“Solving a problem simply means representing it so as to make the solution transparent.” - Nobel Laurete Herb Simon

For the past few episodes, we’ve be talking a lot about thinking well and specifically what NLP masters do on the inside, so they can turn data into insight and insight into the right actions that transform lives.

Learning to think really well really matters.

As the late great ‘father of thinking about thinking’, Edward De Bono put it:

The consequences of poor thinking are evident all around us, right?

Good thinking is so important to doing great NLP that whenever top masters work with apprentices, (folks who pay high 5 and 6 figures to learn from them), the first skill they teach them is not more techniques, or slicker ‘tricks’ or faster ways to covertly influencing people… instead they get to work on improving their thinking!

Showing them how to perceive-and-think better so they make better decisions.

We’ve talked about the kind of things you can do when you can perceive better (see The Sherlock Holmes Test), and how this leads to a better overall picture about what is (likely) going on to create the present situation (see from Data to Intel) and when you chunk what you hear (See From Intel to Insight), you gain a deep understanding of how a person has created their worldview and identified the drivers that create the issue or challenge they face.

But there’s another tool in their toolkit that masters of NLP use to think well and pattern a person’s system so the solution becomes transparent.

They leverage the power of tracking the inferences of what a client says.

In today’s video Michael shares some key distinctions that will help you to detect and see how the client’s system is ‘doing’ the problem so you can lock in on exactly where to create the change.

Also he shares an awesome skill building exercise for you to begin to build your inference muscles today.

Einstein’s Challenge:

Apocryphal legend claims that this problem was created by Albert Einstein in the last century... It’s claimed that Einstein said that only 2% of the world could solve it. It’s a great puzzle for building your inference skills. Don’t worry if it takes you a while to work this out, stick with it.

Here is the scenario:

There are five houses of different colors next to each other. In each house lives a man. Each man has a unique nationality, an exclusive favorite drink, a distinct favorite brand of cigarettes, and he keeps specific pets.

Use all the clues below to answer the following question:

"Who owns the fish?"

The Clues

• The Brit lives in the Red House.
• The Swede keeps Dogs as pets.
• The Dane drinks Tea.
• The Green House is next to the White House, on the left.
• The owner of the Green House drinks Coffee.
• The person who smokes Pall Mall rears Birds.
• The owner of the Yellow House smokes Dunhill.
• The man living in the centre house drinks Milk.
• The Norwegian lives in the first house.
• The man who smokes Blends lives next to the one who keeps Cats.
• The man who keeps Horses lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill.
• The man who smokes Blue Master drinks Beer.
• The German smokes Prince.
• The Norwegian lives next to the Blue House.
• The man who smokes Blends has a neighbour who drinks Water.

Suggested approach

• Start by reading all the clues.

• Find all the “least variable” or "most basic" clues and mark them. For example, house position does not and cannot move. Look for clues that state something is in a determined house/position. E.g. here’s a “basic clue” example that is not connected to the puzzle:

“The German lives in house three.”

• Some clues require deduction using two or more clues (“If this is so AND that is so; then THE OTHER must also be so.”) Some clues will require exclusion by deduction (“If this is so AND that is so; then THE OTHER CANNOT be so.”)

All the clues must be used.

• Since the houses and their positions are fixed; and then there are five other features to be assigned; it might be wise to create a matrix with the five houses along one axis, and the five features along the other...

Please do the work yourself – no cheating or googling to “get the answer”. You won’t build the mental muscles that way.

When you’ve done the work, click the box below for the answer!

Already completed the Einstein challenge and want another? Try this one.

Learning to make your mind move to solve challenges like this is tremendously valuable when problem solving, modeling and working with clients.

To your success,

Tom