Why care about how to think? Things I wish I knew when in University

𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗜 𝘄𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗜 𝗸𝗻𝗲𝘄 about 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝗨𝗻𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝘁𝘆 to be a 𝗕𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿 & 𝗛𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗯𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴.

I believe 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝗻𝗼𝘄 are playing a key role to 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽 𝗺𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗻𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗲 & its 𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 because it is giving me a 𝗰𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗿 𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗱𝗺𝗮𝗽 on how to make 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗲𝗱 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀.

I had a wonderful opportunity to give a Lightning Talk Given at Berlin Ruby User group https://www.rug-b.de/ on Dec 4, 2025 at the Ablefy office in Berlin on the above. Although the original talk was titled - 'Why care about how to think?', I feel the above better represents what I wanted to share about.

𝗣.𝗦: I've updated the slides to what was originally used in the recent meetup(majority of it is same) to add some key learnings from other people's wisdom and my own personal learnings in my career thus far as relevant

Transcript

1. Why care about how to think? 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗜 𝘄𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗜 𝗸𝗻𝗲𝘄 about 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 I was 𝗶𝗻 𝗨𝗻𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝘁𝘆 to be a 𝗕𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗦𝗼𝗳𝘁𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿 & 𝗕𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗛𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗯𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴
2. • Tech Interviews & Even on the job - Hiring managers and even peers care about How we Think & How we approach problem solving
3. It’s called ‘Think’ & then grow rich for a reason
4. Better Thoughts → Better Life Quality of Thoughts → Quality of Decisions → Quality of Life
5. How to think?
6. Mental Models Simplified explanation of how something works in the real world
7. Personal Example of applying Mental Models - Control the Controllables
8. Mental Model to write better quality OOP Ruby Code Sandi Metz - “Make Smaller Things”
9. Use Shared Mental Models as Team - Intercom example https://www.intercom.com/blog/10-engineering-lessons-from-6-yea rs-at-intercom/ accelerates how fast you collaborate and removes misalignment.
10. General Effective Thinking Think in terms of Abstractions
11. Systems Thinking Whatever you do, think about how it effects other related things
12. Systems Thinking - Personal example Building Fintech software - Apply Pessimistic Locking(DB related) for Atomic & more Reliable Transactions and also adding Observability to track & trace if things work well in the system as a whole
13. Principles
14. First Principles - Personal Example What could I do in this situation that would make my manager’s life easy? More context: https://awellroundedengineer.substack.com/p/how-to-thinkand-make-decisions-and
15. First Principles in Ruby Single Responsibility Principle - One Job Per Thing
16. Stripe Operating Principles https://stripe.com/en-de/jobs/culture
17. Intercom Product Principles https://www.intercom.com/blog/intercom-product-principles/
18. Life Principles 1. Sangram Singh Ji: If you stop learning you stop winning. 2. By Saint Kabir Ji: “ नंदक नयरे रा खए, ऑ ंगन क ु टी छवाय, बन पानी, साबुन बना, नमर्मल करे सुभाय।” Translation Meaning: make a hut for your critic in your courtyard to keep them as close as possible, by doing this you will be made purer in your nature without soap and water Key meaning: A critic helps reveal things you may not see in yourself. I've personally come to realise they help you intentionally/unintentionally, directly/indirectly to become a better version of yourself and it helped me realise how much more potential I have in the process. A related saying: You will learn the most in life from 3 people: One's parents and a critic.
19. Mental Models - How to Plan better when building Software? • Kent Beck here
20. Mental Models - How to Plan better in general? • Narendra Modi Ji: Break down goals into smaller goals & if you do the verification of smaller goals then to achieve the bigger goal you will not face some big problems from here. ◦ You will be able to easily pass each smaller goal ◦ In addition to just having goal, it also requires us to ▪ How much is one’s concentration in the road towards achieving a goal? ▪ How much energy do you put in? ▪ For each task within a goal one should also be aware/mindful about • How much time to put? • How to work towards fulfilling that tas • A personal one: Keep Buffer for unexpected things & factor that into one’s overall planning
21. Mental Models - How to prioritise better? • Stephen Covey - The enemy of the “best” is often the “good.” • Eisenhower Matrix - Do urgent and most important first • A personal one: Do highest leverage activities first(thanks to one of my mentors who helped me realise this) ◦ What is Leverage? ▪ Leverage = impact produced / time invested ▪ Credits: https://addyosmani.com/blog/high-leverage-activites/ ◦ Highest leverage activities are ▪ Those that have a lasting impact on many people or ▪ Those that produces a significant positive outcome/result/impact
22. Book Recommendations to think Better and Learn different Mental Models •
23. Book Recommendations to keep unconscious biases in check and develop better mental models •
24. 1 Question as food for thought
25. [Developer/Leader/Any Person] What are you doing to keep your blindspots in regular check to be better in your work role & as a human being in life?
26. Credits • Ash Furrow for the book on 5 elements of effective thinking from Shopify article here • Kent Beck for the mental model on planning from here • Stephen Covey on mental model for prioritising from here • PM of India Narendra Modi ji for his approach towards working to a final goal from here • Sangram Singh Ji - If you stop learning, you stop winning from here • Addy Osmani on What is Leverage definition/formula here • Control the Controllables originally from MS Dhoni here • Think in terms of abstractions inspired by Ivan Zhao & Lenny here • Anyone else I missed unconsciously, I’m really sorry, was completely unintentional
27. Thank you for holding the space to listen 🙂 Any feedback is much appreciated :) Mohnish, a fellow human from Mother Earth Github boddhisattva Work As Senior Ruby developer | Agile Coach/Scrum Master | Project Manager/Lead Blog https://awellroundedengineer.substack.com/ Email mail4mohnishj@gmail.com Personal User Manual http://bit.ly/personal_user_manual_mohnishgj LinkedIn https://de.linkedin.com/in/mohnish-jadwani-9a924619