Coaching practices for Question Assumptions
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Question Assumptions, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- My conclusion only makes sense because of a bunch of things I’m silently taking for granted about people and how the world works
- In my head the things I’m sure of and the things I’m just guessing at all run together as one blur, so I end up treating my assumptions like hard limits
- I’m grinding hard on "how do I fix this" and a quiet doubt keeps surfacing that I might be solving the wrong problem entirely
- My conclusion feels airtight and yet something nags at me, and I think it’s that the whole thing only holds if a couple of unspoken things are true
- My plan feels solid until I notice it quietly depends on a whole stack of things just going my way
Practices that may help
- Surface and examine the assumptions you are making
Name the assumptions filling the gap between the data you selected and the interpretation you reached.
The Ladder of Inference - Separate facts from assumptions explicitly
Sort what you actually know from what you’re assuming, in two visible columns.
First-Principles Thinking, Made Usable - Question the question itself
Before answering a question, ask whether it is the right question and whether it is framed to produce useful answers.
Socratic Questioning - Surface and test underlying assumptions
Identify the implicit assumptions that your reasoning depends on and test whether they hold.
Socratic Questioning - Name the assumptions that must hold for the plan to work
Every plan rests on assumptions — list them and ask how likely each one is.
Margin of Safety - Test the big assumption behind your immunity
Design a small experiment to check whether the assumption keeping you stuck is actually true.
Kegan’s Subject-Object Theory, Made Practical - Map and stress-test your key assumptions
Before executing, list the assumptions the plan depends on — then ask which ones would kill it if wrong.
Red Teaming: Stress-Testing Plans Before They Fail - Substitute
Ask: what component, material, person, process, or rule could be swapped for something different?
SCAMPER: A Systematic Creativity Technique - Use Socratic questioning to test each belief
Interrogate every claim with “how do I know this is true?” until only bedrock remains.
First-Principles Thinking, Made Usable - Surface the hidden premises
Find the unstated assumptions that the argument needs to work.
Argument Mapping
Related concerns
- Examine Assumptions
Name the assumptions filling the gap between the data you selected and the interpretation you reached.
Surface and examine the assumptions you are making
- Argument Assumption Surfacing
Find the unstated assumptions that the argument needs to work.
Surface the hidden premises
- Assumption Audit
Name the assumptions filling the gap between the data you selected and the interpretation you reached.
- Check Your Assumptions
Name the assumptions filling the gap between the data you selected and the interpretation you reached.
- Critical Assumptions
Name the assumptions filling the gap between the data you selected and the interpretation you reached.
- Examine Assumptions Together
Name the assumptions filling the gap between the data you selected and the interpretation you reached.
Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.