Ways to Think Like Bill Gates

While I don’t think Bill will lend you his brain, you can do the next best thing.  You can take some of this thought patterns and practices for a test-drive.   Here are ten patterns to get you started:

    Prioritize.  “What’s the next best thing you should be thinking about?”  It starts here.  Time is your most limited and precious resource.  This is about asking whether the problem is even worth your time.  Before you throw cycles at it, figure out whether it’s worth it.  Is it significant?  How much time should you spend on it?  For an example of how Bill Gates figures out how to prioritize, check out the following video: Bill Gates on Mosquitoes, Malaria, and Education.

    Ask smarter questions.  If you want better answers, ask better questions. Rather than getting stuck in one line of questioning, such as “what’s wrong with this?” or “what’s right with this?”, you can explore your thinking more deeply, by asking a range of questions.  One of the skills we learn at Microsoft is Precision Questions / Precision Answers.  In this approach, there are 7 categories of precise questions: 1) Go / NoGo -   Do we need to talk about this? 2) Clarification – What do you mean? 3) Assumptions – What are we assuming? 4) Basic Critical Question – How do we know this is true? 5) Causes – What’s causing this? 6) Effects – What will be the effects? 7) Action – What should be done?

    Make data-driven decisions.  This is one of the toughest switches to make.  By default, most people make emotional decisions and then find data to support the decision.  This means asking questions like, “what’s the data say?”  This means getting informed, before you make your decision.  This means evaluating the sources of data.  It’s an extreme exercise in emotional intelligence to pause your emotional response, while you check your logic and critical thinking.

    Divorce your ego.  This is where you separate yourself from the problem.  This is also about separating yourself from the solution.  Instead, you hold the problem or solution out in your hands and inspect it from different angles.  Rather than focus on whether you’re right, it’s about whether the solution is right.  It’s about being able to beat up the thinking, without taking it personally.