I’m a visual thinker so I’m constantly writing down ideas and drawing diagrams.  I make a lot of diagrams.  At some point in this process “it” becomes clear to me.  I’ve often thought about the way I go about this process as some form of pattern recognition.

Recently, I’ve started thinking about my view of the world as a series of lenses.  I’ve formed theories and biases that become themes that I map the world into.  Those are my lenses.  We all have them.  

My lenses drive the way I think about developing software products and business models.  They allow me to quickly evaluate scenarios and provide guidance for making the thousands of decisions I make when starting a new business.  I think the lenses are part of the pattern recognition.  It’s a mapping process.

You can cultivate your lenses.   It’s what you read, who you talk to, the places you visit.  Invest in your lenses.