Dear reader, thank you so much for sticking around and reading this letter week after week. This is the 10th edition of this letter. When I started, I didn’t know I will continue for even 10 days! But thanks to your support, looks like this will go on for a while.
10th edition, 10x better decisions: That’s the theme.
A few weeks back I finished reading a masterpiece named Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.
I totally loved it. One recurring statement throughout the novel was “Check your premises”. Whenever the characters could not understand what was going on in their work and the world, someone would tell them “Check your premises.”
This prompted them to see things clearly. And it is so life-changing that I don’t want to miss out on sharing it with you.
The Knowledge Tree
Soo many times, I have felt that things are not going the way they should. Or people don’t behave in a way that I expected of them.
In the end, I make bad decisions. It is like a bad bet. Because my understanding of that individual or that event was incorrect.
If you remember, I had written about improving decision-making and published a decision diary for the same purpose.
But what if you don’t want to maintain a decision diary? What if that’s not your style?
I say, forget about the decision diary.
All of us have a live decision diary called Brain.
Our brain constantly updates our knowledge tree about a person, a thing, an idea, or anything under the Sun.
For our understanding, I’m calling it knowledge tree. It is a collection of our beliefs, relationships between beliefs and the reality as we perceive it.
Why is it important to me — a knowledge worker?
For example, suppose you have hired someone new in your organization, a junior business analyst named Suresh.
Your brain starts building a knowledge tree from the first moment of your touch with Suresh.
From the moment you have seen his photograph (hear your inner voice saying “looks like Suresh has been to some business school”), heard his voice, or read his resume.
As you work with him, your knowledge tree grows. The longer and closer you begin to know him as an individual, your brain keeps refining his persona in your mind to make the most accurate model of him in your mind.
This is what happens when we know our close friend for years. We know how he or she would have responded to some situation. Our model about them is hyper-realistically refined.
Back to Suresh.
Let’s say, you have worked with him for 3 years.
You believe you know him well and he should be promoted to a senior project manager position.
When you pitch for his promotion to higher management, the request is declined by the majority of the management team.
They provide some solid reasons such as Suresh’s poor track record in the last two years and his declining reputation within the organization due to some of his personal shortcomings.
What do you do?
Check your premises
If you’re like the majority of people — with a good heart and goodwill — for your colleagues, you’d either give up or you’ll try harder. And at the end, you will probably ask Suresh to look for opportunities somewhere else. Because “they” don’t value you.
This is the routine.
What is this routine based on?
The assumption that your judgment is correct. And the higher management’s incorrect.
So, what should you do?
“Check your premises”
You have to check what beliefs and assumptions are guiding your judgment. Why do you think Suresh is fit for the promotion when the evidence is clearly against him?
When you check your fundamental premises, then only you’d be able to update your knowledge tree correctly. Because these premises may be outdated.
The knowledge tree’s outdated premises
You may have been right about Suresh’s competence when he started working in your team.
Your judgment was correct, but that was two years ago.
Then, over the period of two more years, Suresh would have become complacent due to whatever reasons. It would be difficult for you to see clearly. Because your belief in Suresh is anchored through your first year of working with him.
I’m not saying that you need to blindly accept what the higher management or other people have to say about Suresh’s abilities. But, the least you can do, in the presence of evidence, is to check your premises, corroborate with alternative views, look for objective evidence, and then make amends to your knowledge tree by making a decision.
The process looks something like this and should be done mentally:
At the end of reflection, what if you find your premises were in fact incorrect about Suresh’s abilities?
Then it is good for Suresh. You will have real feedback and inputs to provide him. So that he can improve and indeed, become capable of the promotion that you had pegged him eligible for. And this would help you build the capacity to give up on people.
The fuel of progress and happiness
Believe it or not, identifying reality, embracing it, and then shaping it as per your will: these are the fundamental paths to human progress and happiness.
Any other way, where we have to negate reality — in other words, we have to build our work on false premises — is the formula for regression and suffering.
This reminds me of a quote from Dr. Jordan B. Peterson’s writing:
“I have seen people define their utopia and then bend their lives into knots trying to make it a reality.” — 12 Rules For Life
Reads of the week:
- You’re it: In this refreshing podcast, Seth talks about the power and the myth of getting picked. So, what are you waiting for?
- This Carlsberg Ad is pure pleasure to watch: Carlsberg had launched this ad campaign 10 years back and it is still one of the most iconic ones.
- Writing, Briefly: “Writing doesn’t just communicate ideas; it generates them. If you’re bad at writing and don’t like to do it, you’ll miss out on most of the ideas writing would have generated.”
Liked this? Stay tuned with The Friday Newsletter:
