Sarah Clarity Studios

Critical Thinking

There are 12 eggshell halves in 3 columns of 4.

How many eggs did Priya use to cook?

Okay, did you think about the answer?

For those of you who know for sure, please wait in silence as we wait for our other problem solvers to work on the math problem a little longer.

Ready? Okay, here’s explanation number one.

Right now, draw a small, half circle for each eggshell half on a piece of paper.

It should look like:

D	D	D
D	D	D
D	D	D
D	D	D

I put it in a table to make sure you can see all the D’s or half eggshells.

Okay, so, we know that before this, Priya had whole eggs, not half eggshells.

Can you think about how many eggshell halves we have per egg?

Okay. If you said 2 eggshell halves for every whole egg, you are on the right track!

So, count 2 Ds for every egg. How many times did you count?

6? Did I hear six? Yes! You got it. Priya used 6 eggs to cook.

Now, here is a short cut, where you don’t have to draw a D for every half eggshell.

Ready?

My people who got the math problem super quick! How did we do this?

If you know that when you break open an egg, you have 2 halves, then 12 halves divided by 2 halves gives you 6 whole eggs.

You can go up and count the number of Ds again, which is 12, to double check your answer.

12 halves / 2 halves = 6 whole eggs

or, just the math:

12 / 2 = 6

Okay. So, for those of you who don’t like math, I’m sorry, but this is the most important part of working on your IP.

You have to think critically.

You can’t just wish to the stars that your IP is going to be perfectamunda all by itself. You put in zero effort, and it will just come up with a poof! Like magic!

Your IP, unbeknownst to you, is a problem.

It is a problem to be solved, and more often than not, it boils down to…

math.

My math lovers! My math wizzes!

If you ever feel way too intimidated by your IP, because it has just exploded into something that you cannot keep up with, I will say, be humble, because that is how the average person feels when sitting down with the above math problem. You are just looking at a math problem the way a normal person would. So!

I want you to think, “I can solve this,” even before you start your IP problem.

“Sarah, it’s an HR problem.”

“Sarah, it’s a PR problem.”

“Sarah, it’s just the customers. I can’t say it, but that’s the real issue.”

“Sarah, it’s my boss.”

“Sarah, it’s my team.”

“Sarah, I am scared of what I’ve built. I don’t know what this means.”

“Sarah, they stole it from me.”

“Sarah, they keep withholding information!”

All of these are really math problems.

How much time do you have left?

How much coverage have you got?

How many customers? Is it just one bully? Or 24,000?

How much time is your boss giving you a hard time out of the 8 hours of your workday?

How many team members are giving you a hard time out of the total number of team members?

What percentage of what you have built scares you out of 100%? 40%? 59%?

How many of your IP updates did they steal out of 310 updates? One? Sixteen?

How much information has been withheld that you feel like this is the end of the world? Make it a number now! A fraction? A decimal? A dollar and cents amount?

Think of your problem in math terms. Think of it like a math problem.

Sure, this one might actually be a stumper for you. We all get them!

When you push this into a math problem, it helps you to see things clearly and with a cool head.

“Of our relationship, Sarah, I’d say that my partner and I are about to divorce because out of the 4 years we’ve been together, I’ve really only been present for about 10% of that time. It’s about 5 months out of 4 years that we’ve been together. I guess that makes sense why this thing has just gone down the drain.”

“Of the time with my child, Sarah, I’d say that I have been present for 80% of their life, and they are still clinging to me! I’m like, ‘can we ask Daddy to spend time with you?’ And they won’t budge! They want Mommy. Boy. I am strapped here. I can’t get to my pastels unless I want my baby to do some messy art with me!”

In one case, we have the realization and the understanding of why something crumbled. In another case, we have the realization and the understanding of why we are not able to do something we have wanted to do, possibly IP related.

Otherwise, what do we have? We have someone blowing up even more about a relationship. We have someone else getting upset that their child isn’t independent at the time that most other children are exploring their world away from Mommy or Daddy.

Sure, these are things we cannot control.

However, they are things that we can think about and understand.

Before we solve a problem, we have to accept the factors and the variables and the equation. Once we accept that, we can come to the right answer for ourselves.

“Sarah, I just didn’t have that sort of family background, you know? Everyone blew up and I was on my own trying to look out for my younger sibling, and I couldn’t hold my grades when I was trying to cook with Grandma so we could feed everyone. We tried. Man. We all tried. But… I’m just so behind now, you know? I look at what is generated by these AI systems and I’m like, ‘dude. I can’t even read 4 paragraphs without getting stuck on what’s being said. What am I reading?’ Someone said I could use the summarizing function, but I just feel really dumb.”

“Sarah, no matter what I say, no one gets what I’m trying to tell them. I try! I really do, but it’s like… is it because I’m more of a geek than everyone else that I’m having these communication issues? I mean, I did tell them exactly what went wrong and why we were screwed, and everyone got mad! I think someone cried, but I was still trying to explain myself again. How am I supposed to communicate as a good team leader, unless I tell people what went wrong?”

These are the types of things that keep us in a holding pattern of frustration. We try to solve the equation. We know the answer!

The way to get full credit, friends, is to … you got it…

show your work.

Being more specific and being a little more mathematical can help you get there.

“My friends went to a top tier school. But… they flunked out. That’s why I stayed with my community college. I knew I’d fail at the one my friends went to. And even then back at home, I struggled to pass, you know. How many? Friends? We had 8 of us, and 6 of them made it into that school, and they… wow. 6 out of 8 is like three quarters…wait. Am I telling you that 75% of us flunked out of school? Wow. Never mind. I know why I’m having trouble. I gotta study! “

“Okay, well, not including me, we had 20 people at our meeting when I outlined everything that went wrong. I had 3 people walk out on me, and 1 person left crying, and … huh. It was only 4 people? Wait. So that’s…one fifth of my team? I still had 16 people who listened to me the entire way, and at the end, they all came and thanked me for telling them straight. I felt terrible, though. I guess I’m not a failure of a leader then. Thanks. That helped. I feel better now.”

Getting to realizing what we are going through or have gone through is vital to succeeding in being happy with your IP and succeeding the way you defined your happiness and success.

Understanding what is going on in an objective way is exactly what critical thinking helps us to do.

When we are upset, angry, or sad — basically stressed — the first thing that we lose is our objective way of viewing things.

Our critical thinking is the first to go, and if you are living in a constantly stressful environment, you are going about your life without your best reasoning skills.

Think of it like a math problem! It will calm you down, and your critical thinking will come back to you, and you’ll feel like your head is truly on your shoulders, because your brain is functioning at 100% again, not 20%.