Why why why why why?
A hack to make better long-term decisions.
Sorry for the delay today. I was a bit under the weather and couldn’t finish last night!
Today we have one of those deceptively simple, problem-solving, life-hacking things that seems too good to be true—until it actually makes sense and pays off.
It has its roots in the management practices at Toyota, and it's examined in a book called Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Businessby Charles Duhigg of The New York Times called
The crux of the idea is a system called "the Five Whys." As Duhigg explained a few years back:
In the 1980s, the Japanese car manufacturer Toyota opened its first American plant in Fremont, Calif. The factory was guided by a management philosophy known as the Toyota Production System, which at its core holds that even the most complex problems have simple causes - if you know how to look for them.
Mainly, you look for them by asking "why" enough times.
Here's an easy example—Duhigg said he and his wife had identified a problem they wanted to solve: Why did it seem they never got to eat dinner with their children? So they asked the five questions:
1. Why didn't they ever seem to eat dinner with their kids?
Duhigg answered: "Because my wife and I always got home later than we expected."
2. Okay, why did they get home so late?
Answer: Despite good intentions, they always found they had tons of things to do toward the end of the workday—and thus they couldn't leave.
3. Why did they have so many things to do at the end of the day?
Answer: Each day, they'd intend to get in early, but they'd arrive rushed and hurried, usually with a meeting or big task that they had to begin right then.
4. So, why did they always arrive so late in the morning?
Answer: They always hoped to get to work on time, but it usually took about 20 minutes longer than it should to get the kids ready for school.
5. Finally, why did it take longer than it should to get the kids ready for school?
Answer: Mainly because it took so long to find the kids' clothes and get them dressed.
Connecting the dots between two things that didn't really seem related at first—
the kids taking too long to find their clothes in the morning, and
Duhigg and his wife getting home from work late, 10 or 11 hours later
—ultimately revealed a simple solution.
By pushing their kids to choose their clothes the night before, and put them out for the morning, they reduced chaos in the morning, got to work on time, and made it home more often in time to eat dinner. Problem solved.
Of course, many problems are much harder to solve than this. Entire treatises have been written on the "5 Whys" theory.
However, you can imagine how it might help any of us get through a problem.
For example, suppose you find yourself getting to work late every day. You might find yourself going through an exercise like this:
1. Why do I get to work late every day?
Answer: Because I have a hard time getting out of bed.
2. Why do I have a hard time getting out of bed?
Answer: Because I'd rather be asleep than go to work.
3. Why don't you like going to work?
Answer: Because the work I do doesn't really use my most valuable skills and the things I enjoy.
4. Why do you engage in work that doesn't require your best skills?
Answer: Sunk costs. I’ve spent years developing this career (even though I don't like it much).
5. Why do you stay in this career if you don't want to be in that field?
Answer: Because I'm afraid of admitting to my family and peers that I made a mistake.
Okay. You're going to work late because you chose the wrong career (and maybe you need to think about doing something else).
That one might hit a little bit too close to home for some people. Sorry about that!
7 other things worth knowing today
President Donald Trump said Sunday evening that he is not intentionally engineering the ongoing stock market sell-off, but said little to try and dissuade it. “I don’t want anything to go down, but sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday night when asked about the markets. (CNBC)
Crowds of people angry about the way Trump is running the country marched in scores of American cities Saturday in the biggest day of demonstrations yet by an opposition movement trying to regain its momentum after the shock of the Republican’s first weeks in office. So-called Hands Off! demonstrations were organized for more than 1,200 locations in all 50 states by more than 150 groups. (AP)
Lots of sports news over the weekend: UCONN's women's basketball team won the NCAA basketball championship; Houston takes on Florida for the men's championship tonight. Also, Alexander Ovechkin broke Wayne Gretzky's record for the most regular season goals in an NHL career; Gretzky was there to congratulate him. (ESPN, USA Today, Fox News)
Here’s the iPhone. Here’s the iPhone With Tariffs: What Apple pays for components inside its bestselling phone, and how Trump’s China tariffs could raise the bill. (WSJ)
Colon cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer-related death worldwide, and it's on the rise among younger adults in the U.S. But research recently published in the journal Cancer, finds regular exercise can help survivors live longer — in some cases, even longer than people who've never had colon cancer. (NPR)
An endangered giant tortoise has become the oldest first-time mom of her species after having her first babies at around 100 years old. Philadelphia Zoo recently hatched eggs laid by an elderly western Santa Cruz Galápagos tortoise (Chelonoidis niger porteri), named Mommy. Her exact age is unknown, but Mommy has been at the zoo for more than 90 years. (Live Science)
The one change that worked: I quit fighting about politics with my friends and family. (The Guardian)
Thanks for reading. Photo by Piotr Chrobot on Unsplash. I wrote about some of this before at Inc.com. See you in the comments!
Where are the stars? I give this article a 5+++
OMG, I can't imaging having a baby at 58 let alone 100.