The point of thinking well isn’t to think endlessly. It’s to prepare a fertile ground in which good things can be planted. But once planted, those crops must be tended – which requires a very different kind of mental discipline.
Thinking well is about finding concepts with value. Once you’ve found one, the goal shifts – you must now implement that concept. You must turn it into action in your life, or else the thinking part didn’t yield any benefit. You have to close the trap around it.
Converting concept into action can mean a lot of things, but if you aren’t taking some action then you’re just thinking for the sake of thinking. That isn’t the point. Building a better mousetrap has no point if it never catches mice.
The Opportunity Machine 