Flawed assumptions drive stuck thinking.

Testing assumptions and diagnosing a problem before fixing it can help avoid errors.

Holding on to inaccurate assumptions isn't a personal problem, but a human one.

Let me tell you a funny story. A few days ago, my 3-year-old told me she had a sore armpit.

I asked her some questions, concerned. I assumed she'd strained her lats hanging from the jungle gym, or something similar.

Then, she showed me her "armpit." She was showing the inside of her elbow, where she gets eczema that flares up periodically. Poor baby had a red patch that needed ointment.

But what was amusing was when I said to her, "Oh, it's your elbow," she kept insisting it was not her elbow that was sore. It was her armpit. She adamantly told me the pointy part was an elbow, and the part she was referring to was most definitely her armpit. Her explanation was smart; it just didn't match my terminology.

Why am I telling this story? Because it illustrates one of the fundamental root causes of stuck thinking. We try to solve a problem based on an assumption of a reliable narrator.

Medical doctors, mechanics, and tech troubleshooters all face these types of scenarios often. The person we're trying to help is describing the problem accurately from their point of view. The professional could jump to assumptions that turn out not to be accurate or helpful if they don't rely on procedures specifically designed to avoid this, like the doctor who takes a full patient history.

This is a principle we need to keep in mind with whatever we're trying to troubleshoot, including our own thinking and lack of progress on a professional or personal goal. Sometimes we're the unreliable narrator.

What follows are strategies you can run through when you're struggling to make effective progress on solving a problem. Some of these come from the world of computer science, which offers a lot of debugging strategies that can help isolate problems in complex systems.

How to Troubleshoot Stuck Thinking

Make an accurate "diagnosis" before treatment. Sometimes we keep trying fixes ineffectively because we haven't made an accurate diagnosis in the first place. If I'd tried to fix my child's armpit, no strategy would've helped her elbow. Usually, testing your assumptions is what's needed to shift your thinking away from an inaccurate diagnosis, which we'll cover next.

Run an assumptions checklist. Outline 15-20 assumptions you're making, not just a handful. This exhaustive approach is intended for when you're very stuck and mentally looping. Note whether each assumption is validated or not. Design the simplest possible tests. A common assumption that can block progress is your belief about what you need to happen, e.g., "I can't proceed until..." or "Success must include...".

Clear your context. This is an issue that happens with both humans and AI tools. Our thinking becomes poisoned in a way we can't pinpoint. We can't break free of the train of thought we've been heading down without a reset that gives us a clean slate. A night of sleep, or chatting with someone new about the problem, can help.

Try "rubber ducking." This refers to the idea that even explaining your issue to a rubber duck can help you get yourself unstuck. Explaining the problem to someone new often causes us to describe it differently, and can create new revelations.

Identify the exact failure point. If you're trying to fix a process or routine that has, say, seven steps, which step is it failing on? Finding the failure point is useful for many problems, including those involving disorganization or procrastination.

Go back to the last known working version. Reverting to a version that was working before helps us figure out what's broken. For example, if you're struggling to get around to exercising, you might go back to an exercise routine that you used to manage fine and see if it still works. Whether it still works or not gives you vital information. This helps us identify conditions that have changed that we hadn't thought about.

Use "delta debugging." This is when you minimize a problem to the smallest failing case. For example, if you think your toddler is getting overstimulated or overtired and it's causing meltdowns, what is the smallest amount of stimulation or activity that causes it?

Attempt a "clean room rebuild." This is when you build a solution in a new location to see if something weird about where you were trying it previously was causing the failure. For example, if home workouts keep slipping, try the same routine at a public gym. If it works there, something about exercising at home is undermining you.

Update your knowledge from official or objective sources only. Sometimes we try to get something done based on knowledge of old versions or hearsay that might have changed or never been accurate. For example, you might be job searching based on a friend's experience of the market two years ago. An explanation or insight someone gave you previously might never have been true. The latest version might not work like the old one.

Unchecked Assumptions Keep Capable People Spinning in Circles

Jumping to wrong assumptions isn't a personal problem; it's a human problem (and these days also a problem with AI). Professionals in all fields have procedures to overcome it, from medical doctors taking full patient histories beyond just the body part in question, to mechanics driving a vehicle to replicate the exact sound a customer says their car is making and isolating the noise and the circumstances, to programmers using the strategies to diagnose bugs in very complex systems. We learn from experience, too, when breakthroughs come after the lightbulb insight that an assumption was wrong, as in the armpit example.

When we're stuck, we need to recognize (without judgment) that we're not always a reliable narrator and neither are other people. Because assumptions are so sneaky and beneath our consciousness, we can't dig out the rotten ones without a specific structure to help us do that. This post provided nine ways. Next time you're stuck, pick one that seems like it might help you find the assumption you didn't know you were making.

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