The Investigator Mindset: Lessons from a Police Detective
In my years as a police detective, I've compiled a list of the top traits shared by the best investigators: CURIOSITY. You must have a genuine interest in discovering the truth and learning about what *really* happened. If you prematurely commit to an opinion or conclusion, you'll never truly be open to exploring the other plausible possibilities. Step 001 is acknowledging that you don't know. THEORY DEVELOPMENT. It's natural to hold hypotheses and theories about what might have occurred. But you can't be married to them. It's healthy to hold multiple, diverse, and conflicting theories at the same time. Have you ever heard of MECE - Mutually Exclusive & Collectively Exhaustive? Let that concept guide your development of theories. DISPROVE YOUR THEORIES. It's easy to find supporting evidence. It's more valuable to find evidence that disproves your theories. This is the exact and explicit opposite of "confirmation bias." This practice ensures