How Do You Ensure You’re Good at Thinking?

(If You’re Paid To Come Up With an Idea or Solution)

The quality of your outcomes depends on your ability to think critically and strategically.

But, What Does It Mean To Be Good at Thinking?

Being an excellent thinker isn’t just about being knowledgeable or smart.

While knowledge is a critical input for thinking — it’s just an input

When someone excels at thinking, they’re good at breaking down problems and questioning things — traits that align with First Principle Thinking

Here’s how to excel at thinking:

1. Context: Are you thinking about the right problem?

This is a critical and often overlooked step as people often assume they know what the problem is…

Sometimes people put so much effort into solving the wrong problem and the opportunity cost for that is very high.

In Airbnb’s Beginnings,

the founders faced a critical problem — they weren’t getting enough bookings.

What did they do?

The team assumed the problem lay in their website’s lack of user traffic and, consequently, focused on driving more visitors to their platform.

They invested time and resources into enhancing the website’s visibility and traffic.

However, had they applied First Principle Thinking, they would have figured that wasn’t the actual problem and saved on wasting scarce resources…

First principle thinking —

Dictates that you question every simple assumption you think you know about a given problem.

And then use fundamental truths to build solutions rather than relying on existing knowledge or analogies.

Gather as much information as possible but always start with zero

Can you describe the problem from the ground up with no external input?

Can you create a model for how things should behave?

Don’t make assumptions too early on, just label them

First Principle thinking in hindsight for Airbnb found that

The actual problem was trust.

Trust between hosts and guests, as well as credibility on the platform.

Not the original assumed problem — fewer visitors on the site.

This realization led to a significant shift in their approach. They shifted their focus from website traffic to building trust.

They introduced safety measures like

— professional photography,

— enhanced user profiles,

— and reviews to create a sense of credibility and security.

By addressing the root cause, Airbnb enhanced the user experience, fostered trust, and significantly increased bookings.

The 2nd most overlooked thinking skill is:

2. Making use of intuition

Unfortunately, existing systems often overlook the value of intuition.

They rely heavily on facts and data, ignoring the valuable knowledge gained through experience.

You have people who’ve been very successful in their career. They have been working for 20 years solving the same problems, dealing with the same people. Essentially, they’ve gained fantastic intuition about the solutions needed.

But in business, intuition has no room. Someone has to prove themselves with data or intelligence.

Rory Sutherland — a renowned advertising expert,

provides a fascinating example of the value of intuition in decision-making.

In one of his talks, Sutherland recounts a scenario where a company aimed to improve their customer satisfaction by investing in faster elevators. The data-driven approach suggested this as the logical solution to reduce wait times.

However, Sutherland proposed an alternative —

Rather than speeding up the elevators, he suggested installing mirrors next to them.

This simple, cost-effective change wasn’t based on extensive data analysis, but on understanding human psychology and leveraging that insight.

The mirrors made the wait seem shorter by providing a distraction, significantly enhancing the perceived experience without altering the elevators’ speed.

Looking at children’s incessant “why” questions

“It’s time to get ready for bed.”

“Why?”

“Because our bodies require sleep.”

“Why do we need sleep?”

“Because we’d die if we never slept.”

“Why would that make us die?”

“I don’t know; let’s look into it.”

We recognize that first principle thinking is an innate ability within us — that we lost with time. And we can nurture it again.

Breaking down problems and processes should follow this same method. Eventually, you’ll arrive at a question you can’t answer — this is where you develop a new solution.

But, while First Principles Thinking sounds easy, it can feel unnatural to apply at first.

But it need not be;

The more you do it, you develop an intuition for where to look…where the misalignments might be.

If you’re just solving the problem people say they want you’ll be solving the wrong problem.