The Clarity Tool: How to Think About, Clarify, and Solve Your Biggest Problems - Alex Epstein

A man that needs no introduction because his ideas alone are the introduction. Alex Epstein is the author of the Moral Case for Fossil Fuels, One of the smartest, brilliant, clear thinkers that I know. He has this process, that this is the first time he's ever actually taught it other than one on one. And I think it's going to be an absolute game changer if you really take seriously what he's going to share. So give it up for Alex Epstein. So this sheet is for me a first small step, but hopefully useful step to you in solving for me one of the biggest, most interesting and least acknowledged problems in the world. And so that problem is that human beings lack reliable access to the knowledge we need to flourish. Think about that. Human beings lack reliable access to the knowledge we need to flourish. And so by flourish I mean live to our fullest potential. And that involves physical things, it involves social things, it involves being able to create wealth. And you might think, well, isn't it true that never in history has there been more knowledge in existence about how to flourish? That's absolutely true. The problem is there's also never been more non knowledge in existence about how to flourish. And so whether we're thinking of ourselves as knowledge consumers, people who want to find and consume the knowledge we need to flourish, or knowledge producers, people who are trying to discover and share the knowledge other people need to flourish, I think we have to grapple with the fact that adding more claims to knowledge to the pile in people's minds and in our minds isn't really a solution by itself. And so my own goal is, instead of primarily adding new claims to knowledge, is to fix the knowledge system. So I think it's a system problem. And I think there are four aspects of what a proper knowledge system for human flourishing needs to do. One is it needs to validate knowledge, to separate truth from falsehood. Two is it needs to organize it to see how it all fits together, especially into principles. Three, it needs to be able to apply it so that we can use our knowledge in particular circumstances to benefit our life. And four, the thing we're going to be talking about today, it needs to be able to communicate. It needs to be able to actually communicate knowledge. And I think of proper communication as very difficult because what we have to do is we have to take someone from what I call context A, from everything that's going on in their mind, in terms of their ideas, their values, what they've been exposed to, and then bring them to context B, which is our own level, which is what we think is right. And this is hard for two reasons. One, it's really, really hard to be right. Really, really hard. It's so much work to be right. I try really hard and I'm wrong all the time. And to the extent I've been right, it's. After a lot of struggles, it's hard to be right. And then it's hard to know or take into account everything that people have been exposed to. And think about any idea you have that's meaningful, whether it's an idea about what your customer should do or an idea about what's healthy, the person you've spoken to has heard at least three contrary ideas on that topic, and those are bouncing around their head. And so if you don't know how to deal with their whole context, including what you regard as misconceptions, you're not going to be able to bridge from point A to point B. So I think of all communication, all persuasion, as context bridging, taking them from context A to context B through basically three things. One is you add context, add new knowledge. Two is you subtract context, and three is you modify context so they have an idea that's partially clear and you, you clarify it. So it's all about getting them from context A to context B through this kind of process. And so this part of what the overall thing is called Human Flourishing Project, but this part I call, at least right now, extreme clarity. And so then to break down one more thing, and we'll get into the tool in terms of getting this kind of extreme clarity. The first thing you need to do is identify the contexts really, really clearly. And that's today's tool. That's all it's designed to do. But I think you'll see if you can identify those contexts, you'll have a whole amazing kind of perspective. The next step, which is another tool in the future, is getting really. So first, extreme clarity on your purpose, context A to context B. Second is extreme clarity on your ideas, on your ideas, and on their ideas getting really to the point where you can make the absolute best case for their ideas and refute it. Think about how much credibility that gives you if you can explain the opposition's views better than they can. So they wish they could explain it that well and then you can deal with it. And this is the reason I got good at this, is because I've always had controversial views. And it's really hard to explain to somebody if you're not a Republican, not a Democrat, or why they should love fossil fuels it's not an easy kind of thing. You need to be able to really. And I can explain my opponents ideas way better than they can, but that's because I had to overcome this kind of difficulty. And I think most of the time we're communicating, we don't realize how difficult it is because there are a number of people who sort of are pre existing supporters who are inclined to go along. But imagine if you could really persuade everyone who's potentially persuadable if you were that good. So clarity of purpose, clarity of ideas again, both their context and your context. And then the third one is clarity of structure. So what is the sequence of addition, subtraction modification that you need to undergo, that you need to put someone through? Basically the outline to persuade them to get them from one context to another. So might sound like a lot of work, but if you can do it, people when they talk to you will experience, or when they read you will experience extreme clarity. They'll think, wow, this totally makes sense. This person, he or she totally gets everything that I've been exposed to. I get why this person is right. And in terms of the culture, the more people who are right, who can do this, the better ideas will be disseminated. Because if the people who are right can formulate their knowledge in such a way that it's differentiated, then more people will be persuaded. Whereas right now I think people who are right and people who are wrong are generally equally good or bad at communicating. And so it's just, does that make sense as context? That's the mission. And here's the concrete thing. I want the whole world to be doing this for you. Concretely. I think everyone in here has some sort of content that they need to or could create some sort of persuasive content that would benefit you financially if you created it. And I do want to focus today on content that benefits you financially, though I'm happy to focus on other things just because I'm really interested in testing it in that respect. So what I want you to do is take out the tool and you'll see the first thing is I want to create a, and this is like paint by numbers, a number of page word minutes. It'd be like I want to create a 200 page book that is tentatively titled the Moral Case for Fossil Fuels. That would have been mine. And think about what would be really valuable if you could make it way, way more persuasive. So just do that on the empty one and make sure to have an empty one. And then this one right here that has the. Has the black filled in, because that's going to explain. That'll give the instructions. So I'm going to walk you through three examples. They're kind of interesting examples. The first one I want to do is Johnson's Baby Shampoo. And then the other ones are going to be the case for voting for Donald Trump and the case for voting for Hillary Clinton. Because I want to show you how opposing views work and how good you need to be at presenting opposing views if you can somehow just have all of them accessible. And I realize this is challenging. I want to just. I'll just walk you through step by step, and I'll use these examples so you can get as much time as possible, think about each one. So is everyone done with the top one? I want to create something of this length. Okay, so if you've done that, okay, so then the first thing is audience. And the instructions here are very, very specific. So name the specific audience you are trying to persuade. Your formulation must cover all of your audience members and only your audience members. So this is a tricky thing. All of your audience members and only your audience members. So, for example, Johnson's Baby Shampoo. I want to persuade parents of babies and toddlers 0 to 4 years of age. If you just put parents, it would be too broad, and if you put just parents of infants, it would be too narrow, assuming you want that other demographic. It's a really tricky thing. We have to do this all the time in thinking is how can we make it. It's not too broad, not too narrow. Okay, so this is this. And I think you'll see how these all fit together. So we want to get the exact audience. That's part of our purpose because we have to identify their context. Then this next one is trickier. Who are evaluating. So before you write this anything here, let me explain this. Who are evaluating area. So it's the specific area of life they are evaluating and you are trying to influence them on. Do not include an evaluation or opinion. That comes later. So here it would be shampoo types, but it wouldn't be why Johnson's is great or something like that. But let's go to Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. So with Donald Trump, it's undecided likely voters in the presidential election. And the thing they're evaluating is presidential candidates. So it's just exactly. If you were to just look with a lens, what exact area of something are they trying to evaluate? Are they trying to make a decision about that? You want to Help them with anyone to share their. Oh, and just for equal time. So Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, you'll see they're both the same on this. It's the same. They're trying to persuade the same audience, the same area. They're going to have different views. Anyone want to share their area? Yes. Entrepreneurs who are evaluating company culture. Right? Company culture. I like it. Okay, so then now we get into the more complex stuff. So values. So the values which they want. So there's an audience, there's an area they're evaluating, and they want to pursue that area in a manner that. And notice the options. Maintains gains, improves. So try to circle one of those three and then have a value. So with Donald Trump, it might be improves the economy, improves national security, improves health care. And I had the same for these undecided voters for Hillary Clinton and Johnson's baby shampoo. Maintains their infant's health, improves their infant's comfort, and improves the experience of bath time. So the value is some object, something that people want to gain or keep. Anyone want to share one or more of their values? John? Okay, I'm evaluating copywriters, writers who are writing their emails themselves. And the values are improve email sales, gain subscribers, and maintain customer retention. So if you ask them, those things would resonate with them? Yes. Okay, great. Anyone else want to share value? So audiences, married fathers with successful jobs who are regularly drinking, they're evaluating their alcohol consumption. And the values improves their health, improves their success, productivity, and improves their relationships. Good. And by the way, you see how that's an improvement over the one we talked about before? Yeah. So the specificity of the subject and the audience they want to pursue in a manner that. So it's not just their values in general. It's not just, oh, you know, they like sex and they like food and whatever else they like. It's in this domain, in this area, what are the things that they value? So I think that that captures it. All right, everyone good. So we got these. Okay, great. So then the next one is disvalues. So what are the things that they want to. That they want to fight and also that you want to help them fight. I should have said this before. With the values, it has to be something that you want to help them with. So it could be that you have an audience in certain things that they want, you don't want to help them with. Or for instance, even with the audience you're mentioning, maybe sometimes they want help concealing, if they screw up, concealing it from their family but you don't want to help them with that. So it's important that this is aligned with what you want, not just, oh, you're serving them blindly. Okay, so disvalues is what do they want to fight that you also want to help them fight? Can anyone, if it's helpful to you at all just to do this profiling part, in what way is it helpful? I'm curious, because we're going to go to the ideas part and if it's not, that's fine. The ideas part should be helpful. Well, I think it helps with your messaging. I mean, if you're going to like I've got here, I'm putting a five minute video together. So I'm like, okay, this helps me just really think through my messaging so I can, you know, do the objection and the, you know, take away the objection, all those things right inside versus trying to shoot from the hip, you know, great. Nick. I think this would also help, let's say if it's a client intake form, to find out more about them and what their challenges are. Yeah, you can modify it and get. It's almost that way. Position. Yeah. Especially with the values and what they want to decrease and. Or avoid. Perfect. All right, let's go to the next part. With Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, we have avoids war or terrorist attack, decreases the influence of Russia in the Middle east and decreases illegal immigration. I think it's important that at least this is the demographic they're really fighting for in the election. It's important that so far in this exercise, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are exactly the same. Right. They're exactly the same in the audience they're trying to persuade the audience has, in this case, has the same values, has the same disvalues. So it's really instructive to think of it that way. I think in the last several months, I've just been obsessed with the issue of how do I present. How do I present my opponent's arguments as well as possible? How do I understand them as clearly as possible? And when I here's what's really changed for me with a podcast I'm working on. When I have a guest, how do I. How do I have them answer the opponent's objections? Because I don't want to. Just most podcasts are just these affirmation sessions where it's just, oh, you ask a question and you answer it and I act like, oh, you know what you're talking about because you're here. But there are five other people with different views who aren't there. So what I want to know from my guest is why should I believe you? And what are his views or her views, and why are they wrong? And if you can summarize their views for me better than they can, and you can convince me of them and then explain to me how they deviate from reality, then I'm impressed. The same thing is true here. So what I want to do with the misconceptions is name the three most compelling misconceptions they've heard about advancing their values. So these all fit together. So not just misconceptions in general, it's misconceptions about advancing their values in this area of life. And it has, this terminology is very deliberate. Wrong action object, wrong reason. So the idea is that any idea about action at a misconception, you can say, I'm taking this action about this object that will advance my values because of this reason. So with Hillary Clinton, it's a rather Donald Trump's view of the misconception is voting for Hillary Clinton will advance their values because Hillary Clinton has real experience growing an economy with her husband Bill. Voting for Hillary Clinton will advance their values because Hillary Clinton, as former Secretary of State, has real experience dealing responsibly with foreign policy. Vote for Hillary Clinton because Hillary Clinton knows how to improve our health care system, not blow it up and start from scratch. So notice that's, that's thinking. Notice those are pretty plausible arguments that this hypothetical Donald Trump architect is thinking of. And then if you look at Hillary Clinton's one, vote for Donald Trump, he'll advance our values because he'll fix the economy using his experience succeeding in business and witnessing government corruption firsthand. Vote for Donald Trump. You know, he'll protect us by embracing America's superpower status, the heart of our security not conceded to Russia in the Middle East. And then he'll fix health care with a fundamentally superior health care plan to replace the disaster of Obamacare. So these things should resonate as, oh, you've heard these. And they're some of the stronger arguments they make. And imagine you're making this argument, you're arguing your position and you understand those positions. You're much more powerful, or you'll discover you're wrong and then vote for the other person, maybe. So it has to be the best version of an idea. And then the Johnson's baby shampoo is, you know, the misconceptions are using any shampoo will advance their values because all shampoos are the same, accepting their infant's Crying, so they're not usually going to be the same like that vote for accepting their infant crying will advance their values or protect them because all shampoos cause pain on contact and therefore cause infants to cry and then wash their baby's hair with water because it'll reduce screaming and probably not cause a problem, even though you won't get totally clean. Ok, we have to wrap up soon, so let me just make sure we go to the next. All right, let's go to the clarity thing, which is the major one before next action. What you've done so far is you know your audience, you know the area, you know the values and disvalues, you know what they're going after, you know what ideas they've been exposed to about how to advance their values and avoid their disvalues. So now and only now, you're ready to think about, okay, what's your idea? And there are two aspects here. One is what is your fundamental idea? So if you had to put it into one idea, what's the fundamental action that will advance their values? And then what's your fundamental reason? So what's the fundamental action? Always includes an object. And then what's the fundamental reason? And then there are going to be three crucial aspects of this. And when it says object, it's the same object. So here you're going to have repetition and they're going to be three different explanations. So with Johnson's Baby Shampoo, the fundamental action is use specially formulated baby shampoo. Now why did I not say use Johnson's Baby shampoo? Yeah, it sounds self serving and it's not explanatory. Right. We want to be as causal as we can to explain the cause and effect. So every product is really just an embodied idea. You're saying, here's some cause and effect that I've discovered in the world that's embodied in my product. So it's much better to say, oh, here's this approach than just oh, my name on it. So use specially formulated baby shampoo will advance their values because it cleans hair while eliminating the causes of tears. So that's the fundamental. And then the aspects are the three ways in which it does this. Especially formula baby shampoo uses low irritation cleansers called surfactants, dilutes the cleaners to make them imperceptive, but still effective, has a Ph of 7, the same as water. So it's a fundamental because, and then three aspects of the because. But really make sure to use the when it says object, use the Same object that's really important. Or so with vote for Hillary Clinton, she has the real experience and seasoned judgment we need to move forward as a country and then real experience growing an economy, real experience with foreign policy, and knows how to improve our health care system. So Hillary Clinton is the object and the action. Vote for Hillary Clinton, Specially formulated baby shampoo is the object. And use specially formulated baby shampoo. And then Trump, you'll see, is just the opposite. So the next action, this is simple. What's just the next action they need to take as a result of what's the thing you want them to do right after consuming your content? And with any of these are things you can refine over time. I mean, these are supposed to be good. These are supposed to really crystallize your idea. So over time, they should get better. And the way to tell if they're getting better is with the bad ones are, is this an even more persuasive version of the bad one? And with the good ones are, is this even more clarifying and differentiating? If you read it and you think, oh, wow, every word there is awesome, then you know that you'll be there. Obviously, we haven't had time to do all that. So that our context here is we're trying to, for the whole purpose of giving people reliable access and all that they need to flourish, we're trying to give them extreme clarity, which means we have to understand the context, their context in our context. So this has been step one. Then if you do steps two and three, it'll be getting really clear on the ideas involved and then getting really clear on structure. But I wanted to test this. I'm really grateful to Joe and the team for letting me do it. Thank you.