Being effective by avoiding mistakes

Edwin's Do-It newsletter #43 - Common mistakes in understanding

Hello everyone,

I typically write about the right way to do things. But, there's also a different strategy we can use to be effective: avoiding mistakes.

Quite often we don't exactly know what we want, nor what the best approach is. Or we don't have the mental energy to put a lot of thought into it. In those cases, avoiding mistakes is a wonderfully pragmatic alternative. When you avoid mistakes, you avert big risks, don't overthink decisions and, most importantly, keep moving forward.

That's why, in this newsletter edition, I'd like to highlight some common mistakes that we make in the act of understanding a problem and its environment. At the end, I've included some resources for further exploration.

Mistake 1: Taking a problem at face value

If we go through our lives on autopilot, we'll encounter a problem and immediately assume that's what we've got to fix. But unfortunately, it's rarely that simple for problems in our modern society.

Problems that seem logical, like long waiting times for a train, might actually be more psychological. A logical solution would be to try and reduce the waiting times. This is effortful and costly, and it begs the question if it's worth it. Probably, the real issue is that people are frustrated by the psychological uncertainty of having to wait, which can be easily resolved by adding a countdown timer.

And even if you did find the actual problem that's bothering you, it still might not be the root-cause of the problem. For instance, when you have water dripping through your ceiling, the issue probably isn't that the ceiling isn't waterproof. But rather, that there's a leak in your plumbing. Questioning the cause of the problem is important!

Mistake 2: Ignoring context

Another thing that often occurs is that we focus so much on the problem that we become oblivious to the context surrounding it. For instance, if we have a medical problem, we can craft the perfect cutting-edge medical treatment. But, that will be useless if the logistics, facilities or skills of the medical staff cannot support it. Context matters, especially when considering solutions to a problem. We easily default to bold maxims from credible sources, but usually those do not apply universally. They heavily depend on the context. For example: the solution “no pain, no gain” is rarely good advice. Pain is typically a terrible indicator of progress, and there's far better metrics to seek.

Mistake 3: Jumping straight to solutions

Humans are also notorious for jumping to conclusions and skipping the awareness of the problem entirely. This often happens when we're excited about the solutions we want to try out and don't really care about the problem. That's where the infamous saying “To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail” comes from. Other times, we're simply impatient or overconfident and just want to get the darn problem solved. Then we will jump straight into solution-What-A-Mole and try a bunch of things. Not very efficient.

Interesting resources on understanding problems

1. Rory Sutherland on people's rational and irrational sides

Only relatively recently has behavioral science and psychology studied how irrational we are and why that is. It's a very fascinating field, and I find it most convincing when told from the perspective of practitioners such as adman Rory Sutherland. He's a wonderful storyteller, and he's delivered many interesting Ted Talks. I'm currently reading his book which is equally great!

2. David Deutsch on understanding explanations

The word “Understanding” is not just a trivial thing to do. It's the ability that makes us different from other animals. It's what allows us to build spaceships and sequence DNA. I find it incredibly eye-opening to be reminded of how remarkable this is, and to learn more about the process of understanding. David Deutsch is my favorite speaker on the topic, and in particular this interview:

The topic of this newsletter has been “Understanding”, which is the first Act in my upcoming book: The 4 Acts: — 1. Understand 2. Choose 3. Do 4. Learn. It is now available for proofreading. So, if you’d like to read it and share your thoughts, e-mail me at book@edwindoit.com, and I’ll happily send a digital copy to you. If you’d like to know more about the book — this webpage explains the book’s aim and how it can benefit you.

I hope these resources and “dont's” were helpful to you. If you have any suggestions or follow-up questions, feel free to leave a comment or reply to this post.

Have a good one,

Edwin