Clear Thinking: Turning ordinary moments into extraordinary results is something we can all do! We all know that being good in the modern world is not easy. We need critical knowledge, strong execution, and a certain amount of luck to get by. And I truly believe that there's one more thing we need to make it all come together: the ability to think.

There's so much knowledge out there, and the ability to think can really make it come alive. Willpower has its limits, but the ability to think can help us take action and make the most of things. Luck is always changing, but the ability to think helps us recognize it and learn to make the most of it when it comes our way. There's a lovely saying that I think we can all relate to: those who are good at thinking and those who are not good at thinking are essentially living two kinds of lives. And this book is here to help us all learn how we can improve our ability to think clearly and thus lead a quality life.

This book was written by the wonderful Shane Parrish from the U.S. He describes himself as an "insight seeker," and we're so lucky to have him share his insights with us! He's also created a knowledge website that focuses on self-improvement topics and has more than 700,000 subscribers! He's had the pleasure of chatting with some pretty amazing folks, including renowned investors Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett, as well as cognitive scientists Daniel Dennett and Daniel Kahneman.

I'm sure you're wondering whether the author has summarised lots of different thinking tools after reading so many books and meeting so many people. I'm really excited to see what kind of thinking models we'll get to explore! I think you'll be really surprised by the thinking perspective of this book! Instead of giving you the usual thinking models, it introduces the topic from a different perspective. The author believes that everyday folks like us can't think clearly. It's not that we lack thinking tools and models; it's that there's something more important missing. Oh, you're wondering what this thing is? Let's dive into the first part of the content, which is all about why ordinary people can't think clearly.

Let's dive into this together! The first part is a great place to start. One day, the author was walking by the general manager's office and heard him yelling into the phone. As anyone who knows this general manager will tell you, he has a bad temper and gets angry at the slightest provocation. It's just best not to mess with him. But this time, things were a little different. The person on the other end of the line was calling to tell us about a problem that could have some pretty serious consequences for the company. The poor person on the other end of the line was in a tough spot. They had to take the issue back to a higher level because the general manager was out of control. It wasn't long before the GM was let go.

I've been thinking about this, and I wonder if perhaps the general manager was fired because he didn't know how to think and didn't have the ability to think? I'd say the odds are that he was a strong thinker, or he wouldn't have been in the position he was in. The thing is, when he answered the phone, he didn't realize he should take a moment to think. The author says this is the most important reason he's noticed why we sometimes make silly mistakes in our daily lives. It's not that we don't have the ability to think, but that we don't always think things through.

We all know how it goes. When someone disagrees with us, we get defensive and fight back. When things don't go as planned, we lose our cool and get frustrated. And in many moments of our lives, we go through the motions and let time pass, only to realize what we've missed when it's too late. This is the root cause of the average person's inability to think clearly. It's so sad, but it's true! And it's the worst thing about our days—most of the time, people simply don't call upon their thinking power.

We used to believe that if we just took good care of a few key things in our lives and thought clearly, we'd be successful in life. For example, getting into the best university, choosing the best person for you to marry, choosing the best job for you. But with a little bit of life experience, you'll see that even if you get into the best university, you'll still need to keep enriching your work skills to be competitive in society. The same goes for choosing the best person for you to get married. And, as with anything in life, marriage takes time and effort. Even if you find the perfect job for you, you might not get the chance to advance if you don't put in the work to build up your skills through one project after another.

Parrish says that a person's life is not only shaped by the big moments, but also by these everyday moments. It's these little moments that add up to make our lives. And in these ordinary moments, we don't even realize that we're making choices!

So, this book is all about helping you to think more clearly. The book, Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results, isn't so much about specific thinking tools as it is about how to fight the gravity of mediocrity, counteract instinctive reactions, and win space for yourself to think. The authors say that while thinking involves using thinking tools, it's really about realizing that you need to think right now.

In this book, the author helpfully summarizes the most common and most dangerous parts of the instinctive response into four patterns, or four defaults. Let's take a moment to get to know them one by one. As you go through this process, you can also take a moment to connect with your own body and think about which default value you are most likely to be wrapped up in.

The first one is the Emotional Default. It's natural to react to emotions rather than facts or goals. It's okay to feel angry, but try not to argue just because you're angry. Our emotional defaults can be affected by our own situation. For example, they tend to come into play when we are sleep deprived, stressed, hungry, or in unfamiliar situations. It's important to be aware of this and to take care of ourselves when we can.

The second default, called the ego default, is that we tend to think we are good and right. It's only natural! We all want to feel good about ourselves and our place in the group. The authors give the example of some folks in the workplace who are reluctant to share power with others, even if it's better for the organization. This is because he just trusts the decisions he makes more, or wants to make others feel like they're the most important person in the room. This is a sign that you might be letting your own values get in the way. Then there are those who, when they don't share their point of view, can sometimes be a little forceful in expressing their views. This can sometimes result in delays in business, which we all know is a shame. Parrish says that such people have a strong desire to feel right, which can sometimes get in the way of being right.

The third type of default is called the social default. It's simply going along with the crowd! We all tend to follow the group norm rather than break it. After all, breaking the group norm carries a great deal of risk. The authors give the example of a group of workers who are all digging with their hands, and everyone is doing a great job. Now, imagine you want to take a week off to invent the shovel. What do you think your teammates will think? It's likely they'd think you're trying to be lazy or maybe even a little crazy! So, the authors say that you have to have a bit of a cheeky quality to break the social defaults.

The fourth default is called the inertia default. It's totally normal to get used to doing what we're used to. We all seek comfort and resist change from time to time. For example, we're used to a product, even if a better one comes along. We don't try it because we feel like our current product is just fine. We're used to it, and we're too lazy to change it! This can make life feel more and more closed off, and it can make it harder to make changes for the better.

These four forces are the ones that pull us the deepest into mediocrity. They are emotional defaults, ego defaults, social defaults, and inertia defaults. When we recognize these four forces, it helps us understand our instincts better. It's like having a map to navigate our minds! Now, let's learn to fight them!

Part Two

Now, let's dive into the second part of the story, where we'll explore how we can stand up to those automatic reactions!

There's a lovely saying that goes, "Between stimulus and response, we still have the freedom and ability to choose how to respond." As we scroll through videos one by one, as we get into heated arguments with each other, and as we say things we don't mean, wouldn't it be great if we could just yell "stop" and pull ourselves out of these negative cycles? In this section, we're going to have a little look together at where this ability to "stop" comes from.

You might think of working on your willpower and learning to control yourself with it. But the author says, "It's only a matter of time before almost everyone loses the battle of willpower."

You might have heard of an interesting experiment where researchers placed a delicious cake in front of two groups of people. The first group got to taste the cake, while the second group was asked to eat carrots. After that, the researchers asked both groups to do the same difficult puzzle. The first group was amazing—they held out for 24 minutes before giving up! The second group gave in after 8 minutes. The study found that this is because willpower is a limited resource. When we use it, it becomes less available for future use. Willpower is like our muscles. It's flexible, but it can get tired if we use it too much. It's just not realistic to think we can use willpower to combat all those automatic reactions that happen all the time in our lives.

So, what can we do about it? The authors kindly suggest that instead of worrying about controlling specific actions, we should try to change the problem at a more general level. As the saying goes, "Design a system to work for you when you're at your best, so that it works for you when you're at your worst." So, the authors have come up with two simple ways to make changes at the system level to help counteract those automatic responses.

The first method is to rewrite the defaults, which is a great way to start! I think we can all agree that defaults can sometimes control us, right? Then, let's swap out the original defaults for some better default responses. It's like reprogramming our brains! Our wonderful brains were originally shaped by a set of algorithms that were influenced by our genes, upbringing, cultural practices, and so on. Now, we'd like to tweak the algorithm so that when the program is executed automatically, it produces a different result.

Let's say, for instance, that we're the kind of people who tend to get a bit wound up when others disagree with us. We can help ourselves by setting new defaults, taking a deep breath, and counting to three before we rebut someone. This way, we can stop ourselves from getting defensive. The lovely folks over at the American Association for Alcoholics Anonymous (AAA) have come up with a helpful measure of abstinence called "HALT," which stands for Hunger, Anger, Loneliness, and Tiredness. The Association kindly reminds its members: When you feel the urge to drink, take a moment to think about whether you're in a situation where you're experiencing any of the HALT emotions. If you are, try to solve the problem itself, not the drink. This also replaces the default response with a good one!

The authors also want to give us a heads-up that resetting our defaults is really not easy. It's a long, constant process of self-play, but we can do it! But don't worry, it'll all be worth it in the end! Once you get it set up, you'll find you can live your life with less and less effort later on.

The second method is a bit more challenging, but it's worth it! It requires you to put yourself in a position where you can think in new and creative ways. The author says that anyone in a favorable position looks like a genius, whether the person is smart or not. It's amazing how position can bring power! If we can find ourselves in a position of high potential thinking, we can feel empowered by that position. And the right thinking actions will fall into place, too!

The author identifies three key thinking potentials here. They're pretty intense, so it's important to be mentally mature before you start. But once you do, you'll be on your way to becoming a strong person in the modern world! Let's dive in and explore them one by one!

The first thinking potential is all about self-knowledge. It's so important to understand yourself, to know your strengths and your shortcomings, your abilities and your limitations. It's so important to know your limits! When you know what you're capable of and what you're not, you're much less likely to make silly mistakes. The author was once at a dinner party with a very successful friend. At the party, an astute investor began recommending his company to the author's friend. The friend simply replied, "I don't know anything about that field, and I only like to do business in areas I understand." It's all about being really clear on where your boundaries are.

Self-awareness also means understanding when you might be more likely to make the same old mistakes, so you can make a conscious effort to do better. For instance, as we just chatted about, when it's simple to respond to someone's viewpoint, we can choose to take a moment to pause and reflect before speaking up. But only if you can recognize that you are someone who sometimes gets a bit stressed when other people have strong opinions.

The second thinking potential is called confidence. It's all about believing in your own abilities and your value to others. You've got this! When you believe in yourself, you're more focused on doing the right thing than on being right. Because they believe in themselves, they are more likely to face reality and change their minds and see the outcome above their ego. It's so great when people believe in themselves like that! People who believe in themselves are less likely to be influenced by defaults such as self-justification and emotionalism. This is great because it means they can make up their own minds and see things clearly.

The third thinking potential is called self-accountability. This means always taking responsibility for your own behavior, even for consequences that are not of your own making but should be yours.

The author shares an experience from his own life. He was once involved in a software development project that was particularly busy. The code was due on Sunday night, but he hadn't written it yet. He rushed to the company to work overtime. He didn't expect the leader to say that his code should have been completed long ago.

The author felt pretty bummed out, so he wrote a long email to the leader to tell him that it wasn't easy for him. The leader's response was, "I'm sorry, but it's your responsibility to finish the task." Later on, the writer realized that the stack of challenging tasks he'd mentioned were, in fact, totally doable. No matter how tough it is to get the job done, at the end of the day, what matters most to others is seeing results. So, instead of making excuses, the self-accountable person will say to themselves, "Hey, no one cares. It's on you."

We all make mistakes! Sometimes, it's not you who messed up — it's your coworker or subordinate who got you into trouble. It can feel pretty unfair, right? But the author says that if you're not happy with the way this event is going, then you go ahead and change it. If you can't change it, don't worry! Just accept the situation and take responsibility. But, you know, the world is still mostly concerned with results. And the best way to get better results is to shift your energy from explaining things for yourself to solving problems.

Self-accountability is also about letting go of the victim mentality. We all have our own stories, and in those stories, we often play the role of the hero. We're the good, just, and right ones. It's only natural to want to play the hero, but it can also be uncomfortable to face our own mistakes. But you know what? The self-accountable person will tell themselves, "I'm not the victim. It's my behavior that determines the consequences." If I want to change this, I know I should stop complaining about others and start working on myself.

So, in a nutshell, self-accountability is about telling yourself these three things: "It's your fault if no one cares," "It's not your fault, but it's still your responsibility," and "I'm not a victim." . Just stop for a moment and think about it. A person who consistently holds themselves accountable and reminds themselves to focus on the outcome and accept the reality of the situation is someone we can all learn from. I think that's a much more rational way of thinking, and it's less likely to be controlled by our instincts.

So, to wrap things up, if you want to fight those automatic reactions, you've got to put yourself in a position where you can succeed. And there are three key ways to do that: by being self-aware, confident in yourself, and accountable for your actions. I think what makes this book so special is its focus on clear thinking. It's not just about specific moves, but also about building a strong personality.

So, how can we all cultivate a strong personality? As usual, the author doesn't get bogged down in the nitty-gritty of specific moves. Instead, he offers a beautiful, underlying logic for becoming a person with high self-requirements. The author says that people who are confident, self-controlled, and realistic may have a variety of self-management techniques, but they all have one thing in common: they demand a lot of themselves.

Hey there! I just wanted to check in and see if you're demanding enough of yourself. Let's take a look at an example together. Former U.S. Secretary of State Kissinger once asked a staff member to draft a memo. Kissinger kindly asked him if he could write it better. The staff member thought for a moment and said, "I'll change it again if you'd like." The next day, Kissinger asked again, "Is this the best memo you could have written?" The staffer thought about it and rewrote it again. On the third morning, Kissinger asked again, and the staffer responded with a smile, "I really couldn't have written it better." Kissinger said, "Okay, now I can read it." Later on, this staff member really flourished and developed very well. You know, everything has the potential to be even better if you just raise the bar for yourself!

I think we can all relate to feeling a little confused about how to know if we're demanding enough of ourselves. There's a simple and direct way to do this. All you have to do is find your own role model, analyze what his standards are, and then follow suit. We often say that the role of a role model is that you can imitate the way he behaves and thinks, but in the author's opinion, the biggest role of a role model is to let you see how a person with high standards demands of himself. Their standards can help you go beyond the standards you have inherited from your parents and friends.

Role models are the best when they're close to you. It's great to work directly with them! But it's okay to use a public figure as a role model, too. You can search for interviews about them on the internet and watch and learn from them. You can also choose among the great figures of history and read books about them. There are so many wonderful books out there about amazing people from history! It really depends on whose standards you subscribe to, and that's totally okay!

The author says that one of his role models is Charlie Munger, a well-known investor, who he finds really inspiring. One time, the author was chatting with Charlie Munger, and this other person said something that really stuck with him. They said, "I don't let myself express my opinion on anything unless I know more about his arguments than the other person." This statement really struck a chord with the author and made him think deeply about things. It's so easy to want to jump in and say something about someone else's point of view, isn't it? But it's not so simple to do the homework to get your point across, as Charlie Munger did. The author was really inspired by Charlie Munger's quote and it made him think about how he expresses his opinion.

Part Three

We've identified a few ways to help you think in new ways and to challenge yourself in new ways. Up to this point, we've been taking a little step back. So, let's get to it! We've got some specific thinking to do. Here, the author kindly restores the steps that a high-quality rational thinking should have, as well as the core points and key actions of each step. The author kindly reminds us that when we're practicing in reality, we shouldn't worry about the trouble of these steps. The premise of rational thinking is to follow a systematic, organized speaking process. Randomly jumping steps is like doing an instinctive reaction.

The author's chosen scenario is a decision-making one, which is a great choice because it has a big impact on our lives. So, the steps of rational thinking in this book are also the steps of scientific decision-making. Let's take a closer look at each step together, one by one.

So, the first thing you need to do is define the problem.

Take a deep breath and think about two things. First, what do you want to achieve? Second, it's also helpful to think about what might get in the way of achieving your goal. It's so easy to get stuck in a rut when you're trying to solve a problem. We all do it! Sometimes we get so focused on finding a solution that we forget to think about what we really want to achieve. We end up going around in circles, coming up with lots of ideas that aren't realistic.

Have you ever wondered what it really means to define a problem? The author believes that it's so important to capture the source of the problem. It's not enough to just treat the symptoms; we need to address the root cause too. The authors give this great example. In the United States, more than 3 million dogs enter shelters every year. This is a heartbreaking problem that shelter workers are trying to solve. They want to find ways to get more people to come and adopt these sweet dogs. But really, this question doesn't capture the essence, you know? One animal shelter did some research and found that 30% of the dogs entering the shelter were sadly given up by their owners. The main reason was that the owners couldn't afford to keep their pets any longer. With this realization, a more permanent solution became clear. When someone comes in to surrender a pet, our wonderful staff members ask them if they would like to keep the pet as their own forever. If they do, the shelter is there to help! We'll work with you to find solutions, such as free rabies shots and free pet food. We're delighted to say that this program has made a huge impact, with 75% of families who were going to give up their pets withdrawing their applications. This is about going back to the source and rethinking the problem together.

It's so important to remember that getting to the heart of a problem often requires lots of chats and a step-by-step process of following the trail. It's so easy to lose patience in the process, isn't it? So, one specific action the authors share here is to make sure you separate the meeting where you define the problem from the meeting where you come up with a solution. Spend one or more meetings focused on problem definition. This will be time well spent! Otherwise, it's often the case that defining the problem only takes a minute or two, and people are eager to jump right in and start finding solutions. Let's use this physical firewall to make sure we're spending the right amount of time defining the problem.

Now it's time to explore some possible solutions!

This step is all about opening your mind to explore new options in a big way! The authors also provide a couple of specific actions to help you open up your mind and explore new ideas. First, when you're facing a problem, it's always a great idea to explore at least three possible solutions. It's totally understandable that having just one option can feel limiting. Having two options can sometimes make it feel like we're stuck between two choices. And having three options is a great way to ensure we have some flexibility and variety. The second thing you can do is think about each of the options you listed. Ask yourself, one by one, what you would do if it doesn't work. I know it can be tough, but try to dig into new options again.

Now, the third step is to evaluate each option.

The tricky part here is that it can be tough to distinguish the pros and cons of each option. So, what we need to do now is to narrow down the most important rating criterion. Just a heads-up, there is only one, so let's use that one to rank the options.

I'd love to know how you filter out that one criterion! The authors have a great suggestion: make your criteria compete with each other. You can also try preparing a whiteboard, writing down one of your criteria on it, and then comparing a second criterion to it. This helps you to narrow it down and choose one. If the second criterion is more important, simply erase the first one and write the second one on it. You can keep going until you find the one that's the best fit for you! You'll get there! Eventually, you'll find that one most important criterion.

Now it's time for the fun part! The fourth step is to implement the program.

At this stage, it's important to stick to the decision you've made. Sometimes, though, life throws us a curveball! If you want to change your mind about the original plan, it's time to revisit the four steps of rational thinking. Now that you've made your decision, it's important to stick to it.

All right, now that we've gone over these steps together, you'll have a good grasp on how to think rationally. Now, let's chat about what your bottom line is. So, how can you make sure you don't make any mistakes along the way?

Let's start by taking a closer look at what it really means to make a mistake. I just want to be clear that when I say "mistakes," I don't mean trial and error. We want to explore if there is an opportunity in a certain area, so we take a bold step and try it. We might fail, but that's okay! It's a courageous thing to do and allows us to gain a lot of experience, which is called trial and error, not making a mistake.

We all know that sometimes, even when we make a decision using the four steps of rational thinking, the result isn't what we hoped for. This is also not called making a mistake because, after all, there are so many uncontrollable factors that affect the outcome besides personal effort. It just means that we were a bit carried away by our instincts and didn't think things through properly. If we had another chance, we'd definitely do things differently! We all make mistakes!

How can we all help each other to reduce the chances of making mistakes? The author is super helpful and shares lots of practical tips! I'm so excited for you to listen to this audiobook! You'll be able to use these tips right away.

The first method is prevention, which is a great way to avoid making mistakes! It's all about spotting the situations where you might be more likely to make a logical mistake and, in those cases, it's best to avoid making decisions. The wonderful behavioral economist Daniel Kahneman once told the author that he never agrees to people's requests on the phone. He knew he had a tendency to be a people pleaser and was prone to say yes without thinking. So whenever someone made a request on the phone, he would say, "I'll have to think about it." This way, he was able to kindly turn down 80% of the requests.

The second way is to create a little bit of friction to make it a bit more challenging to exercise your instincts. For example, the author found that he couldn't help checking his email whenever he had a moment to spare, even though the task at hand was much more important than dealing with email. So he told his coworkers that if anyone caught me checking email before 11 a.m., I'd have to buy everyone lunch! This little hiccup was just enough to make the author stop checking his email every now and then.

The third method is a great one! It's called setting up a checklist. All you do is write down all the core steps to accomplishing something. Then, before and after each task, you just pick up the list and go over it to make sure that you've considered every item in it. This is a great way to take a step back for a moment and get back to the basics. It's a chance to ask yourself, "What should I do?" Oh, goodness! Did I do it?

The last method is called switching perspectives. Take a moment to put yourself in someone else's shoes. Just for a moment, think about what it would be like to be someone else. This perspective can help us to step back from self-defense. Do you know the story of Andy Grove, the former Intel CEO? He was once asked this very question when he was making some tough decisions about Intel's memory business. He thought about it for a moment and said, "What would I do if I were the new CEO?" And do you know what he did next? He immediately abandoned the memory business! So, Grove decided to take the plunge and do it himself.

So, how can we make sure we don't make mistakes in our thinking and decision-making? There are four ways to do this. The first is to prevent yourself from falling into a trap of thinking you're being logical when you're not. If you catch yourself doing this, don't make any decisions! The second way is to create a bit of a challenge to make it harder to make decisions based on instinct. The third method is a great one! It's called setting up a checklist. Take a moment to step back and get back to basics with this method. And finally, there's another method you can try, which is called switching perspectives. Just for a moment, put yourself in someone else's shoes and think about what would happen if it were him.

And that, my friends, is a wrap! This part of the book is all yours to decipher. The most important thing this book teaches us is that our instincts, which are there to help us, can sometimes lead us to react in ways that aren't helpful if we don't think about them first. We all have those days where we just let our instincts take over. It's so easy to say or do things without thinking, and before we know it, we've said or done something we can't take back or undo. Before we know it, our lives get a little worse.

Most books on thinking focus on giving you lots of different thinking tools. But this book is different. It reminds us that the most important thing is to learn to hit the pause button for yourself. You've got to realize that right here, right now, you've got to think.

We can help ourselves by rewriting our defaults and replacing bad reactions with good ones. And there's more! We can also boost our thinking potential, self-confidence, self-knowledge, and self-accountability, and develop a strong personality. We also need to develop our thinking habits, think rationally using the four steps of scientific decision-making, and set up all kinds of safeguards to keep ourselves from making mistakes. Don't worry, though! We can do this together.

The authors say that with a little bit of perseverance, our rationality will grow stronger and stronger! And as we get used to thinking clearly, we'll find ourselves with fewer problems to solve because, hey, they shouldn't have existed in the first place! We'll also find ourselves with less stress and anxiety and more happiness.

After reading the whole book, I feel like the most important thing is to be the kind of person you want to be. If you want to be strong, confident, introspective, self-accountable, and always hold yourself to high standards, then you can definitely achieve that with the ability to think clearly!