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The Most Valuable Skill In Difficult Times Is Lateral Thinking—Here’s How To Do It
Pick a transitional object for inspiration
A transitional object is someone or something with certain characteristics or qualities you can use as inspiration for new ideas.
For example, "What would Bruce Lee do?" He taught the importance of using the energy of your attacker. How might this inform your strategy?
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Key Ideas
The psychology behind money
Money is not a fixed entity. It is a complex of data points, challenges, and opportunities you encounter and have feelings about. Your decisions about money affect your emotions and behavio...
Emotion and money
The most important emotions about money to become aware of are fear, guilt, and shame. Without awareness, these emotions will interfere with your rational thinking.
- Common fears include fear of having too little money, fear of looking foolish, fear of causing envy.
- Guilt is about feeling bad about a negative impact you've had on others. You may feel guilty because you have more than your friends, or are not charitable.
- Shame is feeling troubled when you don't live up to your own values. Shame related to money involves feelings of not having enough money, avoiding thinking about finances, avoiding doing what you're supposed to do with your finances, feeling ignorant, and overspending.
Other emotions that influence your handling of money include envy, greed, and over-excitement.
How mental health influences your finances
Mental health problems can have a significant effect on your finances.
- Excessive use of alcohol leads to poor judgment and inattentiveness to finances.
- Depression can cause a loss of employment. People with depression also lack energy and a sense of purpose.
- People with a mild expression of bipolar disorder can experience states with increased energy, decreased inhibitions, exciting plans, and are overstimulated to spend.
- Adults with ADHD/ADD have the ability to pay intense attention to tasks that really interest them while screening out the tedious or mundane.
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Key Ideas
Inability to distinguish
We tend to assume that confident people have more potential for leadership.
However, there is little overlap between how good people think they are at something, and how good the...
Charismatic individuals
We seem to want leaders who are charming and entertaining, but a stand-up comedian is not the same as an effective leader.
The best leaders are humble rather than charismatic, to the point of being boring.
Narcissistic individuals
We've always admired famous people, but our admiration for people who admire themselves is on the rise. But true leaders keep their narcissism in check.
Popular advice focuses on loving yourself above all else. And this creates leaders who are unaware of their limitations. They see leadership as an entitlement.
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Key Ideas
Traditional vs Lateral Thinking
- Traditional thinking: is vertical and the process flows in a logical manner toward a conclusion, based on available information.
- Lateral thinking: is horizontal and the p...
2 Stages of Thinking
- The perceived stage, where the brain focuses on identifying a certain pattern (a way in which the brain frames the environment).
- The second stage uses that pattern and builds upon it to reach a conclusion.
But to get better at identifying patterns and prevent errors in the first stage, we need to develop our lateral thinking.
Learning to Think Laterally
- Be aware of how your brain processes information and how it identifies patterns.
- Don't shut out all the outside stimuli and allow some form of randomness into your day. This could expose you to new insights.
- Consider alternative approaches and solutions to problems, even if you think you found the apparently suitable one.
- Deliberately alternate available options (do the opposite of an implied direction, reverse processes, etc.) This could expose you to new insights and tools to create solutions with.