In short, they realized that between observation and deduction lies the crucial, irreplaceable step of imagination.

The attic can be broken down, roughly speaking, into two components: structure and contents.

Kodak or Atari or RIM, creator of the Black-Berry.) And this tendency isn’t limited to the business world. The pattern of spectacular innovation followed by just as spectacular stagnation describes a more general trend that occurs in academia, the military, and almost any industry or profession you can name. And it’s all rooted in how our brain’s r

He must be mindful of even those conclusions that he reached mindlessly,

Before you even begin to ask the questions that will define the investigation of a crime, a scientific experiment, or a decision as apparently simple as whether or not to invite a certain friend to dinner, you must first explore the essential groundwork. It’s not for nothing that Holmes calls the foundations of his inquiry “elementary.”

At the end, the subjects remembered the interrupted tasks far better than the completed ones—over two times better, in fact.

The modern emphasis on multitasking plays into our natural tendencies quite well, often in frustrating ways. Every new input, every new demand that we place on our attention is like a possible predator: Oooh, says the brain. Maybe I should pay attention to that instead.

we can at least recognize the general concept: think first, act later, and try our utmost to approach every decision with a fresh mind.

that, in one sentence, is the first step toward successful deduction: the separation of those factors that are crucial to your judgment from those that are just incidental, to make sure that only the truly central elements affect your decision.