316 — How Talking to a Rubber Duck Will Solve Any Problem Fast (And Why Thinking Harder Fire Backfires)

About this episode

Amy Morin discusses a simple strategy involving talking to a rubber duck to solve problems quickly and effectively.

Buy a copy of The Mental Strength Playbook. Whether you're trying to figure out how to address a problem with a friend or you're struggling to make a decision about what to do next week, thinking about a problem can be exhausting. And the more you think about solutions, the more you struggle to find an answer. Fortunately, there's a simple strategy that can help you uncover the solution fast. Not only is it backed by science, but it's also used by engineers at companies like Amazon and Toyota. Today, I'm walking you through exactly how to run this play. Some of the things I talk about are: Why thinking harder actually keeps you stuck — and the surprising shift that breaks the loop fast. The community college student who walked into class with a brightly colored rubber duck — and what happened to her grades after that. Why engineers swear by this exact strategy when they hit a wall on a tough problem. The cognitive psychology behind the "self-explanation effect" — and three specific things that happen in your brain the moment you start talking out loud. How I used this play while writing The Mental Strength Playbook — when I'd been stuck on the structure for weeks. The four-step…

People in this episode

Host: Amy Morin

Topics covered

• problem-solving
• cognitive psychology
• self-explanation effect
• mental strategies
• decision making

Keywords

• mental strength
• problem solving
• cognitive psychology
• self-explanation
• decision making
• thinking strategies
• rubber duck

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Amazon, Toyota

Products: The Mental Strength Playbook

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