How to think like a Category Designer
To change the world, you have to reject the premise.
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Dear Friend, Subscriber, and Category Pirate,
This is about thinking about thinking.
Our job as Pirates is to help smart people like you understand the context of what it is you’re looking at and thinking about. Because in order to change the world, and unlock exponential breakthroughs, you have to reject the premise.
Today, we’ll remind you why.
Category Design Is A Game Of Thinking
Thinking about thinking is the most important kind of thinking for Category Designers.
You are responsible for changing the way a reader, customer, consumer, or user “thinks.” And you are successful when you’ve moved their thinking from the old way to the new and different way you are educating them about.
But what is “thinking?”
According to Roger Martin, arguably the world’s #1 management thinker, “thinking” is when you look at the world through an existing model. It’s how you use learnings from the past to make sense of the present. So when another driver cuts you off on the highway, you instantly apply your past experiences to the present and swerve to avoid an accident.
Your reflex saves your life.
But almost all thinking is “reflexive” rather than “reflective.”
Consider the difference we laid out in our mini-book The Art Of Fresh Thinking:
“Reflexive” thinking: Having an unconscious “reflex” in response to ideas or opinions.
“Reflective” thinking: Taking a moment to consciously reflect on how the past may have created a preexisting mental model keeping you from considering a new and different future.
Reflexive thinking causes a scarcity of fresh thinking in the world because it relies on mental scaffolding built in the past.
Some of the smartest people stopped reflective thinking a long time ago. We would even go so far as to say that being declared a smart person is almost certain to make you stupid. Because when you get called “smart,” you become entrenched in your comfortable past. When you’re smart, you know things. And most people who know things are called “experts.” Which means they already know. And when you already know, by definition you are using old mental scaffolding to consider new and different futures.
Which makes you stupid.
So, don’t strive to become an expert (ever!)—it’s the enemy of fresh thinking.