Hi,

If you want to get more done, understand your mind, and understand the people around you, you need to know the different thinking types.

To view the YouTube video version of this essay (one of the best I've done), click here.​

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The Four Powers Of Your Mind

There are four types of thinkers in the world.

And if you know them…

1. You’ll get in less fights.
2. When someone does something that might have seemed crazy to you in the past, you’ll understand why they did it.
3. You’ll become a better communicator and develop wizard-level performance abilities by using all four methods of thinking for yourself.

The first thinker is the linear thinker. Most people know this one, but only some people use it. When it’s successful, it’s called being logical. But it doesn’t always work.

Linear thinking is a process where you look at the world around you and combine that with your past life experiences and lessons to come up with a goal and a series of practical steps to achieve that goal.

In other words, every decision must be made in a step-by-step manner, one foot in front of the other.

Linear thinkers think the way a maze looks. They travel in one direction, and when new options are provided, they consider them, make a decision, and then move again in a straight line until a new decision needs to be made.

People who think this way are often dependable and capable of doing difficult things for a long time to achieve a result. Because if they are sure of their direction and it makes practical sense they will keep going in the face of even the worst challenges.

But they struggle in the face of too much uncertainty. They tend to need an explanation or a deep sense of faith to support them when they don’t have one.

These are the people we can’t survive without because they keep us alive. At the same time, they often come across as boring or frustrating to other types of thinkers because they won’t move until something makes sense to them.

They can have a hard time going with the flow or doing something without an explanation. But when they know what matters to them, what their objective is, and how they will move towards it, they save humanity from blinking itself out of existence. They keep the lights on and move us on a steady path.

The second type of thinker is the experimenter, who cares less about moving in a straight line and operates more like a random number generator.

If the logical thinker operates like someone trying to get out of a maze, the experimenter operates like a person in the middle of a dark room. The experimenter assumes he has no idea which direction to go, so all options must be tested as quickly as possible.

When you’re in a dark room, you will swing your hand around in every direction to see if you can touch a wall, and then you begin moving in any direction until you touch one, then move from there, blindly testing, to find a corner, a light switch, or a door.

In other words, you have no idea what to do, so you you’ll just try something.

There is still a linear path being followed. But there is more emphasis on testing than deciding ahead of time what the best direction is.

Some people operate this way by default.

Experimental thinkers are often quick-witted, easily distractable, and willing to try anything to see if it works. They will use their past knowledge and experience to make a decision, but they will do it with less attachment to whether or not it’s the right decision. And they will do it with less need for all of the information to be provided up front.

They are willing to take a risk.

And they assume that they don’t really know what to do next so they’ll just press every button until something happens.

So while the linear thinker might observe the world, pick a direction, and start walking. An experimental thinker will start walking and find out what direction is right.

One aims first and then fires. The other one fires first, then corrects their aim and fires again.

Experimenters think mistakes are very entertaining.

They are really good at improving systems, because they will see things that don’t work or need to be improved, and then try random things to see if they can come up with a solution.

They’re good at finding a way to achieve an outcome that is defined without a path to get there.

They’re more okay with uncertainty than linear thinkers because their survival strategy is to sort through uncertainties as quickly as possible.

But they will struggle when their is no primary objective, they still need a specific goal.

Because when the desired outcome isn’t known, the random experimentation can become more chaotic and destructive because there is no value system defined by the desired outcome to come up with a definition for what is a positive or negative result in any given experiment.

So when there is no primary goal, the random testing then becomes random and meaningless behavior.

But when a goal is decided upon they often can accelerate the process a linear thinker might use because they’re so willing to test and discover new information.

While they can be highly distractable, because they’ll try anything their willingness to try new things is a big part of what helps the world innovate and solve new problems.

The third thinking style is the extrapolator. The linear and experimental thinkers are often concerned with solving immediate unknown next steps or a series of already understood steps. Extrapolators think through multiple unknown steps.

They use what they’ve learned to predict how things might go in the future and decide on a series of decisions that might be right or might not, but the more they do it the better they get at it.

Think of this as an ever expanding web of possibilities. Where there are a small number of clear options available in the present moment that split into an ever larger and more hazy set of possibilities over time.

The extrapolator is constantly looking at those future decision sets and possible outcomes to find an area where the majority of the outcomes are positive, and is taking a step that, to the best they can determine, will move them toward a brighter future, and reduce the amount of pain that will be experienced over time.

The moment an extrapolator comes to a decision point they immediately think about how the decision might play out ten steps from now, and then about how other decisions might turn out differently.

They’re often terrible at implementation because they’re so busy thinking ahead they forget what to do next.

They can be overwhelmed by the magnitude of possibilities, and think too far into the future, when they could instead let that go and be better served dealing with the present moment and the obvious work that needs to be done.

But they’re masters at dealing with the unknown, coming up with innovations, and strategies. They’re conscious of risk and good at risk management.

They make good generals, tacticians, leaders, are able to plan massive projects.

And if you need someone who can focus on the big picture, an extrapolator will be the one to do it.

The fourth thinker could also appear random, like the experimenter, but is more like a wormhole engine than a random number generator. The wormhole thinker is more intuitive.

These thinkers think less about process and more about who and where they want to be. Their shifts are more extreme. It’s less about testing and more about transforming.

The linear thinker walks into the maze and turns right because it’s the most reasonable direction based on what they know about mazes and what they know about where the exit point of the maze is.

The experimenter walks into the maze and just picks a direction to see what will happen.

The extrapolator looks ahead as far as possible and chooses the direction that looks like it has several steps in the right direction.

The wormhole thinker looks at the current location, the desired location, and then hops the wall as far as possible and then looks around to see if they got closer.

While linear thinkers lean toward logic, wormhole thinkers lean toward intuition. They use feeling and the unconscious mind to come to conclusions that are not obviously connected by a chain of conscious decisions, it’s more about bending reality to become what is desired.

They still exist in the physical world and have to take physical steps to get where they want to go, something they often find extremely frustrating, but if a mindset, conclusion, or decision serves them and doesn’t have an explainable reason for existing, they are perfectly happy to embrace it without explanation. The fact that it is useful is enough.

People who embrace logic often say that wormhole thinkers are unreasonable or unrealistic because the linear thinker can’t see the logical path that was taken by the wormhole thinker.

But in some ways it’s the most realistic approach to life, because the essence of this mindset is, if it works, then it’s good, and it doesn’t matter why it works.

The wormhole thinker doesn’t care if there is a scientific study that proves something is true. If their experience of it is true then that is often enough.

So the wormhole thinker changes instantly when possible, and when physical steps need to be taken, holds the idea of the of the desired outcome in mind until their reality catches up to where they want to be.

This can be a powerful way to think, as it creates instant transformation in places where it’s possible, and creates shortcuts by ignoring stupid rules other people follow just because “it’s always been done that way.”

But it can be risky because while this way of thinking can come up with brilliant new ideas, it can also be extremely inaccurate when things go wrong.

Wormhole thinkers also have trouble taking action because they see where they want to be so clearly that they feel like they’re already there, and taking the real life steps required to get there feel frustrating and slow.

But if we didn’t have wormhole thinkers we would be stuck in the same patterns forever.

This type of thought gives humanity the gift of insight.

All these ways of thinking have strengths and weaknesses and we all utilize all four of them. But different people lean on different styles.

If you understand them, you can figure out which one you use the most, and know what type of problems and work you could be more skilled at and the possible mistakes you are likely to make.

And if you understand the way the people around you think you can communicate with them better.

If you are a wormhole thinker, have patience for the slow process a linear thinker has and it may save your life. If you’re a linear thinker have patience for the lack of explanation a wormhole thinker might have and be willing to try an idea they provide that might make your life feel like it’s worth living or save you years of time.

If you’re an extrapolator, don’t expect everyone to be able to think ahead as far as you do and be willing to focus on the work that need to be done today.

If you’re an experimenter don’t expect everyone to keep up with you and be willing to concentrate your efforts in a specific direction.

And no matter who you are, when you come to a challenging problem, take a moment to ask yourself how you should think.

Because you have the power to choose whether or not you’re going to do the logical next step, try something random to find out what happens, map out a path, or go with what feels right.

And there’s a time for each one.

You can start bringing the right part of your mind and the right thinking style to the right problem and make progress faster.

Take the time to get comfortable with all four different ways of thinking and you will become a powerful force in any realm of human endeavor.

I hope you enjoyed this essay, if you'd like to work with me, just tap here, and direct message me the word "Path" on Instagram or reply back to this email.

Best,

Josh Terry