LET’S TAKE A MENTAL JOURNEY
Come along with me for the next few minutes on an unusual excursion—inside the human mind. Let’s listen in on the thought processes of a person who is a clear, logical thinker.
We don’t know who it is, man or woman, old or young, well schooled or not. We can just hear the thoughts being expressed as they move along. This person is working through one of those little thinking puzzles that require a logical attack. As you read the transcript of the person’s thought processes, the symbol(!) will alert you to a mental procedure he or she is using to gain control over the information and organize it in such a way as to make the solution easier to grasp. Let’s go.PROBLEM
If three days ago was the day before Friday, what will the day after tomorrow be?
What's Going on in the Thinker's Mind?
“Let’s see, now... if three... hmm... (!)the goal is to find out what the day after tomorrow will be—right?... Yeah... It’s worded a little confusingly; wonder if I can (!)rephrase it to make it easier... Well, I can (!)reduce it to some extent; the day before Friday means Thursday, so three days ago was Thursday.... Now, I can (!)count forward in steps to figure out what today is. So, it goes Thursday (three days ago), Friday, Saturday, and today must be Sunday. That (!)narrows it down to finding out what the day after tomorrow means. If this is Sunday, then tomorrow is Monday, and the day after tomorrow is Tuesday. So the solution is “Tuesday.” Let me (!)verify that... (counting on fingers) Thursday, Friday, Saturday, today is Sunday, then comes Monday, and finally Tuesday. Yep, it checks out. Γm hungry—guess I’ll go have some lunch.”
If you followed my editorial signals while listening to the flow of thoughts, you may have noticed that all of th⅞⅛⅛av steps contributed to one basic purpose: organizing the available information into a useful form and progressively reducing the ô³îܲâæ by extracting useful conclusions from what was known so far.
This is basically all there is to clear, logical thought—getting the information under control and then using it.By studying the thought processes of clear thinkers and by analyzing a variety of logical problems and situations, I have succeeded in isolating seven critical procedures that seem to spell the difference between fuzzy thinking and clear thinking. These seven mental tactics give a person a measure of control over the information in a situation, and make it easier to find solutions. I have given them simple descriptive names to make them easy to learn and memorize. Throughout this book, I will be showing you how these logical tactics work, illustrating ways to use them, and giving you opportunities to practice with them.
The seven basic logical tactics used by effective thinkers are as follows:
1. Stepping—attacking a problem in simple steps or stages; dividing the problem up into manageable parts; patiently exploring one thing at a time until you can come up with a logical chain of facts and conclusions that give you the answer you need; drawing simple if-then conclusions.
2. Λctuππg-drawing a sketch, diagram, illustration, or other visual analogy you can work with.
3. Λep∕ιrαsmg-stating the problem in a different way by using terms that are more convenient for your own understanding.
4. Z⅛πcwg-reducing the problem to a smaller scale by making certain simplifying conclusions or throwing out irrelevant considerations; putting a figurative “fence” around it to make it more manageable.
5. Zrewizing-Simply listing all of the known options, possibilities, situations, arrangements, or combinations that you need to evaluate in finding the solution.
6. C¾αining-arranging a variety of options and suboptions in the form of a logical chain, a time sequence, or a branching tree-type diagram so you can track down and account for all of the known approaches that look feasible.
7. Jumping the track—stopping to reconsider the whole course of your attack on the problem; starting again with a completely different approach or a different point of view; enlarging the range of options to include unusual or novel ones, sometimes by means of a creative leap.
As you read through this book, I will show you how a skilled thinker uses each of these seven logical tactics to overcome problems that look confusing and intimidating at the start. By listening in on this person’s thoughts, you will have the benefit of a role model for thinking. Each of the seven tactics is treated in a separate chapter. In each of these chapters, I will first show you several simple puzzle problems, give you a chance to work on them, and then take you on an excursion inside the mind of our expert thinker to see and hear how he or she attacks it. Then, I will offer several easy practice problems you can use for skill building. By observing a role model who uses the techniques, and then trying them on your own, you will soon become familiar with them and more comfortable in using them.