The same level of thinking that caused the problem wont solve the problem.

Status: child

Tags: thinking problemsolving models

The same level of thinking that created the problem won’t solve the problem.

Exhausted, and wearied out from and endless slog of studying, Jim Kwik (The wold famous brain coach) collapsed and caused the second significant brain injury he would suffer in his lifetime.

Dyslexic and slow to learn, the boy with a broken brain was tasked with a mountain of literature he would need to finish for college. His initial attempt at this is what landed him in the hospital. Yet it was there he encountered this life-changing insight from an Einstein mug “We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that caused them”¹

With this, his task shifted. Instead of a mountain of reading and not enough time to do it, he could no longer afford learning at the same rate he was at. He went meta and decided he would learn how to learn

This frame, this model for thinking can help us out of certain holes of thinking by moving to a different level this doesn’t have to always mean moving up a level either

Working on your relationship instead of in it. The same applies for business as well E Myth Revisited, talks about working on your business instead of in it.

Reference

Albert Einstein Jim Kwik story within Limitless

Footnotes

1. I think the Einstein quote was slightly edited, but as far as I can tell this is the best source to attribute it to. ↩