How to Think Clearly
How to Think Clearly
“Clear thinker” is a better compliment than “smart.”
Real knowledge is intrinsic, and it’s built from the ground up. To use a math example, you can’t understand trigonometry without understanding arithmetic and geometry. Basically, if someone is using a lot of fancy words and a lot of big concepts, they probably don’t know what they’re talking about. I think the smartest people can explain things to a child. If you can’t explain it to a child, then you don’t know it. It’s a common saying and it’s very true.
Richard Feynman very famously does this in “Six Easy Pieces,” one of his early physics lectures. He basically explains mathematics in three pages. He starts from the number line— counting—and then he goes all the way up to precalculus. He just builds it up through an unbroken chain of logic. He doesn’t rely on any definitions.
The really smart thinkers are clear thinkers. They understand the basics at a very, very fundamental level. I would rather understand the basics really well than memorize all kinds of complicated concepts I can’t stitch together and can’t rederive from the basics. If you can’t rederive concepts from the basics as you need them, you’re lost. You’re just memorizing. [4]
The advanced concepts in a field are less proven. We use them to signal insider knowledge, but we’d be better off nailing the basics. [11]
Clear thinkers appeal to their own authority.
Part of making effective decisions boils down to dealing with reality. How do you make sure you’re dealing with reality when you’re making decisions?
By not having a strong sense of self or judgments or mind presence. The “monkey mind” will always respond with this regurgitated emotional response to what it thinks the world should be. Those desires will cloud your reality. This happens a lot of times when people are mixing politics and business.
The number one thing clouding us from being able to see reality is we have preconceived notions of the way it should be.
One definition of a moment of suffering is “the moment when you see things exactly the way they are.” This whole time, you’ve been convinced your business is doing great, and really, you’ve ignored the signs it’s not doing well. Then, your business fails, and you suffer because you’ve been putting off reality. You’ve been hiding it from yourself.
The good news is, the moment of suffering—when you’re in pain—is a moment of truth. It is a moment where you’re forced to embrace reality the way it actually is. Then, you can make meaningful change and progress. You can only make progress when you’re starting with the truth.
The hard thing is seeing the truth. To see the truth, you have to get your ego out of the way because your ego doesn’t want to face the truth. The smaller you can make your ego, the less conditioned you can make your reactions, the less desires you can have about the outcome you want, the easier it will be to see the reality.
What we wish to be true clouds our perception of what is true. Suffering is the moment when we can no longer deny reality.
Imagine we’re going through something difficult like a breakup, a job loss, a business failure, or a health problem, and our friends are advising us. When we’re advising them, the answer is obvious. It comes to us in a minute, and we tell them exactly, “Oh that girl, get over her, she wasn’t good for you anyway. You’ll be happier. Trust me. You’ll find someone.”
You know the correct answer, but your friend can’t see it, because they’re in the moment of suffering and pain. They’re still wishing reality was different. The problem isn’t reality. The problem is their desire is colliding with reality and preventing them from seeing the truth, no matter how much you say it. The same thing happens when I make decisions.
The more desire I have for something to work out a certain way, the less likely I am to see the truth. Especially in business, if something isn’t going well, I try to acknowledge it publicly and I try to acknowledge it publicly in front of my co-founders and friends and co-workers. Then, I’m not hiding it from anybody else. If I’m not hiding it from anybody, I’m not going to delude myself from what’s actually going on. [4]
What you feel tells you nothing about the facts—it merely tells you something about your estimate of the facts.
It’s actually really important to have empty space. If you don’t have a day or two every week in your calendar where you’re not always in meetings, and you’re not always busy, then you’re not going to be able to think. You’re not going to be able to have good ideas for your business.
You’re not going to be able to make good judgments. I also encourage taking at least one day a week (preferably two, because if you budget two, you’ll end up with one) where you just have time to think.
It’s only after you’re bored you have the great ideas. It’s never going to be when you’re stressed, or busy, running around or rushed. Make the time. [7]
Very smart people tend to be weird since they insist on thinking everything through for themselves.
A contrarian isn’t one who always objects—that’s a conformist of a different sort. A contrarian reasons independently from the ground up and resists pressure to conform.
Cynicism is easy. Mimicry is easy. Optimistic contrarians are the rarest breed.
如何清晰地思考
“清晰的思考者”比“聪明的人”更值得称赞。
真正的知识是内在的，是从基础上逐步建立起来的。举个数学的例子，如果你不理解算术和几何，就无法理解三角学。基本上，如果一个人用很多华丽的词汇和庞大的概念，那么他们很可能并不真正了解他们在谈论什么。我认为最聪明的人能够把事情解释给孩子听。如果你不能向孩子解释清楚，那你就还没真正掌握它。这是一个普遍的说法，而且非常正确。
理查德·费曼在他的早期物理学讲座《六个简单的小节》里非常著名地做到了这一点。他基本上在三页内解释了数学。他从数字线——数数开始，一直讲到预备微积分。他通过一条不间断的逻辑链来构建这些内容，完全不依赖于任何定义。
真正聪明的思考者是清晰的思考者。他们在非常基础的层面上理解基本知识。我宁愿非常透彻地理解基础知识，也不愿去记住所有我无法将其拼凑在一起、无法从基础推导出的复杂概念。如果你不能在需要时从基础推导出概念，那你就迷失了，你只是在记忆而已。[4]
某一领域的高级概念往往不如基础概念那么经过验证。我们使用它们来显示内部知识，但不如把基础打牢更有意义。[11]
清晰的思考者依赖自己的权威。
做出有效决策的一部分归结于应对现实。当你做出决策时，如何确保你是在应对现实？
不要带有强烈的自我意识、偏见或过度活跃的思维。“猴子心”（指不断浮现的无关想法）总会用这种再现的情绪反应来回应它认为世界应该是什么样的。这些欲望会蒙蔽你的现实感。当人们将政治与商业混为一谈时，这种情况就会经常发生。
阻碍我们看清现实的头号因素是我们对现实应该是什么样子有先入为主的观念。
对痛苦的一种定义是“当你看到事物本来面目的那一刻”。一直以来，你都坚信自己的业务发展顺利，但实际上，你忽略了它并不景气的种种迹象。然后，当你的业务失败时，你会感到痛苦，因为你一直在逃避现实，把事实隐藏在自己面前。
好消息是，痛苦的那一刻——当你感到痛苦的时候——也是一个真相的时刻。它是一个你被迫面对现实的瞬间。在那一刻，你可以做出有意义的改变和进步。只有从真相出发，你才能取得进步。
困难在于看清真相。要看到真相，你必须放下自我，因为自我不愿面对真相。你能把自我放得越小，你的反应能越少受到条件反射的影响，你对结果的欲望越少，就越容易看到现实。
我们希望真实的东西往往会模糊我们对真实的感知。痛苦是我们无法再否认现实的那一刻。
想象我们正经历一些困难，比如分手、失业、业务失败，或者健康问题，我们的朋友在为我们出谋划策。当我们为朋友出主意时，答案显而易见。答案会在一分钟内跃然脑海，我们会直接告诉他们：“那女孩，忘了她吧，她本来就不适合你。相信我，你会更幸福。你会找到更好的人。”
你知道正确的答案，但你的朋友却看不到，因为他们正处在痛苦和难受的时刻。他们还在期望现实有所不同。问题不在于现实，而在于他们的欲望与现实发生了冲突，这阻碍了他们看清真相，无论你怎么说都是这样。我做决策时也会发生类似的情况。
我对某件事想要特定结果的渴望越强烈，我就越不可能看清真相。尤其是在商业上，如果某件事进展不顺利，我会尽量公开承认它，并尽量在我的合伙人、朋友和同事面前承认。这样一来，我不会对任何人隐瞒，就不会对自己发生的事情产生错觉。[4]
你的感受不会告诉你事实是什么——它仅仅告诉你你对事实的估计。
拥有空闲的空间其实非常重要。如果你每周没有一两天的日程是没有会议安排的，没有总是忙碌的，那么你将无法思考。你也无法为你的事业产生好的想法。
你也无法做出好的判断。我也鼓励每周至少拿出一天（最好是两天，因为你预留两天，最终可能只会剩下一天）来思考。
只有在你感到无聊之后，你才会有伟大的想法。这绝不会是在你感到压力、忙碌、奔波或匆忙的时候产生的。腾出时间来。[7]
非常聪明的人往往显得古怪，因为他们坚持自己独立思考所有事情。
一个反叛者不是总是反对——那只是另一种形式的盲从。一个反叛者是从基础独立推理，并抵制随波逐流的压力。
犬儒主义很容易。模仿也很容易。乐观的反叛者才是最罕见的品种。