The Road Less Stupid summary

Productive Thinking Time sessions start with a high-value question or questions. They should help you re-evaluate a problem that has left you feeling uncertain or stuck, or a situation in which you feel overconfident or have been unrealistic in your approach.

These questions can take many shapes, but they tend to revolve around five core disciplines: Find the Unasked Question, Separate the Problem from the Symptom, Consider 2nd-Order Consequences, Check Assumptions, and Create the Machine. The disciplines are connected, and mastering all five leads to the largest dumb-tax deductions.

During colonial times, the British were terrified of the venomous king cobras that populated the Indian city of New Delhi. To solve the problem, the colonizers offered a sizable bounty for dead cobras. The bounty system worked, but it also led to some enterprising locals setting up snake farms and breeding cobras for the bounty. When the British found out about the scam, they ended the bounty system. So, the snake farmers released the cobras into the city, and New Delhi wound up with twice as many snakes as it had before the British bounty system.

This story, likely fictitious and surely exaggerated, was made famous by German economist Horst Siebert, who coined the phrase cobra effect. It shows what can happen if you ignore the third core discipline of thinking: Consider 2nd-Order Consequences. In essence, this discipline is asking you to consider the possibility that you’re wrong, and what the price of being wrong might be. Answering these three questions before you act should reveal 2nd-order consequences and help you avoid dumb taxes: One, what’s the upside of this action? Two, what is the downside? And three, can I live with that downside?

Eventually, you will discover the right time, place, and length for your Thinking Time sessions. You will find the right chair, lighting, and writing instrument. But for now, use the following blueprint to create your Thinking Time ritual, and then let it evolve over time.

Thinking Time sessions are powered by the high-value questions discussed in the previous sections. Before each session, write down the questions you want to think about. Creating three to five that revolve around one topic can be helpful. Don’t worry about answering them all – you’re trying to maximize options, not complete a to-do list.

Joe worked on the new plan for weeks, toiling alone late at night. After he finished the plan, he followed the steps diligently, never missing a day or a detail. His business hasn’t turned around yet, but the gold-plated results should start rolling in any minute.

While we can admire Joe’s diligence, chances are good those gold-plated results won’t be rolling in. Running with enthusiasm can be positive, but not if you’re headed in the wrong direction. That’s when you pay a dumb tax. Instead of toiling alone, Joe could have asked someone else to look over his plan. Better yet, he could have hired a professional. If Joe had a Thinking Time ritual, he probably would have thought of that himself.

The key to business success is not taking more smart steps – it’s taking fewer dumb ones. In order to avoid dumb steps and the dumb tax that follows, you must think, and a Thinking Time ritual and practice will help you optimize your thought processes.

While it probably took you less than 20 minutes to consume this Blink, getting the most out of it and a Thinking Time practice will take longer. The information in this Blink is only valuable if you actually commit to Thinking Time and then follow through on that commitment. Wanting to develop a Thinking Time practice or deciding to develop one aren’t the same as actually doing it.