Think Smart, Act Smart

Every day we analyze situations, tackle problems, make choices, take decisions, act upon them. This book shows you how to do all of these things better. We’ll explain how to use techniques developed by psychologists, mathematicians, business consultants, sports competitors and even military strategists. There are mind-training exercises and self-assessments, as well as background information to inform and entertain. All of these tools can help you to use your mental powers more effectively.

FACING CHALLENGES

Occasionally, a situation will demand an instant response – if we see a poisonous snake in our path, we don’t spend a lot of time weighing up options! But most situations are much more complex than this, and demand a variety of reasoning skills. Even an everyday decision such as choosing a vacation can involve a surprisingly complex process: estimating risks, weighing up options, considering the needs of others, and predicting how we might feel in different locations.

Sometimes, an area of life – work, family life or even leisure time – can give rise to problems that can be difficult to tackle or solve. You might find that you can’t manage a situation effectively with your usual strategies, or even that it presents you with an entirely new dilemma. In these circumstances, you might well need extra mental tools. This book will guide you through every stage of a challenge, so that you can work your way to an appropriate conclusion.

FOCUSING YOUR MIND

As a starting point, you’ll need a variety of mental skills to help you analyze the situation. First, you need to be able to focus – to use your mind like a camera to obtain the best view of the problem. There are times when your focus will have to be pin-sharp, but at other times you may need to take a wide-angle view, or to adjust your thinking so that you look deeper into the background of an issue. The first two chapters show you different ways in which you can draw on both logical reasoning and more creative, intuitive thought, so that you’ll be able to cope successfully with a wide range of situations.

DECISIONS, DECISIONS

Every choice brings unique opportunities, but also costs: for every option that you take, there will be one or more others that you have to reject. The worry about making the right choice, or the suspicion that a discarded option might actually have been better, can make decisionmaking fraught with anxiety and lead to regret.

You can do one of two things when decision-making: exhaustively consider every possible choice in the quest for the perfect answer, or search just until you find a good enough option. In confining yourself to looking for the perfect answer, there’s a risk that you might expend a disproportionate amount of time and energy, and perhaps still not attain your ideal, when all you need is simply a workable solution.

The more elements there are for you to weigh up in your mind, the more skilful you’ll need to be to narrow down your options to a precise course of action. You may have to take into account all kinds of conditional factors – you’ll do X if this happens and Y if that happens – but without a clear set of steps that can lead you to a decision, it’s easy to become entangled in a web of confusion.

Making these choices may at times seem like hard work, but the alternative is worse: as the philosopher Bertrand Russell wrote, “Nothing is so exhausting as indecision. And nothing is so futile.”

Effective decision-making doesn’t always come naturally. However, it can be learnt and improved. To start with, you need a clear perception of the facts: if you fail to check your assumptions, then no matter how good your reasoning, you could be misguided. You’re equipped with a range of inbuilt reflexes, emotional responses and reasoning skills, which are often useful but can sometimes lead to errors of thinking. By learning how to recognize and avoid these biases, you can keep your mind clear and your perceptions accurate.