from. For me, this is in marketing, relationships, and my spiritual life. It’s helped me make progress and be more satisfied in all those areas.
I hope the mental model of diagnosing before action can help you begin the path toward those same outcomes. In this essay, I will cover:
Most significant problems reside within complex systems that are difficult to interpret and solve.
Simple answers are rarely available, or someone else would have found them. Don’t think you’re that smart (that was mainly to myself). All that means is that we should be slow to jump into solving a problem in the hope of not making it worse.
We should take time to understand the system in which the problem lives. In science and medicine, they call this diagnosing. This goes hand-in-hand with hypothesizing and aiming for falsification to solve the problem better (and quicker).
This principle is one of the dearest to me as it’s completely changed how I see. Whenever I come across a meaningful challenge, I slow down and diagnose the problem. This allows me to come to better solutions and provide the thought process behind them (see: intentional).
It’s one of the more radical mental models I’ve adopted that’s instantly improved my outputs. Figure out the problem fully (diagnose) before deploying a hypothesis to test and learn from. For me, this is in marketing, relationships, and my spiritual life. It’s helped me make progress and be more satisfied in all those areas.
I hope the mental model of diagnosing before action can help you begin the path toward those same outcomes. In this essay, I will cover: