You want big things to happen. So do I.
Don’t think of ambition as something negative or something to hide. It’s not. I’m ambitious, and for me, ambition means growing into the best version of myself every single day—not through obsession, but with consistency.
This is what gives my life meaning: coherence, purpose. It’s the reason behind every action I plan, execute, and complete.
“Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in.” — Bill Bradley
But here’s the thing: big things don’t happen overnight. You can’t just sit and dream about them. Big things start small. They begin with an aha moment, a meaningful conversation, a chapter of a book, or even an image you stumble upon online.
Those little sparks, when compounded over time, grow into something much bigger—a significant accomplishment, a big goal checked off your list of dreams.
If you’re reading this, I’m guessing you’re fighting to create a system that makes big things happen. Maybe you’re tired of losing brilliant ideas or feel like opportunities keep slipping away because you can’t connect A with B—those random, fleeting thoughts that emerge at different times and fail to align.
You want to accomplish big goals consistently, not just occasionally. You want to be an achiever, day in and day out.
You’re ambitious, and that’s a good thing.
And let me tell you—you’re in the right place by reading this article.
Stop Forcing Creativity: A Better Way to Generate Big Ideas
I’m 48 years old, the father of a 19-year-old son, and the founder or co-founder of four businesses. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s this: nothing significant in my life has ever started by sitting at my desk, staring at a blank page, and trying to think from scratch.
Quite the opposite—everything began a step earlier, with my ability to capture and make sense of random thoughts that popped into my mind on the go. These ideas often struck me at the most unexpected moments, anywhere, anytime.
That’s why, in one of my businesses—a global marketing agency—I’ve never believed in traditional brainstorming sessions. You know, the kind where a group of people sits around a table and tries to force out ideas.
To me, that’s not how great ideas emerge. In fact, brainstorming sessions often do more harm than good. They create noise, stifle individual thought, and block the natural flow of inspiration from our brilliant minds.
Instead, I take the opposite approach: I challenge people to think independently. I present the challenge and give them days—or even a week—to process it on their own. The key is not to sit and over-focus but to let their subconscious minds work on it in the background.
That’s when real brilliance happens.
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It’s when you wake up in the middle of the night with a breakthrough idea.
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It’s when you stop mid-shower because inspiration suddenly strikes.
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It’s when you pause on a walk with your dog because an aha moment surfaces.
When the team comes back together after this period of independent thinking, that’s when the magic happens. The real value emerges. Everyone brings their ideas to the table, and together we nurture and refine them—polishing those rough diamonds into something extraordinary. That’s when good ideas become great.
“Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.” — Vincent Van Gogh
But here’s the question: how should you or your team members approach this individual thinking process? How do you ensure no ideas are lost and every thought has the potential to grow into something meaningful?
This is where the process of Shallow Thinking comes in—a concept we’ve developed as part of the ICOR® methodology at the Paperless Movement®. It’s designed to help busy professionals stay productive and ensure no thought, however small, falls through the cracks.
Now, I get it. Many people hear the term “shallow” and think of words like “superficial,” “insignificant,” or “worthless.” But that’s missing the point entirely.
For busy professionals, Shallow Thinking is about capturing and quickly processing those fleeting thoughts so they can be organized, built upon, and compounded over time. It’s not about dismissing ideas—it’s about preserving them and creating a system where they can thrive.
That’s how big achievements happen. Not through grand epiphanies but by compounding small, seemingly insignificant thoughts into meaningful insights, big ideas, and, ultimately, massive accomplishments.
In this article, I’m going to share the Shallow Thinking process that’s helped me create my best products, imagine my most successful businesses, and make some of the most important decisions in my life.
Mastering your Shallow Thinking system is what will take you to the next level. It’s how you ensure no idea slips through the cracks.
This is the real—and only—way to grow.
Why Your Best Ideas Keep Slipping Away (And How to Catch Them)
If you want to design, build, and implement a brilliant and effective Shallow Thinking system that truly delivers results, you need to focus on its two main components:
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Quick Capture
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Quick Processing
Let’s break them down one by one.
1. Quick Capture
Quick Capture is crucial—it’s the only way to ensure you don’t lose a thought. Your brain’s neural connections happen in milliseconds, and if you don’t capture the idea at that exact moment, it’s gone. That fleeting thought? Lost forever.
To prevent this, your capture process must be seamless and instantaneous. It should allow you to jot down or record your idea the moment it strikes, no matter where you are or what you’re doing.
“Our life is what our thoughts make it.” — Marcus Aurelius
2. Quick Processing
Quick Processing is just as essential. A thought on its own is often meaningless unless you contextualize it and add depth. This means describing why the concept is important, unpacking the reasoning behind it, and connecting it to other ideas or previous thoughts you’ve had.
Quick Processing requires you to:
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Fit the thought into a broader structure or framework.
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Write down connections to related ideas or “crazy” concepts from the past.
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Explain why it matters and how it fits into your goals.
If this step isn’t fast and intentional, the concept risks fading away. Thoughts tend to lose their value without reasoning or context—they become fragments instead of actionable insights.
Ultimately, it’s this reasoning and structured connection that makes your ideas shine and transforms them into something useful. By mastering both Quick Capture and Quick Processing, you create a Shallow Thinking system that ensures no idea is wasted and every thought has the potential to drive meaningful outcomes.
The Time-Travel Nature of Ideas: When Nonsense Becomes Brilliant
Here’s the thing: thoughts, on their own, are nothing. It’s the context, as I mentioned earlier, that gives them value.
The challenge is that most of the time, when a thought first appears, we don’t know if it’s worth anything or not. In fact, most of our thoughts fade into nothing as time passes. If that’s not the case for you—if every thought you have is brilliant—congratulations! You’re a genius.
But that’s not me.
For me, most thoughts don’t amount to much. Still, that doesn’t mean all of them are irrelevant.
Here’s what we need to consider:
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A thought might be pointless today and remain pointless forever, or…
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A thought might seem pointless today but turn out to be brilliant and useful tomorrow—or even years from now.
Why? Because thoughts are dynamic. They’re shaped by the moment, your circumstances, your mood, your surroundings, and even the way you approach them.
What seems like nonsense from one perspective can look extraordinary from another. Perspective matters. Time matters. Circumstances matter.
This is what makes Shallow Thinking both powerful and complicated:
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You never know if a thought will be useful or not.
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You don’t know how it might be useful.
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You don’t know when it could become useful.
That’s why we need to design a Shallow Thinking system capable of handling all these unknowns.
The goal is to avoid FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) and ensure we do everything we can to capture and preserve those thoughts. Not only does this give us peace of mind, but it also creates opportunities for growth when a simple idea transforms into something meaningful later on.
Transform Your Random Thoughts Into Growing Assets
So, how do we turn random thoughts into assets that can compound over time?
If you know me, you know I believe concepts matter—and so do the words we use to describe them. Words are the tools we use to shape and express our ideas. That’s why I’ve come to realize the word “thought” doesn’t fully capture the abstract essence of those fleeting ideas that pop into my mind.
Instead, I prefer to call them seeds.
Why “seeds”? Because a seed is something tangible, something my brain can visualize. It carries meaning on multiple levels:
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A seed can grow if you nurture it—or die if you neglect it.
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A seed demands occasional attention, or it might resurface unexpectedly thanks to serendipity. When that happens, recognizing it as a “seed” triggers an internal alarm: “Hey, this resonated with me before—maybe it’s time to revisit it.”
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A seed has different states—some dormant, some sprouting, some ready to bloom—depending on where it is in its lifecycle.
I could go on, but I think you get the idea.
The shift from “thoughts” to “seeds” is powerful because it reframes how we perceive these fleeting moments of inspiration. Instead of random, inconsequential ideas, you now have something tangible: an asset.
It’s no longer about whether a thought is brilliant right now. By saving it as a seed, you’ve created something you can revisit and trust at any time. Whether you nurture it or not, the point is that you’ve preserved its potential. And with that, you’ve built the foundation for future growth.
From Abstract to Actionable: My Journey With Shallow Thinking
For me, and following ICOR®’s principles, inspiration can come from two sources: our Inner World (what our minds create) and the Outer World (external stimuli, like content or experiences). Both are equally important. The ideas and concepts we generate internally can be just as powerful as the inspiration sparked by something external.
The Inner World
When it comes to capturing and organizing thoughts from my Inner World, I rely on Tana. I haven’t found a better tool for this purpose, and trust me, I’ve struggled for years to create the perfect Shallow Thinking system. Then, someone created Tana, and everything changed.
Tana works so well for me because it aligns perfectly with how I think. This is personal, of course, but it’s worth explaining.
I’m a computer science engineer who started coding at 8 years old. Throughout my career, I’ve worked with many programming languages, but C and C++ had the deepest impact—not just on my career but on the way I think and view the world.
C++ is built on the Object-Oriented Paradigm, which, for me, is the most effective way to translate abstract ideas into concrete assets. It’s the best framework I’ve found for representing the abstract world of ideas in a structured, tangible way, with clear relationships and connections.
Tana allows me to:
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Represent a “seed” as a tangible object.
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Connect these seeds through relationships.
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Define actions or processes that bring these seeds to life, creating dynamism to make things happen.
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Link consolidated concepts (stable, developed ideas) with these seeds.
This combination allows me to bridge the gap between abstract thinking and actionable outcomes.
Tana fits my mind like a glove. It’s hard to explain just how transformative it has been for me since I started using it in 2022. It’s not just a tool—it’s become an extension of my thinking process. However, diving deeper into why Tana works so well for me would take an entire article, or even a book, given the depth and nuance of the Object-Oriented Paradigm and its influence on Shallow Thinking systems.
For now, the key takeaway is this: a robust, consolidated Shallow Thinking system is crucial for any busy professional dealing with strategy (which is inherently abstract) or complex problems (which often require assembling countless smaller pieces into a cohesive whole).
The Outer World
When it comes to inspiration from the Outer World, I rely on two tools that I’ve used for years: Readwise Read Later and MyMind.
Both are exceptional for capturing and processing external content. They excel at:
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Quick Capturing: Saving articles, images, quotes, or other external stimuli with minimal friction.
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Quick Processing: Adding tags, personal comments, and even AI-driven insights to make the content actionable.
Whenever a piece of content from the Outer World (a reference) connects to a seed from my Inner World, I link them together. This creates a unified system where ideas from within me and external inspirations come together, enriching one another.
In summary, both the Inner and Outer Worlds play a vital role in my Shallow Thinking system. With tools like Tana for internal thoughts and Readwise Read Later and MyMind for external content, I’ve built a workflow that captures, processes, and connects ideas seamlessly. This setup has been a game-changer for me, allowing abstract ideas to become actionable assets—and, ultimately, outcomes that matter.
Stop Collecting Ideas and Start Taking Action
At this point, you might be thinking: “Okay, all this seed talk sounds great, but I don’t just want a collection of assets. I want results—something that benefits me.”
And you’re absolutely right. This is where you should take the pressure off yourself. Trying to squeeze maximum value out of every single seed is unnecessary and counterproductive.
According to ICOR® principles, true productivity comes from focusing on what matters most: your current projects. This is where our mental model, The Capturing Beast, comes into play, helping you prioritize and channel your energy effectively.
So, forget about trying to process every single seed right away. Not all of them need your attention.
“Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.” — Robert Collier
In my system, I’ve assigned a status field to my seeds to manage their lifecycle. Each seed goes through the following statuses:
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No Status – The default initial state.
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To Be Processed – For seeds that need dedicated attention.
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In Process – For seeds actively connected to a current project.
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Processed – For seeds that have been addressed and completed.
How It Works
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If a seed has an immediate connection to one of my current projects, I give it my attention and start working on it. Its status is updated to In Process, and I focus on delivering an outcome that benefits the project.
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If a seed doesn’t relate to any current project, I decide whether it’s worth special attention. If it is, I update its status to To Be Processed and determine what action I need to take. This action gets added to my Project Management or Task Management system, depending on whether it involves my team or just me.
This workflow ensures that my Shallow Thinking system always encourages me to take action. It drives me to move from idea to action to result—a key principle of any effective productivity system.
Once I’ve worked through a seed, its status changes to Processed.
Of course, this is a simplified version of my Shallow Thinking system. In reality, my seeds have additional attributes like Topic or KE (Key Element)—concepts from the ICOR® methodology that help create a structured framework for managing work and life.
In summary, a productive Shallow Thinking system isn’t just about collecting seeds—it’s about having a clear process to decide what matters, take action, and achieve results. By focusing on what’s relevant and aligning it with your current priorities, you ensure that your ideas contribute meaningfully to your goals.
Last Thoughts: Why Shallow Thinking Matters for Busy Professionals
Ambition is a powerful motivator, driving us to achieve big things. But true success doesn’t come from relentless focus or grand epiphanies—it grows from small, intentional actions and fleeting thoughts that are captured, nurtured, and transformed into meaningful outcomes over time.
“Dream big. Start small. But most of all, start.” — Simon Sinek
This article explored the importance of Shallow Thinking as a tool for busy professionals to turn random ideas into actionable insights and, ultimately, significant achievements. Here are the key takeaways:
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Big Things Start Small
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Success often begins with seemingly insignificant moments—a quick thought, an inspiring image, or an unexpected idea. Recognizing the value in these moments is crucial.
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The Power of Quick Capture and Processing
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Capturing thoughts immediately and contextualizing them ensures no idea is lost and every thought has the potential to grow into something impactful.
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From Thoughts to Assets
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Reframing thoughts as “seeds” highlights their potential for growth. With the right system, even dormant ideas can transform into assets that drive future success.
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Integrating Inner and Outer Inspiration
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Combining insights from your Inner World (self-generated ideas) and the Outer World (external stimuli) creates a rich ecosystem for innovation and problem-solving. Tools like Tana, Readwise, and MyMind make this seamless.
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Moving from Assets to Results
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Not every thought needs immediate action. A structured system prioritizes what matters most, aligning your energy with your current projects to ensure meaningful outcomes.
Shallow Thinking isn’t about superficiality; it’s about creating a system that honors the power of small ideas. By capturing, processing, and connecting these moments of inspiration, you set the stage for consistent achievement in both work and life.
Big things are within reach—but they all start with a single, well-captured thought.
