Strengthen your thinking · Area 05 of 06

Know Yourself as a Thinker

How to understand your own thinking: your styles, preferences, strengths, biases and blind spots, and how you work with AI.

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Why it matters

You cannot upgrade thinking you cannot see. Your worldview, beliefs and mindsets shape every judgement you make, mostly without you noticing, and until you know your own patterns and traps, they are choosing for you.

Getting to know yourself as a thinker brings those patterns into view. You learn where your thinking is strong and where it is likely to trip you, and because you can catch your own traps in the moment, you think more clearly when it matters most.

A question to sit with

What do I need to know about myself to understand how I think, and how can I improve the quality of my thinking when it counts?

How our Thinking Squad could aid you

Your guides here are people from the Thinking Squad, matched to you and to how you want to grow. They work one to one, and with groups and teams.

Each guide is qualified and informed in their area, with one mission: to elevate the quality of your thinking, conversations, decisions and actions.

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Self-Awareness and Self-Leadership Guide

Key focus areas

Self-awareness Thinking styles and patterns Strengths and blind spots Personal growth

The Thinking Marketplace

Start here

Our five top picks for this area, chosen from the full shelf for this area. Each one earns its place.

Start here book

Insight: The Power of Self-Awareness in a Self-Deluded World

Tasha Eurich · 2017

Most of us believe we are self-aware; Eurich's research says about 15 per cent of us actually are. This book shows you the gap between how you see yourself and how others see you, then gives you tools to close it. It is the single best starting point for this whole pillar.

About 8 hours (352 pages)

book

Mindset: Changing the Way You Think to Fulfil Your Potential

Carol S. Dweck · 2006, updated edition 2017

This is the book behind the idea that your beliefs about your own abilities shape what you attempt and how you respond to setbacks. It gives you a language for catching yourself in fixed-mindset moments, at work and at home with your children. A foundation text for this shelf.

About 8 hours (320 pages)

book

Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts

Annie Duke · 2018

Duke spent years at the poker table watching people fool themselves, and she names the traps with precision. You learn to separate the quality of your decisions from the luck of your outcomes. A sharp, honest look at your own reasoning under uncertainty.

About 7 hours (288 pages)

book

The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don't

Julia Galef · 2021

Galef's question is simple: are you defending your beliefs or mapping the terrain? This book helps you catch yourself in soldier mode and switch to scout mode. It is the friendliest field guide to your own motivated reasoning you will find.

About 6 hours (288 pages)

podcast

Hidden Brain

Shankar Vedantam · 2015-present

Vedantam turns rigorous psychology into stories you actually remember. Each episode shows you an unconscious pattern that drives how you think and choose. The annual You 2.0 series is a quiet masterclass in knowing your own mind.

About 50 minutes per episode, weekly

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