Big Idea #1 From Me
Carl Jacobi was a 19th-century German mathematician that made a lot of profound contributions to the field of differential equations.
One thing that made this possible was Jacobi’s problem-solving approach.
He believed that when you invert already known facts in a particular discipline, you can reveal additional knowledge that was hitherto unknown.
That’s why, as a professor, Jacobi always encouraged the graduate students under him to always invert the known confines of the field and examine what they found there.
When this method is applied to everyday living, you’re equipped with an unrivaled clarity of thought.
For instance, instead of asking yourself, What do I need to do to make money?, you can ask, What do I need to do to lose money? Chances are doing this will open your eyes to areas of your life where you’re not being a good steward of money.
Instead of asking, What do I need to do to stay productive?, ask, What do I need to do to waste my day? Again, this exercise will help you identify the simple tweaks you can make to your day to boost your productivity.
Many times, humans are unidirectional in their thinking.
We like to think in a particular way because contrarian thinking takes effort.
As a result, we imagine that the elusive secret to success can be attained only by accumulating more knowledge and wealth.
Through inversion, you’d realize that most times, less is more.
Big Idea #2 From research
In a journal article titled, Overconfidence in Case-Study Judgements, Stuart Oskamp asked a group of doctors and students to provide correct answers to a series of questions about a real person nicknamed ‘Joseph Kidd’.
The information about Joseph Kidd was presented in 4 stages, with questions asked after each stage. In addition to providing correct answers, participants were also required to answer how confident they were about their answers.
Stage 1 contained brief demographic information about Kidd like age, gender and so on.
Stage 2 had information about Kidd’s childhood.
Stage 3 contained information about Kidd’s education.
Stage 4 had information on other activities that Kidd was involved in till he clocked 29 years.
In all, the participants were asked 25 questions about Kidd.
On average, no one (even the doctors) got up to 30% of the questions right.
Yet, in spite of the poor accuracy of their answers, the more information a participant had about Joseph Kidd, the more confident they were in their answers. And there was no difference between the doctors and the students!
My key takeaway is something I’ve nearly flogged to death.
More information doesn’t necessarily translate into better decision-making.
That’s why I’ve stressed countless times that you don’t need to know everything. You only need a revealed knowledge of what works and the wisdom to work it out.
Big Idea #3 From the Bible
1 Chronicles 28:12a, 19 says: “And the pattern of all that he had by the spirit…All this, said David, the LORD made me understand in writing by His hand upon me, even all the works of this pattern”
One thing I established in my book “Mastering the Art of Observation” is the fact that the unseen realm is the causal realm.
The blueprint for life in the physical realm is found in the unseen.
Even Genesis 1:1 attests to that.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
The action word “created” is in the past tense form, implying that everything was already finished in the beginning.
When you have an understanding of this, like David, you can simply align with patterns in the unseen realm and crystallize their physical analogs in the seen realm – irrespective of the uncertainties in the world system.
If there’s any prayer you should heartily pray this season, it’s this:
Father, open the eyes of my understanding to see the patterns for my life, destiny, and situation.
May the Lord give you understanding in these things.
