The Epidemic of Shallow Thinking
In Think Like A Rocket Scientist, Ozan Varol reminds us that thinking is a lost art. In our hyper-connected, overstimulated, and faux productivity driven world, it’s rare that our days include any unstructured time.
When was the last time you spent more than 15 minutes just thinking about something and mulling it over in your head? When was the last time you focused only seeing on something rather than producing an answer?
To produce truly great work requires time. More than you think. Every time you start something new, your brain can take roughly 15 minutes to clear out your working memory so that it’s devoted to the thing in front of you. That means you need to spend more than 15 minutes on anything you hope to accomplish. So, it’s good to block at least an hour (or two) for your focused work time to dive deep.
Don’t make the mistake and think that your first idea, or first session produced great results. Consider the need for incubation periods where you set it down, and come back to it after some time has passed (days or weeks). It’s likely that you’ll revisit it with a different perspective and make that “great idea” something even greater.
Don’t succumb to the pressure of shallow thinking. Dig deep. Invest the time. Do something greater than you imagined possible.
