We exercise our bodies. We flex and we stretch. We lift, we cardio, we HIIT. We sleep at the right time with the right temperature, and we measure all these things to a tee. We drink potions and swallow pills and we eat only the right kind of protein.

How do we exercise our minds? We meditate, sort of. We “think”. How do we think? We think however way. We focus on the output of our thoughts (what do you think?) and we focus on the input of our thoughts (what are you reading?) but we don’t pay much attention to the process of thinking itself (how do you think?).

The closest thing to deliberate thinking we practice is the application of frameworks: the scientific process, inversion thinking, mathematics. Sometimes we ascribe to a set of rule that sorta maybe tell us how to think, like rationalism or empiricism.

But even when we apply frameworks, we get confused. Take Charlie Munger. If you believe the internets, he had a “latticework of frameworks” and that phrase just makes me want to die. But ok, let’s go with it. This latticework contained frameworks such as inversion thinking, Pareto’s law, and the law of reciprocity, according to AI-powered Google search.

Ok, let’s analyze this. 

Inversion thinking is a tool to think about a subject or problem from a different perspective. It’s like a dumbbell for your mind. Good, checks.

Pareto’s law is an observation about how some systems sometimes work. It’s not a law, it’s more like a philosophical realization. Sometimes, it can be used as a tool to think about a subject or problem from a different perspective. But sometimes, it can muddle your thinking, it’s context dependent. It’s more like a Spanx for the mind. It looks like you exercised your thinking but you really didn’t.

The law of reciprocity is an observed phenomenon in which people who have received a present from you are more likely to feel kindly towards you or feel obligated to return the present or favor. This, first and foremost, would be a cognitive bias, and not a law. It’s is not, in fact, a cognitive bias. Unlike other (proper) cognitive biases, it’s extremely culture dependent. In general it doesn’t quite work with Asian cultures, Scandinavian cultures or midwestern cultures. People from these cultures might hate you for putting them in the position of being gifted something or having to return something. On the other hand, in Latin cultures, are more likely to feel grateful but also not necessarily feel obligated to return in kind. They might just read you as a friend and return differently.

The odds of this observation to work as intended (generate good will and positive debt feeling) is narrow. You might insult the subject, you might not get back exactly what you expected to get. This is not a tool for thinking. This is a manipulation tactic, and a bad one at that. It’s bad because it’s not even close to universal and it has blind spots in terms of the results you might get anyways. As a thinking exercise, it’s like drunk driving for your mind. You drove instead of walking and you might get hurt for it.

“A latticework of frameworks” is a mess. A latticework is a framework, first and foremost. Latticework and framework are versions of the concept “structure”. You can have, theoretically, a structure of structures. For that, the structures need to fit together. It’s the difference between having a house (a structure of structures) or having a dump. Exactly the same materials can give these different results: shelter or trash.

For your mind, you want to have a library of mental lens. Some might be a lattice: an interconnected system of similars. Others might be a point of view. Others might be a framework, a tool to organize your thinking in a particular way. Others might be a formula, a different type of organizing tool. Other types of lens might be in your toolkit. Whatever you are, if you wanna use them efficiently when it matters to you, you have to use them regularly as a practice, in no stakes situations.

In creative situations.

In playful situations.

Let’s start to start.

First things first. Open your eyes. What do you see?

This guide is a playground, not a race. You'll find fifty three ideas here. Think of them as a buffet of mental snacks. You don't need to do them all. Just do one today. I do advise you do them in order, at least the first few times. The goal is to start, not to finish everything at once.

As you begin, you might hear a voice in your head asking, am I doing this right? Congratulations. You've just found the first mental habit we get to exercise. Uncertainty! And being comfortable with it. Let uncertainty be in you. When you leave the loop open is when you grow.

Don’t try to hunt for usefulness here. You wouldn't expect to get strong after doing ten sit-ups once. And sit-ups don’t have a particular practicality to them, not when you are thinking of Q3 earnings, dirty dishes or homework. Yet, we do sit-ups because we want a strong core. Think of these exercises the same way. The goal isn't a single, sudden insight, but the gradual strengthening of your thinking muscles through consistent, playful practice.

Keep also in mind that this guide is a tool to strengthen your own thinking, not to adopt someone else's. The exercises are designed to help you build your own perspectives with more creativity and clarity.

If you're using this guide with others, always hold onto this question: does this line of thought make me feel more capable and independent, or does it make me feel more confused and dependent on others?

The goal is always to expand your own sense of agency. Trust your gut. You are the ultimate authority on your own mind.

To follow this mental training guide, first you need to choose a subject. To exemplify how this works, I chose a flower. You can start by choosing a flower yourself as you learn, and go from there thereon after.

Some of these exercises need a medium external to your mind, like paper, canvas or a computer. Others, don’t. I recommend doing mental gymnastics sometimes journaling, other times walking, other times while doing the dishes or while dancing around. You can practice on your own and also practice with your family, your kids, your friends. 

Don’t stress too much about the output: the process is what matters here. The mental flexes and motions you go through to follow through with each exercise. Have fun during training, so in real-life thinking situations, your library is stocked, your thinking muscles are taut and your mind is ready.

Are you ready?

Let’s go!

If you can, find a real flower to work with. A real, physical unit of the subject you chose. And find space and time to do your workout. You don’t need to complete the workout at once, though 2 hours of uninterrupted deliberate thinking is a wonderful multiplier. Twenty minutes a day, one exercise at a time works too. Do your best, don’t try to do everything if everything is unfeasible or too much for you. As I like to say, everything is nothing and something is something.

Here we go.

Step One. Draw our subject as you would for a children’s board book, in the simplest, clearest, cleanest way possible. Once you are done, do it again. Could you make it simpler? Could you make it cleaner?
Example:

Step Two. Describe our subject as you would for a children’s board book, in the simplest, clearest, cleanest way possible. Once you are done, do it again. Could you make it simpler? Could you make it cleaner?
Example: 
A flower is a pretty hand a plant has to attract friends and to multiply.

Step Three. Narrate our subject as you would for a children’s board book, in the simplest, clearest, cleanest way possible. Once you are done, do it again. Could you make it simpler? Could you make it cleaner?
Example: 
Once upon a time, there was a plant. The plant felt lonely and wanted to make friends. But the plant couldn’t move, so it couldn’t find friends on its own. One day, it had an idea: it would dress pretty in bright colors and wear perfume. That way, any buddies looking to make friends would find it. It worked really hard and it covered itself with beautiful, colorful pieces of pink silk. Soon, ladybugs, butterflies and bees were buzzing around the plant, visiting and having nectar tea time. All the buzzing and friendship and love also made it so new plants just like our plant sprouted all around. And that’s how our plant never felt lonely again.

Step Four. What is our subject, first and foremost? Don’t look up, don’t cheat. You can Google and AI any time, not now. There’s no right output, there’s only exercising the process of thinking.

Step Five. What is our subject to you? What do flowers mean to you? Maybe they are your favorite present. Maybe they are something you don’t understand. Maybe they are something you love or enjoy or maybe they are something you are allergic to. What is a flower to you?

Step Six. How do you feel about our subject? Do you feel repelled, attracted, indifferent? Do you feel rage, sadness or disgust? How do you feel about flowers?

Step Seven. Describe our subject sensually. Describe a flower in terms of senses. Does a flower arouse you? How does a flower look, how does it feel? What’s the sound of a flower? How does a flower move? How does it feel on your skin, on your fingertips, on the back of your hand? How does it smell? How does it taste? What’s time in relation to a flower? Hourly time, rhythm time (day/night), seasonal time. What separates you from a flower? How are you one with a flower? 

Step Eight. Describe your subject practically. How is a flower useful to you? Maybe it’s good to put in a vase or to put in a salad. How is the flower bad for you? Bad for the system? Bad for the world? And how is a flower good for you, good for the system? How is a flower good for the world?

Step Nine.  Describe our subject in detail. 

Step Ten. What are the parts of our subject? Again, no cheating. Just use the information you have at hand in your mind.

Step Eleven. How is our subject part of a system. What is it’s role, not in moral terms (good/bad) but in functional terms.

Step Twelve. Describe our subject narratively.
Example:
A flower is the reproductive system of a plant. When a plant needs to reproduce, it uses a flower to attract pollinators and to disseminate itself. First it sprouts, green and tight. After a while, the green sprout grows into a bud, showing timidly the colors of the future bloom. Then, one fine day, the bud blossoms into a flower, colorful and proud. When it’s ready, the flower will open its petals and offer itself to the world, to multiply the plant and to feed its adjacent world.

Step Thirteen. Drink a tea, iced or warm, for good luck, to enjoy yourself, to clear your mind and your heart, and as a reward for doing such a good job following through.

Step Fourteen. How can we make our subject? Write a step by step tutorial on how to make, in this case, a flower. How do you even make a flower, you ask? Well, you have to figure it out. Make it happen.

Step Fifteen. What’s our subject? In this case, what’s a flower?

Step Sixteen. Draw the subject. In this case, draw your flower as best as you can.

Step Seventeen. How would you draw the subject if you could only use square shapes? For this step, you can even cut squares and make flowers (or whatever your subject is) out of them.

Step Eighteen. Define our subject. Where does it begin? Where does it end? Does the flower end where the stem begins? Is the scent and its particles part of the flower? Are flowers a continuum throughout the world? If the flower ends where the stem begins, then aren’t all flowers stemless? And all bouquets made out of stemmed flowers? Are there parts of the flower we have no name for that need a name? Make up your own. Maybe it’s the particular way they tickle your particular nose. Define /flower/ as best you can.

Step Nineteen. What does the word that represent our subject mean? What does the word /flower/ mean? This time, you can research. Look for the etymology of the world flower. Look for the word for /flower/ in different languages. Does the word transform its shape through time and space? Does its root mean something different than flower? What about the root of the word for flower in other languages? Do other languages have more than one word for flower? Be curious about the history, the meaning and the changes of the word.

Step Twenty. What’s our subject, first and foremost? What’s a flower, first and foremost?

Step Twenty One. What’s a word that would describe our subject, other than the usual word that denotes it? What does a flower represent?
Examples:
Fertility. Beauty. Time.

Step Twenty Two. If the world was made out of our subject, what would that look like? What would a house made out of flowers look like? A dress? A car? What would a city made out of flowers look like? A spaceship?

Step Twenty Three. How do you obtain our subject? In this case, how do you obtain a flower? Make a step by step guide on how to obtain one.

Step Twenty Four. If the world revolved around our subject, what would that look like? What would the world be like if flowers were the most valuable thing? We have an example in the tulip mania in Holland, so there you can have a starting point for your imagination. How would this define relationships between people, jobs? Who would be important and powerful in such world? What countries would be important? How would it affect global relationships, economy, architecture, art, infrastructure?

Step Twenty Five. What would the world look like if our subject was considered divine and sacred? Cows are considered divine and sacred in some parts of India, so there you can have a starting point for your imagination. How would this define relationships between people, jobs? Who would be important and powerful in such world? What countries would be important? How would it affect global relationships, economy, architecture, art, infrastructure?

Step Twenty Six. What isn’t our subject? In this case, what isn’t a flower? A flower is not a cat. A flower is not a fruit or is it? Our entire Scientific Method is a method of shadows. What isn’t this? If you think this is a silly question, look around you. Most things you see, you see thanks to this question. Go ahead, answer the best you can.

Step Twenty Seven. What is our subject, then? What is a flower?

Step Twenty Eight. What if everything you know about our subject was wrong? What would it mean? What if everything you know about flowers was wrong? Write down your assumptions about flowers and then research to see if the opposite is true. Maybe your assumptions are right, but two (or five!) things can be true. If you assume flowers are fragrant, research about scentless or stinky flowers. If you assume flowers are delicate, research about hardy, strong flowers. Go deep! Prove yourself wrong (and right!) Nothing more fun than to find out you made a silly mistake. Take a good laugh!

Step Twenty Nine. Eat a cookie. Vegan, sugar-free, crispy or fudgy. Any cookie. Treat yourself. You made it so far! I’m proud of you. Way to go!

Step Thirty. Go out for a walk. See if you find our subject in the wild. In this case, a flower. Maybe many flowers. Are there flowers in unusual spaces? In unusual places? Real flowers, fake flowers, flowers in t-shirts and in signs? Can you see the flowers from a different point of view? Lay down on the floor on your tummy, how does a dandelion look like from there? Lay down on the floor on your back, how do the roses on a rose bush look from there? Sit on the sidewalk, swing on a swing, do a headstand. Look at a flower from up close and then from far away. Look at a flower on its own and then as part of the plant and then as part of the garden. What do you see? What does the flower look from the top, from the bottom, from the sides? Sometimes, to change your perspective, you simply need to change your point of view. Even if your subject isn’t readily visible on your walk, seeing the world from a different height and from a different place will add, change, shape your perspective.

Step Thirty One. How is our subject bad for the world? In this case, how are flowers bad for the world?

Step Thirty Two. How is our subject good for the world? In this case, how are flowers good for the world?

Step Thirty Three. What is the opposite of our subject? What is the opposite of a flower?

Step Thirty Four. How would our subject fail? In this case, how could a flower fail at being a flower?

Step Thirty Five. Deconstruct our subject to its parts and then reconstruct it using only one part. In our case, what would a flower made up of stems only look like? Maybe like a dandelion. What would a flower made up of only leaves look like? Maybe like a lily.

Step Thirty Six. Deconstruct our subject to its parts and then reconstruct it making sure the parts are in the “wrong” place. In our case, use the stem as leaves, the leaves as petals, the petals as stem. That kind of stuff. You can make cut out pieces and be playful playing.

Step Thirty Seven. Go out for a walk. Find objects, trash, things that you can use to make a flower (or whatever our subject is). When you go back home, make a collage, a puzzle or a sculpture using your found objects. Artists as grand as Joan Mirò did exactly this, so you are in great company! This exercise will add to the way you think of our subject, but also to the way you perceive your surroundings and whatever you consider trash.

Step Thirty Eight. How could you fail at obtaining our subject? Make a step by step guide to fail.

Step Thirty Nine. How could you fail at making our subject? Make a step by step guide to fail.

Step Forty. What does our subject mean in different places and for different cultures? In our example, let’s take flowers. California’s state flower is the Carpenteria Californica, or Bush anemone. The carpenteria is a very hardy, very pretty wild flower that grows in all kinds of soil, and in all kinds of light and water conditions. England’s national flower, on the other hand, is the Tudor rose. The Tudor rose is a gorgeous red rose that needs special care and is he result of years of human cultivation and genetic engineering. California chooses something local, wild, highly adaptive. England chooses something adopted, adapted, gardened. Both flowers, beautiful. Both flowers, distinct.

Step Forty One. What would the world look like without our subject? In our case, what would the world look like without flowers? How would this affect systems, economies, relationships between people and between nations? How would it affect cities, landscapes, infrastructure, art, architecture?

Step Forty Two. How would you draw/represent our subject with only polka dots? In this case, how would you represent a flower with only polka dots? You can cut polka dots, or draw a flower with polka dots, or just imagine the whole things. They can be tiny polka dots or big polka dots. They can even be polka balls! Be playful, what stops you?

Step Forty Three. How would you represent our subject with Math? In our case, a flower. Maybe 

flower=petals+pollen

 or maybe 

flower=(seed+sun+soil)-aphids

Go on, goof around. Don’t let the memory of your third grade teacher stop you. She’s not sneering at you anymore. Unless she brought these exercises up to you, in which case, hi Mrs Brown! We love you!

Step Forty Four. What would the future look like without our subject? In our case, what would the future look like without flowers? How would this affect systems, economies, relationships between people and between nations? How would it affect cities, landscapes, infrastructure, art, architecture?

Step Forty Five. What would the world look like if our subject was huge? In our case, what would the world look like with enormous flowers? How would this affect systems, economies, relationships between people and between nations? How would it affect cities, landscapes, infrastructure, art, architecture?

Step Forty Six. What would the world look like if our subject was tiny? In our case, what would the world look like with diminute flowers? How would this affect systems, economies, relationships between people and between nations? How would it affect cities, landscapes, infrastructure, art, architecture?

Step Forty Seven. Design an allegory for our subject. In this case, an allegory for your flower. What would an anthropomorphic representation of a flower look like? It you had to represent a flower as a person representing a flower, what would that look like. For example, we represent Justice as a blindfolded lady holding scales. That’s the allegory of Justice. What would the allegory of our subject be if you designed it? Maybe you can draw it, or imagine it, or sculpt it. Maybe you can photoshop it or maybe you can make it our of magazine scraps. The world is your oyster!

Step Forty Eight. If our subject was an animal, what animal would it be? In our example case, what animal would a flower be. If the subject you are working with is an animal, make it be a different animal!

Step Forty Nine. If our subject was a company, what would its logo be? Design it!

Step Fifty. What is our subject? What is a flower?

Step Fifty One. If our subject was a song, what would it sound like? What would a flower sound like if it was a song?

Step Fifty Two. What is our subject, first and foremost? What is a flower, first and foremost?

Step Fifty Three. What is our subject. In our case, what is a flower? Now, go ahead, let loose. Research, read books and encyclopedias, google, perplexify and AI to your heart’s content. Bringing fresh eyes to an old and trite subject can make it fresh in turn.

Close your eyes and take a deep breath. You did a great job, congratulations!

You’ve travelled through conceptual thinking, abstract thinking, linear thinking, negative space, systems thinking, second and third order effects, brushed onto probabilities, honed on your etymology and maybe even changed your mind a few times. Without even noticing, you’ve practiced thinking like an analyst, a storyteller, a philosopher and an artist. You mapped connections, explored consequences and questioned assumptions.

You have added powerful, tangible, useful tools to your toolkit.

You can use this guide to think of simple, familiar subjects, like a flower or like a table. You can use it to think of more complex subjects, like Physics or Mathematics. Yes, even algebra and statistics. Give it a try! Don’t be afraid. It’s just numbers, it won’t hurt. You might just be a genius in the hiding.

You might just be a genius in the making.

Now,

open your eyes. What do you see?

Keep your eyes open. You might discover the world anew.