Default Thinking in a Demanding World: We Upgraded Our Tools, Not Our Thinking.

Imagine being dropped into a high-powered commercial kitchen and asked to prepare a five-course gourmet meal. Around you are dozens of high-tech appliances you’ve never used, industrial quantities of ingredients you don’t recognize, and a recipe you barely understand. Oh, and the meal needs to be ready in an hour.

Most of us would be overwhelmed, confused, maybe even panicked. And if what we managed to produce was far from five-stars? That would make sense. Most of us haven’t built the skills to prepare anything very advanced. The expectations are off. The tools are unfamiliar. And the gap between what we’re being asked to create and what we know how to do is massive.

You’d probably fail—because you weren’t prepared for this kitchen.

Now imagine this: what if I told you this is exactly how many people are trying to make life decisions today? We rarely stumble into a commercial kitchen by accident—but more and more, we do find ourselves making some of our most important life decisions in unfamiliar, high-powered information environments.