How Strategic Are You?

[RED COMPASS]

Whether the situation is business, financial, health and fitness, relationship, or whatever unique, do you think and operate in terms of strategy and tactics?

If you are a strategic thinker and/or operator, what strategy and tactics book(s) do you follow?

[Johnny Metal]

I have a magician toolkit (transparent plastic folder) with three pages that I update frequently:

"where do I want to be in 30 days",
projects for this week,
next actions for this week.

I make sure the items on these lists are specific and measurable. I try to review and visualize the items on these lists at least once a day, as early in the morning as possible, it help me stay on track, and is a manifestation process in itself.

I learned it from David Allen's "Getting Things Done".

[Angelique]

1. Get out and do it, right away. Suck big time.
2. Research. Understand why I sucked at it. Find reliable sources of information.
3. Fix issues. Run through things slowly.
4. Run through things quickly. Overwhelm myself on purpose. (At this point, I'm usually frustrated that I can't do things quickly and I want to quit.)
5. Keep running through the quick-slow cycle with each new thing I learn.
6. Feel like a badass when I do it right.
7. Challenge myself by doing it right, but in a new way. Explore the boundaries. (If I don't start to do this, I get bored with it and let it go. I think I'm in love with being a beginner.)

I usually do this when I'm learning something new. I'm sure this process is not unique to me, most ideas aren't. I learned it from watching others' results and experimenting on my own.

[nzmegs]

I have no stragetegy whatsoever or rather i don't tend to follow the strategies laid down by business gurus or even sensible people. My way of doing things is haphazard, but seems to work.

I just research everything to the "nth" degree, until I know it backwards. then I do whatever I think is best based on sound knowledge. it seems to work OK

[TheOrange]

Following any book is usually a bad idea.. although most of the so called "strategies" you find in books are usually just common sense of making the most 'correct' decision in a common situation.

[Curtis2011]

Strategic thinker, yes.

Strategic doer, maybe.

[SatvikBeri]

I'm a strategic thinker in pretty much everything-businesses, games, relationships, personal development. My focus is on finding patterns & systems as soon as possible, and modifying those patterns rather than individual instances.

Example: online dating. Many guys pour their heart into making a highly customized message for each girl they contact. I read the data and saw that didn't work. So I took a few different general patterns and tried them out. I still customized to some extent but my messages were based on general principles. I saw what general types of responses worked and continued to improve those while dropping the ones that didn't work.

It's not hard to apply this framework to anything: immediately start thinking of patterns & systems instead of individual occurrences, and then start modifying the systems.

[NSS]

Originally Posted by SatvikBeri

I'm a strategic thinker in pretty much everything-businesses, games, relationships, personal development. My focus is on finding patterns & systems as soon as possible, and modifying those patterns rather than individual instances.

Example: online dating. Many guys pour their heart into making a highly customized message for each girl they contact. I read the data and saw that didn't work. So I took a few different general patterns and tried them out. I still customized to some extent but my messages were based on general principles. I saw what general types of responses worked and continued to improve those while dropping the ones that didn't work.

It's not hard to apply this framework to anything: immediately start thinking of patterns & systems instead of individual occurrences, and then start modifying the systems.

Do you have any book recommendations to help further develop this kind of thinking? Or did you hone it through trial and error?

Thanks.

[SatvikBeri]

Originally Posted by NSS

Do you have any book recommendations to help further develop this kind of thinking? Or did you hone it through trial and error?

Thanks.

I haven't found a single book that mentions this-it's mostly trial and error. But there are some related resources:

The Benefits of Top-Down Thinking & Why it is Critical to Entrepreneurs | Both Sides of the Table is a fantastic article that helped me consciously understand the kind of thinking I use.

http://www.amazon.com/Talent-Code-Gr...9211377&sr=8-1 mentions the idea of "chunking", which is vital to thinking in patterns. Chunking is basically when you compress multiple pieces of information into one. For example, you could view the list "1 1 1 1 1 1 1" as 7 distinct objects and then it would be very hard to remember. Or you could remember that it's 7 1's, and then it would be easy to remember. The same principles apply to everything-driving, cooking, speaking, business, etc.

[RED COMPASS]

Thanks for the feedback. ... An unique set of interesting perspectives.

Do any of you view the big picture before making a move?

What points do you look for?

[Agota]

I try to view everything from a long term perspective and make choices using that perspective (as opposed to short term one). Everything is much easier when you have the patience to do the right thing instead of getting distracted by short term concerns.

I wrote an article on that:

Long term productivity vs. Short term productivity

[RED COMPASS]

Originally Posted by Agota

I try to view everything from a long term perspective and make choices using that perspective (as opposed to short term one). Everything is much easier when you have the patience to do the right thing instead of getting distracted by short term concerns.

I wrote an article on that:

Long term productivity vs. Short term productivity

Do you know what I mean by Big Picture?

[RED COMPASS]

Originally Posted by NSS

Do you have any book recommendations to help further develop this kind of thinking? Or did you hone it through trial and error?

Thanks.

The game of Go is where I developed my pattern-recognition skills.

[Agota]

Originally Posted by RED COMPASS

Do you know what I mean by Big Picture?

Isn't it the same thing as a long term perspective (I mean, you call it big picture, I call it long term perspective)?

[Peterw]

I'm becoming more and more strategic in all parts of my livelyhood.

Developing stategies into every day practices and then following them is quite challenging though. Still - like anything worth doing I don't think it's meant to be easy

[aelle]

Business/work life strategies: pick interesting and fun opportunities. Always go slightly outside my comfort zone: with a job that I'm not 100% comfortable with or 100% sure I can achieve, it's a guaranteed growth opportunity.

Finance strategies: spend generously on what I love and squeeze money out of what I don't. Never buy on credit. Be generous with my friends. Focus on big earnings and big cost cuts, and don't waste time or energy on the small stuff. Automate so I don't have to rely on willpower. Be friends with my banker. Keep learning.

In all areas: don't get stuck in analysis paralysis. I'm a very analytical person by nature who LOVES to identify patterns, models and figure out strategies to optimize how I play the system. In other words, I tend to overthink things. With experience, I learned that it pays off to just get things done now, even if I do them a bit wrong, than to wait until I have things perfectly figured out, even if it's more fun and makes me look smarter.

[RED COMPASS]

Originally Posted by aelle

In all areas: don't get stuck in analysis paralysis. I'm a very analytical person by nature who LOVES to identify patterns, models and figure out strategies to optimize how I play the system. In other words, I tend to overthink things. With experience, I learned that it pays off to just get things done now, even if I do them a bit wrong, than to wait until I have things perfectly figured out, even if it's more fun and makes me look smarter.

Interesting. ...

Originally Posted by SatvikBeri

I'm a strategic thinker in pretty much everything-businesses, games, relationships, personal development. My focus is on finding patterns & systems as soon as possible, and modifying those patterns rather than individual instances.

Example: online dating. Many guys pour their heart into making a highly customized message for each girl they contact. I read the data and saw that didn't work. So I took a few different general patterns and tried them out. I still customized to some extent but my messages were based on general principles. I saw what general types of responses worked and continued to improve those while dropping the ones that didn't work.

It's not hard to apply this framework to anything: immediately start thinking of patterns & systems instead of individual occurrences, and then start modifying the systems.

Opps. I almost missed your point.

I have the same question for both posters- What are some of the specific patterns, models (and systems) do you usually recognize?

[RED COMPASS]

Originally Posted by Agota

Isn't it the same thing as a long term perspective (I mean, you call it big picture, I call it long term perspective)?

What is your definition of long term perspective?

[RED COMPASS]

What strategy books do you read and re-read?

Is there a specific methodology that you follow?

[danthony]

I like strategy but i like to take real action even more. I blog about my experiences and experiments in my own self improvement and share it with others. If you're going to fail, fail faster, learn from your mistakes and make yourself great.

[RED COMPASS]

Originally Posted by danthony

I like strategy but i like to take real action even more. I blog about my experiences and experiments in my own self improvement and share it with others. If you're going to fail, fail faster, learn from your mistakes and make yourself great.

Your view is interesting but invalid. Failing is only valid at a low to low medium risk, min. consequence situation. One does not want to fail at a high risk, high volatility, extreme consequence situation.