Coaching practices for When I List Out Everything I Know About This Problem Half of it is Really Just How Everyone Says it Has to Be and I Can't Tell Anymore Which Pieces Are Actually True and Which I've Just Been Taking on Faith My Whole Life
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For When I List Out Everything I Know About This Problem Half of it is Really Just How Everyone Says it Has to Be and I Can't Tell Anymore Which Pieces Are Actually True and Which I've Just Been Taking on Faith My Whole Life, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- When I list out everything I “know” about this problem, half of it is really just how everyone says it has to be
- There’s this thing I’m treating as obviously true and building everything on top of
- I state every opinion like it’s flat-out fact, and then the other person hears a hard line and braces to defend theirs
- I’ve got two stories about why this happened and I keep flip-flopping
- I’ve got this clean, satisfying explanation for why it all went the way it did, and it feels airtight
Practices that may help
- Deconstruct the problem to its fundamentals
Break the problem into the few things you actually know to be true, with no inherited conclusions.
First-Principles Thinking, Made Usable - 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 - State your confidence level alongside your position
"I’m about 70% confident on this" signals a reasoned estimate, not a fact claim.
Productive Disagreement, Made Practical - Count the assumptions each explanation requires
When two explanations fit the facts, count how many unverified assumptions each one rests on.
Occam’s Razor: Prefer the Simpler Explanation - Identify what the narrative leaves out
After hearing or constructing a causal story, deliberately list the facts it doesn’t explain.
The Narrative Fallacy: Why We Can’t Stop Making Stories - Separate facts from assumptions explicitly
Sort what you actually know from what you’re assuming, in two visible columns.
First-Principles Thinking, Made Usable - Examine the evidence for and against
Systematically list what supports your interpretation and what doesn’t — like a fair-minded lawyer, not a prosecutor.
Check the Facts, Made Practical - Distrust easy fluency
Treat "this feels obviously right" as a flag to check, not a signal to proceed.
Thinking, Fast and Slow, Made Usable - Update beliefs by degrees, not wholesale
Treat new information as evidence that shifts probabilities, not as proof that changes everything.
Base-Rate Neglect: Why We Ignore the Odds - Make your beliefs precise enough to be wrong
Vague claims cannot be falsified — sharpen your belief until it can be.
Falsification Thinking
Related concerns
- When Socratic Questioning Surface Underlying Assumptions
Identify the implicit assumptions that your reasoning depends on and test whether they hold.
Surface and test underlying assumptions
- Assumption Counting
Name the assumptions filling the gap between the data you selected and the interpretation you reached.
Surface and examine the assumptions you are making
- First Principles Breakdown
Break the problem into the few things you actually know to be true, with no inherited conclusions.
Deconstruct the problem to its fundamentals
- How To Evaluate Claims
Ask "what evidence supports that?" before accepting any factual or evaluative claim.
Probe for evidence behind claims
- Plausibility Checking
Identify the implicit assumptions that your reasoning depends on and test whether they hold.
- Separate Fact From Belief
Separate what is known from what is inferred — the white hat is for data only, with no interpretation.
White hat: establish the facts before opinion
Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.