Finishing 'Clear Thinking' at Grand Teton National Park
A couple of weeks of vacation gave me the rare luxury of slowing down and catching up on some reading. Somewhat spontaneously, I picked up a copy of Clear Thinking by Shane Parrish at a Barnes & Noble in New York City, guided mainly by the title and the back-cover blurbs. What I found inside turned out to be surprisingly relevant.
Lately, I've been grappling with how to better manage what I call "focus time"—dedicated blocks to tackle complex, high-impact problems. My struggle breaks down into three parts:
1) Blocking the time – This part is manageable. I set aside recurring calendar slots and add ad-hoc ones based on weekly priorities.
2) Protecting the time – This is harder. Meetings, fire drills, and Slack pings constantly threaten to erode these blocks. It requires active defense, and I'm still working on getting better at it.
3) Effectively using the time – This is the real challenge. Even when I've secured the time and opened the problem space, I often feel overwhelmed by its complexity and the sea of possible solutions. It's not just a matter of working harder—but working smarter. That's where I hoped Clear Thinking would help. And it absolutely delivered.
I took more notes reading this book than I have with any other in recent memory. Parrish opens with a deep dive into the common mental traps that prevent clear thinking—many rooted in our own biology. One concept that hit close to home was the "inertia default." It's all too easy to fall into comfortable routines and resist necessary change simply because the familiar feels safer.
The book then moves into concrete strategies for overcoming these defaults. Parrish provides actionable advice—not just theory—on how to sidestep bias, reduce noise, and sharpen your thinking. Many of the tools he offers are things I've intuitively applied before, but it was valuable to finally see them named and structured.
A significant portion of the book focuses on decision-making: defining the problem, generating and evaluating options, and executing effectively—complete with built-in fail-safes to stay on track. I found myself nodding along often, especially when reading through his frameworks and principles.
In the final chapters, Parrish zooms out into more philosophical territory. He explores not just how to think clearly, but what to think clearly about—what's truly worth pursuing in life. He references Stoic thinkers like Seneca (which felt serendipitous, as I've been reading The Daily Stoic in parallel) and shares thought experiments used by people like Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos to guide life-defining choices—particularly the notion of minimizing regret. I found the idea of imagining yourself at 80, looking back on your life, to be a powerful lens for making meaningful decisions today.
Verdict:
Clear Thinking is both practical and profound. It's a handbook for better decision-making and a gentle nudge toward a more intentional life. If your mental bandwidth feels stretched thin, or if you want to raise the quality of your decisions—this book is well worth your time.