Analogies are beneficial; they make complex problems easier to communicate and increase understanding. Using them, however, limits our beliefs about what’s possible and allows people to argue without ever exposing our (faulty) thinking.

• Clarifying your thinking and explaining the origins of your ideas (Why do I think this?);
• Challenging assumptions (How do I know this is true?)
• Looking for evidence (How can I back this up? )
• Considering alternative perspectives (What might...

Breaking down complicated problems into basic elements and then reassemble them from the ground up.

If we never learn to take something apart, test the assumptions, and reconstruct it, we end up trapped in what other people tell us.

...is a foundational proposition or assumption that stands alone. We cannot deduce first principles from any other proposition or assumption.