Wise Bites: March 12, 2021

Happy Friday,

Few things are more satisfying than coming to the end of a whole work week.  Hopefully, your week has been one worth celebrating. Now that you are ready to transition to the weekend, take a moment to consume an illuminating segment from a book, a few quotes that will capture your attention, and a thought-provoking find from the internet -  small bites of wisdom.  Here is the Wise Bites memo for your consideration this week.

Book Segment

This week, I want to share a segment from the book Think Like a Rocket Scientist by Ozan Varol. As a former NASA employee turned law professor, Varol successfully presents a business and personal development book in a nontraditional format.  Think Like a Rocket Scientist is a fresh presentation of work-life problem-solving strategies, often in the context of mind-tantalizing “rocket science” examples. In keeping with his NASA roots, Varol structured his book in three parts: “Launch,” “Accelerate,” and “Achieve.”

The key idea I would like to spotlight for this week's Wise Bites comes from Chapter 2: Reasoning from First Principles.  Varol posits that knowledge informs us and creates frameworks that help us make sense of the world.  He unpacks how knowledge can sometimes be a vice rather than a virtue.   The structures provided by knowledge give us productive, cognitive shortcuts that are sometimes beneficial and, at other times, distort our vision.  To clarify how knowledge often leads us to repeat the same actions ineffectively, Varol explains the concept of path dependence: what we’ve done before shapes what we do next, and the past often drowns out the future. One of his examples of path dependence is the way QWERTY keyboards were designed during the era of mechanical typewriters to prevent jamming. Today, we know that there are more efficient keyboard formats that improve typing speed and ergonomics, but they have not been adopted because of our comfort with the QWERTY format.

Varol offers the counter approach to path dependence: first-principles thinking. He shares that “Aristotle defined [first-principles thinking] as the first basis from which a thing is known.” Descartes described it as “systematically doubting everything you can doubt until you’re left with unquestionable truths.” This approach means you don’t accept the status quo as an absolute. Instead, it allows you to drop existing assumptions, leaving only the fundamental components.

If you are working to revamp your thinking to achieve breakthroughs at work or in your life, I highly recommend the book Think Like a Rocket Scientist by Ozan Varol. It is an easy read with insightful anecdotes that simplify cerebral concepts, hold your attention, and stimulate your curiosity.

Quotes

A dull mind gets bored easily. A curious mind expands forever. -Maxime Lagacé

If you must look back, do so forgivingly. If you will look forward, do so prayerfully. But the wisest course would be to be present in the present gratefully. -Maya Angelou

Stay tuned for future Wise Bites memos, and tell a friend!