Bernard Garrette

When thinking fast, we limit our attention to information readily available rather than search for information that could help us better understand the situation, a tendency Kahneman calls “What You See Is All There Is

In other words, our brains excel at jumping to conclusions

our tendency to think too fast (or too lazy) and jump to solutions

We spend too little time and effort understanding a problem, believing instead we know all we need

As Wharton professor Adam Grant explains in his book, Originals, 3 people have no trouble turning any information they receive into a coherent narrative, even when the information is random. People can’t help seeing signals, even in noise

search for missing information

While jumping to conclusions and actions is a widespread fault in individuals, analysis paralysis is frequent in large, bureaucratic organizations that pile up studies and reports before taking any action or no action at all. On the one hand, being fast or lazy in our thinking allows us to economize on scarce and expensive mental resources, but the resulting solutions are often poor and ineffective. On the other hand, slow thinking and thorough investigation are necessary to tackle complex business problems—the focus of this book—but the reflection process might create delays in decision-making and thwart action. For organizations and institutions to be both effective and efficient, they need people who can overcome these challenges to solving complex business problems. These people must be as thorough as Hamlet and as action oriented as Othello, without jumping to conclusions like the latter or being stuck in a loop of endless questioning like the former

No wonder that according to an internal McKinsey staff paper, problem solving is viewed as the most important skill for success in the firm

This is because expertise comes with constraints

Experts’ rich and detailed mental models can constrain their ability to understand problems and search for solutions when working outside their fields of expertise