Philip Mudd > Quotes

“You’ve started thinking backward, not even touching the data until you know the question, the destination. Different”
― Philip Mudd, The HEAD Game: High-Efficiency Analytic Decision Making and the Art of Solving Complex Problems Quickly

“In analytic circles, assuming that the entity or individual you are assessing might think or act as you would is known as mirror-imaging, and it is among the most common mistakes you will see in analysis.”
― Philip Mudd, The HEAD Game: High-Efficiency Analytic Decision Making and the Art of Solving Complex Problems Quickly

“Anyone who’s ever been in a romantic relationship knows how hard it is to understand a partner’s decision-making, day in and day out. There is no couple that doesn’t compromise, at some level, because we’re all different. We have different goals, moods, interests, and personalities. When we’re in a work environment, we seem to forget this.”
― Philip Mudd, The HEAD Game: High-Efficiency Analytic Decision Making and the Art of Solving Complex Problems Quickly

“If you get into this rhythm of reshaping questions consciously when you start any process, you should find that some of this questioning comes naturally with practice and patience.”
― Philip Mudd, The HEAD Game: High-Efficiency Analytic Decision Making and the Art of Solving Complex Problems Quickly

“we will visualize it as right-to-left thinking, where we will start on the right side of the problem (what the decision maker’s problem is) and end up on the left side (what we experts and analysts know).”
― Philip Mudd, The HEAD Game: High-Efficiency Analytic Decision Making and the Art of Solving Complex Problems Quickly

“Work through the same process of asking questions that are increasingly narrow, but this time try to articulate clearly what someone else would say if he or she took a position in opposition of the original position you took. The”
― Philip Mudd, The HEAD Game: High-Efficiency Analytic Decision Making and the Art of Solving Complex Problems Quickly

“What kind of books sell in this genre? What are the characteristics of those books that sell? • What kinds of books fail in this genre? What are the characteristics of those books that fail? • How many of the good characteristics does this book have? How many of the bad characteristics? If we assume that almost no book is perfect, how can we judge whether the good characteristics outweigh the bad? • Are there ways to work on the weak points, even if we can’t fix them entirely? PRACTICING”
― Philip Mudd, The HEAD Game: High-Efficiency Analytic Decision Making and the Art of Solving Complex Problems Quickly