9/25/2015

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Diaminds
PostedonSeptember25,2015byChetanParikh

HerearesomepartsthatIhavemarkedinmycopyofthebookDiaminds:Decoding
theMentalHabitsofSuccessfulThinkersbyMihneaMoldoveanuandRogerMartin.

1.The ordinary way of thinking about thinking is to ask: What do you think? (The
answer is usually some belief about the world.) The unordinary way of thinking that
wewillattempttosketchrestswithasking,rather,Howdoyouthink?(Theansweris
not going to be a belief any more, but rather a description of some way of forming
beliefs).

2.Imagine a mind so confident, nimble, and adaptive that it can tackle any practical
problem you throw its way and come up with several ways of approaching it. So
powerful that it can cause the body within which it resides to take action that is
consistent with the best possible solution, regardless of immediate temptations and
entrenchedhabits.Sobroadthatitcanjustifythatcourseofactiontolargenumbersof
people, each of whom has a different set of wishes, wants, desires, interests,
principles,andwaysoflookingattheworldandunderstandingitsworkings.Sotough
thatitcanturnonadimeiftheworldsuppliesitwithevidencethatithaserred.So
resilientandcourageousthatitcanpersistinthinkingthroughconflict,ambiguity,and
uncertainty even in the face of impending disaster. Would you not want this mind on
yourteam?Inyourorganization?Indeed,wouldyounotwanttobethatmind?

3.Imagineamindwiththelogicaldepthofastarcomputerengineerandthebreadth
and flexibility of a great saleswoman with the rigour of a financial auditor and the
improvisational skills of a master negotiator with the capacity of a great private
investigatortodiscernothersmotivesandstrategiesontheflywiththedisciplineofa
senior clinician at developing a comprehensive diagnosis of any ailment with the
nimbleness and emotional mobility of a seasoned actor and the vision of a master
playwright.Wouldyounotbesettingouttocultivateandtrainsuchamindifyouwere
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designingaprogramofstudyforaleaderofthefuture?

C.S.Peirce
4.Imagine if you are philosophically inclined a mind that combines the depth,
subtlety, and expansiveness of a Socrates with the pragmatism of a C. S. Peirce a
Kantian commitment to responsiveness and autonomy hallmarks of reason with
thetechnicalproficiencyofaRusselloraReichenbachaHumeancapacitytodoubt,
radicallyandtruthfully,withaCartesiancapacitytoprobeknowledgetoitsverylimits
thesensitivitytothetenuousnesswithwhichwordsglomontoobjectsandeventsofa
WittgensteinwithaHeideggerianawarenessthatreasoningandrepresentationdepend
onmoodandattunementtheallencompassingambitionofaHegelwiththetechnical
precisionofaWillardQuinethelogicaldepthofaHintikkawiththecognitivebreadth
of a Rorty the sensitivity to meaning and feeling of a MerleauPonty with the
awareness of the consequences and pragmatics of assertion of a Searle and that
turnsallofthesequalitiesintoprecise,imaginative,constructiveactionpredicatedon
anAristoteliancommitmenttofeelingtherightsentimentattherighttime,towardsthe
rightperson,fortherightreasons,throughaproperlysequencedchainofcausesand
effects. Would you not be attempting to train such a mind, if you were building the
universityfordevelopingthethinkersofthefuture?

5.Unlike many of our normal social science counterparts, we have little interest in
achieving for now, at least a statistically reliable description of the twentynine
mental habits of outliers. We are more interested in describing vividly those two or
threemechanismsormentalhabitsthat,whenassembled,explainmuchofthetailof
the distribution of successful intelligence in the Age of Knowledge. And that
distributionisnotGaussian,asmanytextbookswouldhaveyouandusbelieveoften
sothattheirauthorscanshifttheirfocustotamefeaturessuchasmeanandstandard
deviation.Thetailisinfactunknownandmayevenbeunknowablebutintheworlds
wewillbeexamining,itismoreimportantthanthemean.Thetail,afterall,istherealm
ofextremes,ofexceptionality,oftheBolt.

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DouglasHofstadter
6.Thestudyofextremesisastrangenewworldinconventionalscience.Thisshould
benosurpriseafterall,thepointofnormalscienceistodescribemeansandsmall
departures from them not extremes. Conventional science is built on premises of
normality, in both the normal and the Gaussian sense of normal. A normal (or
Gaussian) distribution is one in which remote extremes are so improbable as to be
reasonably considered impossible. Which legitimates, of course, our not having to
worry about them. In light of recent world events, this is clearly one of those
necessary illusions that Nietzsche wrote about one of those illusions that, though
false, is life enhancing (career enhancing, if one is feeling malicious) for those
countlesssocialscientistswhoareattemptingtoachievethesecuritythatcomeswith
tenure. As Douglas Hofstadter has pointed out, the way forward in the normal
cognitivescientific approach to the study of the mind has long been to develop a
programoralgorithmthatexplainswhatmostpeoplewoulddoinagivensituation.

Plato
7.Mostpeople!Whichistosay,notRichardFeynman,orAndrewViterbi,orCharlie
Munger,orJohnDoerr,orSteveJobs.Mostpeople.Thisparticularalgorithmforthe
study of minds has long been employed as a reliable heuristic for pushing normal
scienceforward.Question:Forwardtowardswhat?Atthecurrentrate,giventhestate
of the art in the field, it could take us 10,000 years to reach the level of insight
comparable to that of Plato 2,400 years ago. Hofstadter has suggested that we focus
instead,andinpainstakingdetail,onbuildingmodelsofremarkablemindsthatis,on
outoftheway mental habits and on the turns of thought they exemplify. That we
isolatethesemodelscharacteristicsandtestthemagainsttoughnewproblems.

8.We want to focus on a particular feature of remarkable minds, the dia feature, in
referencetobothdialectical(alaHegel)anddialogical(alaBakhtin).Simplyput,the
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diamindisawayofbeingintheworldthatmarshalsdifferencesandcomplexitiesto
thetaskofbuildingbettersolutionstoproblems.Thediamindisnotcomfortablewith
difference, ambiguity, conflict, and tension comfortable, here, is an insipid
euphemism that betrays just how uncomfortable these demons make us feel. The
diamind,rather,embracesdifference,ambiguity,conflict,andtensionindeed,ittreats
those things as signposts to better solutions and better problems. Which in turn
suggeststhatthediamindismoreawake,moreconscious,andmoreawareofitsown
states, and more able, as a result, to reject old habits and proclivities that consign
mostmindstotheclutchesoffamiliarity,simplicity,andtheonerightwayofseeing
andfeeling.

9.Wewillbeaskingyoutoshiftfromthenormalperspectivewhereinyouaretryingto
figure out what someone is saying, what he is trying to get across, to the
metaperspectiveoftryingtofigureouthowsomeonethinksinordertobeabletosay
whatheorsheissaying.

10.Which brings to the fore the perspectival shift we are trying to bring: from the
whatwho?spacetothehow?space,and,inparticular,tothehowdotheythink?
space.

11.You will find that in that space you will be far less worried about what our
charactersdoabouttheparentstowhomtheywerebornaboutthepeopletheyknow
and about the networks, clubs, and cliques they belong to and far more concerned
with how they use language and about how they categorize people, things, events,
theories,whathaveyou.Withthewaystheysearchratherthanwiththeendresultsof
theirsearcheswiththetypeoflogictheyusetoreachcertainconclusionsratherthan
withtheconclusionsthemselveswiththewaystheyframeproblemsratherthanwith
thepreciseproblemstheyhavesolved.

12.First,mostthinkersevenhighlysuccessfulonesdonotknowhowtheythink.It
issimplynotpartofonestrainingorlifepreparationinourage,atleasttothink
carefully about how one thinks. Thinking about thinking is not something one does
naturally. Second, even if the person you ask does give you an answer better than I
dont know, you still have to factor in that most people have a perverse incentive to
attributetheirsuccesstotheirpersonalcharacteristicsratherthantochanceeventsor
the positive influences of others.And since our culture prizes intelligence and other
thinking capacities as personal characteristics, the perverse incentive that results
makes it likely that the answer we get back will be a selfenhancing rationalization, a
storythatfeelsgoodtoitsteller.Forthepersonbeingasked,thisamountstoaformof
selftherapy and, sometimes, a means of validating success. So you will have to
somehowfigureoutawaytoseethroughthewebsofdeceptionandselfdeception
webs that can lead a successful business person to perceive a series of random
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eventsasdirectlyattributabletohisorherwayofthinking.

13.It is worth the bother because thinking is too important an activity to be left
unscrutinizedandunexplored.Theopportunitycostofforgoingopportunitiestolearn
toproducemoresuccessfulpatternsofthoughtistoohigh,becausethinkingshapes
action,andactionshapesoutcomes,andtheresultingoutcomesarewhatmakeupour
livesanddestinies.Also,thinkingissomethingthathowevercovertwedoallthe
time:trytonotthinkatallforamomentandyoullseewhatwemean.Becausewedoit
habituallyanditisofgreatconsequencetoouractions,thinkinglikelivingisworth
tryingtodobetter.

14.How do you become less automatic in your patterns of reasoning less

constrainedbymindless,kneejerk(orbrainjerk)ticsofthemind?

HerbertSimon
15.They are the risks that any new attempt to capture a human phenomenon or
characteristic will face. They faced Spearman in 1904 when he declared that he had
objectivelymeasuredgeneralintelligence,andBinetinthe1910swhenhearticulated
his first intelligence tests. They faced the architects of the cognitive revolution in
psychology(suchasHerbertSimon),whostudiedmentalentitiessuchasconcepts,
categories,metaphorsandreasoningprotocolsthatweresuspecttotherestofthe
psychologicalprofessionbecausetheywere,well,mentalandthereforenotasrealas
more tangible entities, such as human behaviour and sense perception. They will
continuetofaceeverynewarticulatorofanewphenomenonbuttheyarewellworth
facingwhentheresultmightbeadescriptionofabetterwaytothink.

16.Theresultofthisdetailedmindmappingwillbeanewlogicofsuccessfulthinking
that is friendly to psychological insight and at the same time open to the new and
remarkable patterns of practical thought that have long gone unnoticed precisely
becausetheyaresodifficulttoexpressverbally.Alogic,then,andnotnecessarilya
science in the same way that game theory, the craft of optimization, and the
discipline of design are logics: things that enable the intelligent design of new
behaviour. And what behaviour is more worth learning to design intelligently than
thinking?This,then,isourproject.
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17.We begin with a first cut at this question: What kind of thinking leads to better
outcomes in business for the thinker? This seems innocuous. The world is complex
andindeterminate,andtherearemanywaysofseeing,experiencing,andrepresenting
it,whichwewillcallmodels.Successfulthinkingintegratesseveralradicallydifferent
modelswhilepreservingthethinkersabilitytoactdecisively.Thesuccessfulthinkeris
an integrator who can quickly and effectively abstract the best qualities of radically
differentwaysofseeingandrepresentingindoingso,thatpersondevelopsabetter
lensonthebewilderingphenomenonwecalltheworld.

18.Whatdoestheintegratordo?Hewhowilloftenturnouttobeasheseeshis
way clear to successful action in situations where others see only a choice among
poor or mediocre outcomes. His is a dialectical mind: a diamind, that is, a mind that
beholds at least two often contradictory ways of seeing the world, gives each its full
due,andinsteadoffearingandfleeingtheresultingtension,livesit,embracesit,and
comesupwithabetterwayonethatdoesviolencetoneitherbutimprovesonboth.

KarlJaspers
19.The experience of radical tension can be conceived of as a limit faint in the
thinkersexistence.KarlJaspersdefinedlimitpointsassituationsthatareinescapable
andunresolvable.DeathJasperssexampleisalimitpointofhumanlife.Noneof
uscanescapeoravoidit.Mostofustrytoresolveitasaproblemofexistence,one
thatsometimesshapeslifeitself.

20.The diamind makes new meanings: she reengineers unattractive problem

statements and strategic options into attractive ones. She turns tradeoffs into
synergies, local peaks into global optima, paradoxes into mere difficulties, and
obstaclesintoopportunities,andshedoessoaswewillshowbyengaginginan
identifiableandlearnablepatternofthinking.

21.Like much of behaviour, thinking is habitual. It is made up of habits, or

automatismsthatis,repetitiveandrecurrentunitsofmentalbehaviorthatoccuron
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veryshorttimescales.

22.Mostmentalhabitscloseoffopportunitiesforfurtherthoughtandperception.This
may or may not be useful, depending on the context. If you see a lion, run towards
water is a useful closureoriented mental routine when youre alone in the wilds of
thesavannah,butnotatthelocalzoo.Ofcourse,thetrickhereistofigureoutquickly
whetheryouareinthewildoratthelocalzoo,andactaccordingly.Butintherealmof
organizations,savannahsandzoosdonotcomeprelabelled.Itiseasytomistakeone
for the other, with disastrous consequences, so you have to figure out quickly and
effectivelytheecologicalvalueofyourownthinkingroutines.

23.Understandingmentalhabitsasproceduresthathavebeenengineeredforspecific
applicationsisonekeytomentalhabitdetection,creation,andprocreation.

24.Unlikebehaviouralhabits,mentalhabitsaredifficulttospot,name,anddescribe.
Partlybecausetheyrecovert,andpartlybecausetheysneakuponusinmomentsof
unawareness,theyrealsodifficulttoeliminateorchange.Thisiswhyweneedanew
kind of language for describing patterns of mental behaviour: we need to learn to
speakmentalese,alanguagethatwillallowustofigureoutquicklyandeffectivelyhow
weandothersthink.

25.That is the first and best use we will make of the formal, academic languages
inherited from twentyfive centuries of theorizing about the mind. We prize them for
theirprecision.AsTomStewartoncepointedouttous,allacademictheoriesarebest
thoughtofaslanguages,inthesamewaythatEnglish,French,German,C++,andLISP
are languages.All of them have specific signs that represent the objects that you as
thespeakerwanttoreferto,alongwithspecificrulesforputtingthesesignstogether
correctly. Our natural languages are great at referring to the world of objects and
events we experience firsthand, but not so great at referring to the inner world of
thoughts and mental habits. That is why we will focus on developing a language for
representing patterns of thought a language that will allow us to think more
transparentlyaboutthinking.

AboutChetanParikh
ChetanParikhisaFounderofJeetayInvestmentsPrivateLimited,aportfolio
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managementfirmregisteredwithSEBI.HeholdsanMBAinFinancefromtheWharton
SchoolofBusiness(wherehegraduatedwithdistinctioninthetop2%oftheclass)and
aBScinStatistics&EconomicsfromUniversityofBombay(Economicsrecordholderin
BombayUniversity).HehasbeeninvestingintheIndiancapitalmarketsthrough
proprietaryinvestmentcompaniesandfamilytrusts.ChetanwasratedamongstIndias
bestinvestorsbyBusinessIndiamagazine.Heisalsothecopromoterof
capitalideasonline.com,awellregardedinvestmentwebsite.Hiswritingshavebeen
publishedinBusinessStandard,BusinessWorld,TheEconomicTimesandBusiness
India.HeisavisitingfacultymemberatJamnalalBajajInstituteofManagementStudies
(UniversityofBombay)fortheMBAcourse.

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