How to Think Clearer Than Your Competition
Your force multiplier is already inside your head...just use it
Most people don’t realize how much of their thinking is actually reacting…
to pressure
to expectations
to what worked for someone else
to what might look good on Instagram.
Clear thinking on the other hand…that’s rare. And valuable.
So valuable that Shane Parrish wrote a fantastic book titled…you guessed it…Clear Thinking.
And despite our initial instincts, clear thinking isn’t the same as high intelligence or a high IQ. Instead it’s about your ability to pause, zoom out, and respond with intention…especially when your instincts are pushing you toward action.
Most bad decisions don’t come from lack of knowledge. They come from lack of clarity.
We act out of urgency instead of understanding. We try to solve before we really see the problem. And we fall into what Adam Grant calls “cognitive entrenchment” in his fantastic book Think Again - locking in on an answer just because it feels familiar.
The antidote is to slow down long enough to ask better questions.
Here are a few I come back to when I feel pressure creeping in:
Am I reacting or responding?
What’s the actual problem I’m trying to solve?
What would I tell someone else in this same situation?
That last one sounds simple, but it works. It creates enough distance to bypass your internal noise and surface the real insight. Most of us already have the clarity, we’re just too close to access it.
Another thing I’ve learned from Think Again is how powerful it is to hold your ideas loosely.
Not everything needs to be defended. You can change your mind without losing credibility. In fact, that’s where credibility grows…when you’re willing to rethink your own thinking, in public, without ego.
When you're building something, this becomes even more important. Because the faster your world changes, the more dangerous it is to cling to decisions you made in a different context (in fact there’s a fantastic book about this very point called The Lean Startup).
Clear thinking isn’t rigid. It’s responsive. It evolves.
But only if you let it.
So here’s the real edge:
You don’t need to know more than everyone else.
You simply need to see more clearly than they do, and act on that clarity faster than they can react to confusion.
That’s how you outpace your competition without chasing them.
Where are you currently acting out of habit or pressure—when you know you should pause and reassess?
Drop a comment or hit reply—I’d love to hear what you’re working through.
📚 Referenced Books (ordering through these links supports Startup Stuff):
Clear Thinking by Shane Parrish (Kindle version)
Think Again by Adam Grant (Kindle version)
The Lean Startup by Eric Ries (Kindle version)
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