Thinking process/technique

Once I was in a queue at the Monash University branch of the now defunct State Bank of Victoria. While waiting to be served, I overhead a teller informing a man at a counter very near where I was that the transaction will attract a fee. I can still see this man fidgeting for a few seconds and he asked "How can I avoid it?" I can't remember what the teller said but essentially this man was told there is no way around it.

What struck me at that point was the thinking process of this man which i am not familiar with. Interestingly, that is also the event that sparked my interests in thinking techniques! Allow me to elaborate.

Have you ever experience learning something where the instructor shows you a neat trick where it feels as though you have just been shown some valuable secret revealed only to a privileged few? This could be a sporting technique, a magic trick, a chess move etc. Well, it is no different for thinking process/technique. You can learn how others think (their thinking process) from what they say or do. Try this. The following is normally told as a joke but I found it to be very similar to the event above.

There is this policeman who would have lunch at this restaurant everyday and he would always order a whole roast chicken. Over time, the owner of the restaurant noticed this and would reserved one just for this policeman. One day, a man order for the same whole roast chicken and there was only one roast chicken left that was essentially reserved for the policeman. But since it was very late the restaurant owner thought that it would be very unlikely that the policeman will be coming for lunch that day and he might as well serve this man the last roast chicken.

Just as this man was being served the chicken, the policeman showed up and said, "That is my chicken! Whatever you do to that chicken, I will do the same to you. Cut it and I will cut you. Poke it with the fork and I will do the same to you!"

Let's pause for a while here and think what you would do if you where this man? You have just being served what you ordered and this policeman has just threaten to do to you what you do to the chicken he claimed is his!

You could let him have it and asked to be compensated by the restaurant or you can do what this man does.

This man casually poke his finger into the backside of the chicken, turned it back and forth a few times, pull it out and put it into his mouth to suck the juices off it!

Hope this forms new thinking grooves in your thinking!