Few things will change your trajectory in life or business as much as learning to think clearly. Yet few of us recognize opportunities to think in the first place.

You might believe you’re thinking clearly in the moments that matter most. But in all likelihood, when the pressure is on, you won’t be thinking at all. And your subsequent actions will inevitably move you further from the results you ultimately seek—love, belonging, success, wealth, and victory.

Clear Thinking gives you the tools to recognize the moments that transform your trajectory, and reshape how you navigate the critical space between stimulus and response.

We may imagine we are the protagonists in the story of our lives. But the sad truth is, most of us run on autopilot. Our behavioral defaults, groomed by biology, evolution, and culture, are primed to run the show for us if we don’t intervene. At our worst, we react to events without reasoning, not even realizing that we’ve missed an opportunity to think at all. At our best, we recognize these moments for what they are, and apply the full capacity of our reasoning and rationality to them.

Through stories, mental models, and more, you’ll discover the missing link between behavioral science and real-life outcomes.

Learn how to …

Identify the enemies of clear thinking and reprogram them.
Shape your environment to align with your goals
Create positive inertia through rituals.
The four strengths you need to be rational in an irrational world.
Identify self-sabotaging behavior
Understand where you have an edge
Understand why others do things that are not rational
Get back on track when you’re on the wrong side of right
Why your standard, not your expectations, matters and how to set it.
Control your emotions
Create a personal board of directors
Why getting the big decisions right isn’t enough to get the outcomes you want.
Manage your weaknesses and amplify your strengths.
Create automatic rules for success
Shift your perspective to reveal your blind spots
How to handle mistakes and get back on track.
The repeatable behaviours you can use to improve the quality of any decision.
Think through a problem forward and backward.
How to use clear thinking to position yourself to take advantage of any cirumstances
How you respond makes every situation better or worse
How to put all of these ideas into practice in real life.

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Where to Order

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Praise For Clear Thinking

Here is what people are saying.

“A must-read for anyone who wants to get a handle on their own mind and figure out how to transform their life.

– Mark Manson

“Shane Parrish is someone I have been reading for many, many years. This book is his masterwork, the culmination of all his research, interviewing, and experiences that everyone will benefit from.”

– Ryan Holiday

“The world of sports is filled with nuance and complexity, and operating with sound thinking is paramount to making important decisions that impact not just individuals but entire franchises. Shane’s expert guidance in Clear Thinking is already proving to be a go-to resource for how I approach decision-making as a professional basketball executive.”

— Landry Fields, GM of Atlanta Hawks

“An actionable guide to using your mind more effectively. Shane Parrish doesn’t just teach clear thinking—he lives it. He’s produced a lucid manual for overcoming cognitive biases and making better decisions.”

– Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of THINK AGAIN

“Shane Parrish, the brilliant thinker who created Farnam Street and the podcast the Knowledge Product, has distilled the wisdom he’s gathered over the years from his own life and the many interviews he’s done with incredible people into a must-read book. Clear Thinking is full of fascinating stories and insights, and gives you the practical tools you need to counteract the forces that can muddle your thinking.”

— Bethany McLean, Author of The Smartest Guys in the Room

“If you want results—good ones—that you can achieve confidently again and again, read this book. Shane Parrish demystifies the process of thinking clearly so you can create better odds in your personal and professional life.”

– Annie Duke, bestselling author of Quit

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What happens in ordinary moments determines your future.

We’re taught to focus on the big decisions, rather than the moments where we don’t even realize we’re making a choice. Yet these ordinary moments often matter more to our success than the big decisions. This can be difficult to appreciate.

We think that if only we get the big things right, everything will magically fall into place. If we choose to marry the right person, it’ll all be okay. If we choose the right career, we’ll be happy. If we pick the right investment, we’ll be rich. This wisdom is, at best, partially true. You can marry the most amazing person in the world, but if you take them for granted, it will end. You can pick the best career, but if you don’t work your butt off, you won’t get opportunities. You can find the perfect investment, only to look at your savings account and have nothing to invest. Even when we get the big decisions directionally right, we’re not guaranteed to get the results we want.

We don’t think of ordinary moments as decisions. No one taps us on the shoulder as we react to a comment by a coworker to tell us that we’re about to pour either gasoline or water onto this fire. If we knew we were about to make the situation worse, we wouldn’t. No one tries to win the moment at the expense of the decade, and yet that is often how it goes.

The enemies of clear thinking—the more primal parts of our nature—make it hard to see what’s happening and instead just make our lives more challenging.

When we react with emotion to a colleague in a meeting, we must make amends. If we start bickering with our partner on Friday, the entire weekend can be lost.

No wonder we have less energy and more stress, and feel busy all the time.

We feel certain that we’re thinking, but in most ordinary moments, the situation does our thinking for us. We don’t even realize it because these moments seem so small. However, as days turn into weeks and weeks into months, the accumulation of these moments makes everything easier or harder.

Each moment puts you in a better or worse position to handle the future. It’s that positioning that eventually makes life easier or harder. When our ego takes over, and we show someone we’re the boss, we make the future harder. When we are passive-aggressive with a colleague at work, our relationship becomes worse. And while these moments don’t seem to matter much at the time, they compound into our current position. And our position determines our future.

Results are a function of position. You don’t need to be smarter than others to outperform them if you can out-position them. Anyone looks like a genius when they’re in a good position, and even the smartest person looks like an idiot when they’re in a bad one.

The company with low leverage and cash on the balance sheet has nothing but good options to choose from. When bad times come, and they always do, their options go from good to great. On the other hand, a company with high leverage and no cash has nothing but bad options to choose from. Things quickly go from bad to worse. And this example easily extends beyond the boardroom as well.

Time is the friend of someone who is properly positioned and the enemy of someone poorly positioned. When you are well positioned, there are many paths to victory. If you are poorly positioned, there may be only one. You can think of this a bit like playing Tetris. When you play well, you have many options for where to put the next piece. When you play poorly, you need just the right piece.

What a lot of people miss is that ordinary moments determine your position, and your position determines your options. Clear thinking is the key to proper positioning, which is what allows you to master your circumstances rather than be mastered by them.

It doesn’t matter what position you’re in right now. What matters is whether you improve your position today.

Every ordinary moment is an opportunity to make the future easier or harder. It all depends on whether you’re thinking clearly.

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About Shane Parrish

Shane Parrish is the founder, curator, and wisdom seeker behind Farnam Street, the host of The Knowledge Project podcast, and the CEO of Syrus Partners.

Shane’s insights have been featured in nearly every major publication, including The New York Times, The Globe and Mail, and The Wall Street Journal.

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