CASoft blog

         Communication Aspects in Software Engineering

June 20, 2009

Effective Thinking

Filed under: Project Management — admin @ 10:56

In order to think effectively, one needs to avoid rules of thumb and short-cuts.

Heuristics for effective thinking:

  • Availability heuristics: Recall most vivid memories
  • Representiveness heuristics: Judge something with something else it looks like
  • Anchoring heuristics: Judge something with its distance from the anchor

Thinking traps:

  • Selective perseption
  • Contrast effect
  • Rationalisation effect

Short cuts:

  • Cognitive laziness => Need to gather more information, concrete facts and figures, short-term and long-term consequences.

Biases and Assumptions:

  • Consistency bias => Examine your motives regarding the problem
  • Confirmation bias => List possible causes of past outcomes. Purposefully focus on contradictory evidence. Seek input from impartial 3rd party
  • Hindsight bias
  • Attribution biases (self-serving bias, egocentric bias or fundamental attribution error)

Problem Solving Mindsets:

  • Apathetic mindset
  • Adaptive mindset
  • Analitical mindset

Decision making styles:

  • Despote
  • Judge
  • Waffler
  • Safety blanket

Obtain a wide range of experiences and maintain a learning log.

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