Solve it sideways

Decision-Making

Megan Smith, the General Magic alum who became a Google executive and then CTO of the United States, told me that when her White House colleagues would say “let’s fix education” and brainstorm grand visions, she would instead counsel them to apply what she calls “scout and scale.” “There are people already figuring out solutions in their communities,” she told me, “so let’s find them and help scale those solutions*.” Rather than trying to invent something momentous from scratch, she wanted to build on the lessons of many small experiments.

Behavioural principles

Behavioural ideas at play in this post

Short, plain-English explanations of the principles behind this post, with links to related books and examples in the archive.

Overconfidence effect

We are often more certain than the evidence really allows.

More quotes

Base-rate neglect

We focus on vivid specifics and ignore the wider statistical odds.

More quotes

Lateral thinking

Better solutions sometimes appear when we stop pushing through the obvious route.

More quotes

Solve it sideways

Behavioural ideas at play in this post

Sharp thinking in your inbox