The Highest Level: Uninterrupted Deep Thinking
(Applicable only to professionals who have reached a certain level of expertise)
Sometimes, while watching the news, you spot a new social trend and can immediately conceptualize a new business strategy. While reading a technical document, you suddenly figure out the solution to a complex project problem that has been bothering you for a long time. This is because you are always thinking.
Sometimes, you can solve a very complex problem with just a little thought; other times, you can derive many complex problems from a simple one. Sometimes, a seemingly unsolvable problem that you’ve been thinking about for days suddenly presents a solution. You are always thinking about various problems and constantly coming up with new things. Sometimes, you see an online discussion about a social issue where many people offer various ideas from different perspectives. In reality, you’ve already considered all those ideas and have many more that others haven’t thought of! No matter how complex a matter is, you can always grasp its key points. No matter how simple a matter is, you can always raise many complex questions and solve them all. No matter how unique a situation is, you can always find universal principles. No matter how complete a theory seems, you can always find areas for further improvement.
Striving to Eliminate Useless Thoughts By developing a habit of constant deep thinking, you can eventually achieve a state of uninterrupted deep thinking. Your mind is occupied only with work-related matters, and all non-work-related thoughts should be eliminated as much as possible. Some people, when not working (e.g., during their commute), think about things like expectations for short-term results, relationships with colleagues or clients, future career plans, ideals, and ambitions. When these thoughts occupy too much of your mind, you cannot achieve the state of uninterrupted deep thinking. Eliminate expectations for short-term results: Some people like to fantasize about their work performance or what their achievements might be on a certain project. Thinking about these things is pointless and can even consume your self-confidence. Eliminate thoughts about future career plans, ideals, and ambitions: Some people often think about achieving great success in their careers. The more time you spend on these thoughts, the less time you have to actually work. Eliminate non-work-related people and scenarios: For example, characters and plots from entertainment media are only for relaxation. There’s no benefit in thinking about these things.
Advanced Deep Thinking: The Long-Practice Method
(Generally applicable to professionals at the intermediate and advanced stages; beginners can also try)
Definition: “The Long-Practice Method” “The Long-Practice Method” involves meticulously selecting a very difficult, highly comprehensive, and conceptually clever case study, project, or problem. You then engage in deep thinking about all the knowledge points and solutions involved, exploring all possible variations to their limits. After clarifying the problem to be solved, and before you have a complete solution, you continue to think deeply about all the related concepts, principles, and techniques over the next few days, weeks, or even months. You also practice related tasks until you are certain you have a thorough understanding of all the concepts, principles, techniques, and variations related to the case. In this process, you will often gain a deeper and more profound understanding of certain fundamental concepts and principles. You will also develop new insights into the variations and universality of certain techniques. Once you have thoroughly solved a truly excellent comprehensive case, your work will often make significant progress. The “Long-Practice Method” is an excellent way to transition from an intermediate to an advanced stage in your field.
Scope of Application The “Long-Practice Method” is primarily applicable to classic cases that are highly difficult, comprehensive, and of great value. You can also use this method for some highly difficult and comprehensive classic cases from academic literature or reference materials, but only if they are entirely free of errors or controversy. Note that the “Long-Practice Method” can take tens of minutes, several hours, or even days or months for a single case. Even a small error in the case can have a significant negative impact on your work. Therefore, you must not use flawed cases. The case itself, the solution, the steps, and the explanation must be completely correct. The “Long-Practice Method” can be used for challenging and conceptually clever problems in data analysis and software development; for difficult comprehensive case studies in marketing; for highly flexible risk assessment tasks; and for complex and comprehensive product design requirements related to social “hot topics.”
Alan, an intermediate-level professional in data analysis and project management, would encounter a truly excellent, comprehensive challenge every few dozen tasks. He would often spend more than half an hour on it without finding a solution, so he would look at the reference solution. After reviewing it, he would find the solution to be extremely clever, involving subtle concepts and principles. For the next few days, during breaks from other tasks, he would analyze the problem again, often gaining new insights. He would then delve deeper into the concepts and principles from the documentation related to the problem, while also finding and practicing similar cases to understand all their variations. Because he had studied this case so thoroughly, it became deeply ingrained in his mind. As a result, while working on other tasks or learning new concepts, he would often find connections to the knowledge and techniques from that case. Sometimes, he could even apply a solution from that case to other problems that seemed completely unrelated on the surface.
General Difficult Problems Are Not Suitable The “Long-Practice Method” should only be used for very typical, highly difficult, and comprehensive problems or “hot-topic” issues. For general problems, a basic understanding is enough, and you don’t need to spend an excessive amount of time on deep thinking. For some comprehensive problems, it might feel hard to find a starting point. In reality, if you recall all the relevant fundamental principles, concepts, and basic techniques and choose one as a starting point, the problem will be solved. “Hot-topic” problems might seem to test your breadth of knowledge and awareness of current social issues. In essence, they test your mastery of fundamental principles, concepts, and techniques. If you are proficient in the basics and have formed a foundational knowledge system in your field, you can easily connect fundamental principles with hot-topic issues to solve them. Some difficult problems are just basic problems in disguise. If your mind is clear and your basic skills are highly proficient, you can solve many difficult problems. However, you should avoid problems with obscure or overly complex techniques, as they are not only a waste of time but can also reduce your mental clarity and even affect your mindset.
Sufficient Resources Are Essential Using the “Long-Practice Method” often requires you to repeatedly consult documents and reference materials from various periods. Therefore, you must have an ample supply of resources.
Let a Mentor Guide Your Thinking Sometimes, a mentor’s guidance can help you apply the “Long-Practice Method” more effectively. Of course, the mentor themselves must have strong thinking skills.
You Must Do the Thinking Yourself Some mentors and reference materials, in an effort to help learners understand, might over-explain a case in excessive detail. This can introduce incorrect, useless, or misleading information. For example, some resources might analyze the “success rate” of a classic case, which is useless information. You should ignore these things and only focus on the underlying principles, techniques, and variations of the case. Mentors and resources can inspire your thinking, but they cannot replace your own. Your thinking should not be constrained.
Use This Method When You Are in a Positive and Focused State When your mindset is not good, doing basic tasks will be less effective, but you can still make progress. However, if your mindset is poor and your mind is not clear, the “Long-Practice Method” will likely be ineffective. To fully harness the power of this method, you need to increase your focus and use it when you are in a positive and cheerful state. You should also improve your mental clarity through methods such as physical exercise.
The Feeling Generally, when you first apply the “Long-Practice Method,” you might feel restless. Later, after gaining some insights, you will feel satisfied. Sometimes, your thoughts might get stuck, and you will feel restless again. Then, you might gain more insights and feel excited and a sense of accomplishment. Finally, you might be unable to think further and have to do something else. But the next time you revisit the case, you can often pick up where you left off. If you experience these feelings, it means you are using the method correctly. If you use the “Long-Practice Method” and your mind remains completely calm without any feeling of restlessness, it means one of two things: either your abilities and mindset are exceptional and you have reached a very high level, or you are not thinking deeply enough or cannot find a breakthrough. If you constantly feel restless and your mind is confused, with no excitement or satisfaction, it means one of two things: either you are at too low a level and your fundamental knowledge is poor (in which case you should go back and master the basics), or your mindset is not good and your mental clarity is insufficient (in which case you should improve it through a regular routine, exercise, and mindset adjustment).
The Number of Tasks and Time Required Generally, by using the “Long-Practice Method” on two or three cases, you will gain many insights and significantly deepen your understanding of the core principles of your field. After working on ten to a few dozen cases, you may transition from the intermediate to the advanced stage, or take a big step forward within the advanced stage. Working on a single case with this method can take several hours or even days. Therefore, completing ten to a few dozen cases might take weeks or even months. You must not be impatient.
Deep Thinking Progression
The Object of Thinking For beginners, the focus is on thinking about a specific problem. For example, spending a few minutes or even an hour to solve a technical problem will improve your thinking ability. Intermediate professionals, in addition to specific problems, can also think about the entire knowledge system of their field, finding connections between different methods. For example, integrating time management and risk assessment in project management. Advanced professionals should constantly come up with unique and creative things, such as creating a new work method or formulating a new product concept or marketing strategy that is substantively the same as existing ones but expressed differently.
The Use of Resources For concepts and conclusions in professional literature, beginners should think by imitating the source material to reach a similar conclusion. Intermediate professionals should use insights and guidance to independently arrive at a similar conclusion. Advanced professionals can think from many different angles to reach the same conclusion. They can also synthesize information from various sources, even seemingly unrelated ones, to arrive at a similar conclusion.
The Frequency and Speed of Reaching Conclusions Generally, beginners who think for a long time might feel mentally confused and may not reach a correct conclusion, but their thought process will become clearer. Information they had memorized but forgotten will often reappear in their minds after a period of thinking. Since beginners primarily rely on memorization and imitation, they should seek help from reference materials, colleagues, and mentors when they cannot solve a problem on their own. Intermediate professionals might spend a long time thinking about a problem without a correct conclusion, but they are slowly getting closer. This highlights the importance of increasing focus and the maximum continuous work time. You must have the determination not to give up until a problem is solved, and to think about it from every possible angle. Advanced professionals, after focusing on a problem for a certain period, can always reach a satisfactory conclusion. Small problems can be solved in a few minutes, big ones in a couple of hours, and very complex ones in a few days. As long as advanced professionals work every day, they will consistently produce new, correct, and unique conclusions.
Imitation, Insight, and Creation
You should be good at using existing knowledge to create new things through imitation. Combining multiple imitations can lead to creation. Imitating similar things can also lead to creation.
William, an advanced software engineer, would write down the key point of every good technical problem he solved in one or two sentences, such as “Use a microservice architecture for this type of problem,” or “This problem’s solution is similar to that of another project.” As he accumulated these notes, he would synthesize them and think deeply about them for two or three hours at a time, focusing on the overall and fundamental technical ideas. This would often lead to new insights. Suddenly, he would feel inspired and could design a new comprehensive project solution himself, then implement it. His software development skills continued to improve.
You should be good at applying a good method from one field to another, applying a particular idea to a seemingly unrelated problem, and digging for the deeper connections between pieces of knowledge. Eleanor, a market analyst, would write down good sentences she came across in her reading. Later, she would use them when writing her reports. When she organized concepts, she would try to express the same idea using different words and make a note of them to use in her reports. She would carefully study good analysis reports, learning their structure, writing style, word choice, and logic, and then apply these lessons to her own writing. Her report-writing skills continued to improve.
Everything is connected, and everything is possible. Relying on intuition and insight, you can create things that have never existed before.