Coaching practices for I'm Operating on Some Picture of How This Situation Works but It's All Running in the Background Where I Can't Actually Inspect it I've Never Put My Understanding Into Plain Words So I Can't Even Tell What I'm Assuming Let Alone Whether it Holds
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For I'm Operating on Some Picture of How This Situation Works but It's All Running in the Background Where I Can't Actually Inspect it I've Never Put My Understanding Into Plain Words So I Can't Even Tell What I'm Assuming Let Alone Whether it Holds, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- I’m operating on some picture of how this situation works, but it’s all running in the background where I can’t actually inspect it
- I was sure I understood how this works, but the second I actually try to walk through it out loud
- 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 guessing how this goal of mine will play out purely from my own picture of it, and it feels sure to work
- My conclusion only makes sense because of a bunch of things I’m silently taking for granted about people and how the world works
Practices that may help
- Name your model explicitly
Make the map visible by articulating your current model of the situation in plain language.
The Map Is Not the Territory - Explain the mechanism, not the function
When you think you understand something, try to explain how it works step-by-step — not just what it does.
Illusion of Explanatory Depth: You Know Less Than You Think - Separate facts from assumptions explicitly
Sort what you actually know from what you’re assuming, in two visible columns.
First-Principles Thinking, Made Usable - Use reference classes to ground personal estimates in base rates
Before estimating how your situation will unfold, find similar past situations and check what happened.
Bayesian Thinking: How to Update Beliefs Rationally - 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 - Adjacent-domain transfer testing
Test understanding by applying the mechanism to a new domain — genuine understanding transfers; IOED does not.
Illusion of Explanatory Depth: You Know Less Than You Think - Simulate the scene mentally as you read or listen
Construct a sensorimotor simulation of described events rather than just parsing words.
Embodied Cognition: How Your Body Shapes Your Thinking - System mapping before explanation
Draw the causal chain before writing or speaking — gaps in the diagram are gaps in understanding.
Illusion of Explanatory Depth: You Know Less Than You Think - Use multiple analogies for the same problem
Draw on at least two different analogies for a new problem and see where they agree and diverge.
Analogical Reasoning - Draw or sketch the inner system visually
Put parts and their relationships on paper — who is close to whom, who holds whom at arm’s length.
IFS Parts Mapping, Made Practical
Related concerns
- Chessboard Metaphor Act
You are the board on which thoughts and feelings play — not any of the pieces.
Use the chessboard metaphor to anchor the perspective
- Metaphor For Understanding
Map an unfamiliar idea onto a bodily experience to make it genuinely graspable.
Anchor abstract concepts to a physical metaphor
- Assumption Mapping
Argument mapping is the practice of drawing the logical structure of an argument as a diagram — claims, supporting reasons, objections, and rebuttals made spatially explicit. Developed into a pedagogical system by Tim van Gelder, it is one of the few critical-thinking interventions with controlled-study support: students who learned argument mapping showed significantly larger gains in reasoning ability than those in conventional classes.
- Explain Mechanism Not Function
When you think you understand something, try to explain how it works step-by-step — not just what it does.
Explain the mechanism, not the function
- Expose Hidden 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
- How To Diagram What You Know
Draw the causal chain before writing or speaking — gaps in the diagram are gaps in understanding.
System mapping before explanation
Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.