2-1a0b 'Thought experiment' - Don't limit yourself to binary thinking. Explore at least three possible solutions.

“One should always look for a possible alternative and provide against it. It is the first rule of criminal investigation.” – Sherlock Holmes

Next:

• 2-1a0b1 Do no consult your ‘intuition’ all the time

Related:

• 2-1a6c1 ‘Tendency to minimize energy output’ - Align your incentives properly, then (almost) everything will follow
• Problem-solving novices try to reduce a decision to just two options because it creates the false sense that they’ve gotten to the problem’s essence. In reality, they’ve just stopped thinking. And you never want to stop thinking! Novices fail to see the complexities of a problem that are apparent to a master. Masters see the simplicity hiding in the complexity. As Frederic Maitland purportedly once wrote, “Simplicity is the end result of long, hard work, not the starting point.”
• RUL3 - Avoid premature optimization
• 2-1a6c3 ‘Global and local maxima’ - Don’t prematurely overoptimize. Occasionally throw in some ‘randomness’.
• 5-2b4a You can either decide from existent options, or make a decision (literally in the sense of creation) by creating new explanation
• 3-1a2 The problem itself doesn’t care how it’s solved. Everything should be structured around solving problems.
• Remember: Limiting ourselves to binary thinking before fully understanding a problem is a dangerous simplification that creates blind spots. False dualities prevent you from seeing alternative paths and other information that might change your mind. On the other hand, taking away one of two clear options forces you to reframe the problem and get unstuck.
  • 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.
    • 2-1a0c ‘Denial’ - Accept the existence of Black Swans
  • The 3+ principle: Force yourself to explore at least three possible solutions to a problem. If you find yourself considering only two options, force yourself to find at least one more.
    • 10-1c4 Think about your problem as a set of outcomes produced by a machine then customize, because thinking in terms of machine implies composability, and composable system is fixable
  • Safeguard: Imagine that one of the options is off the table. Take each of the options you’re considering, and one at a time, ask yourself, “What would I do if that were not possible?“
    • 1-2g2s7c Very unlikely event certainly happens somewhere in the multiverse
      • 10-2e4a There is no such thing as ‘which half’ would see ‘heads’, any more than there is an answer to the question ‘which one am I’
• Look for similar problems already solved, and try to find an analogy to your problem
  • 5-1b1a8b You can use analogy, but you have to explain why the analogy holds
• Restate the problem in as many ways as possible. Try to look at it from many different perspectives
  • 2-1 Mental models (着せ替え・持ち替え・言い換え)
  • 2-1a0b2 ‘Relativity’ - Look at the problem in as many ways as possible. You might as well find new problems.
• Generalize the solution to an already solved problem and see if it can apply to your problem
  • 3-1c3d3 When problems are so well defined, your future self might be able to solve new problems by reusing and recombining them
    • 9-1b1 Ideas are never replicated fully because each individual has different problem-situation. Meme variation (and mutation) is inevitable.
• Divide and conquer
  • 2-3a ‘First principles thinking’ - If it’s not forbidden by the laws of physics, it is possible
  • 2-1a0a ‘Occam’s razor’ & ‘Irreducibility’ - Simplify the problem but don’t oversimplify.
    • 3-1c2e0 There is no minimum idea
      • 1-2g2s7b3 An explanation for how something really works cannot rely on infinity
• The best way to solve a hard problem is by understanding the system and the principles that govern it
  • 9-4b2a1b Build the Idea Maze - Explain the history around an idea, and why yours is a good one. Virtually render the history of the evolution of that idea.

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