4th
Life Lesson #2: Don’t Drill Down, Drill Up (Speak the Truth, First Principles)
We all want to be ambitious and say something really smart and we associate saying smart things with saying complicated things. Sometimes I’ll be thinking about something and then try to formulate this complicated assessment that takes everything into account. More often then not, once I’ve said it, I go, “wait a minute, that’s not right…” Then I change little things around and say something else. 9 times out of 10, in another minute I think, “wait a minute, that’s still not right…” Iterate that 100x. What I’ve found helpful at this point, however, is asking myself, “Ok, what can I say for sure that’s true, no matter how basic it is?” Often, this involves drilling up; what can I say that is a superset of all these things? For example, if you’re trying to make sense of the bailout plan, it can be as simple as, “being able to borrow money is important.” Sometimes I don’t find an answer, but when I do, I generally walk away from the problem much more satisfied. And hey, every now and then you may just stumble upon something genuinely profound.
