Let’s face it – the human brain is like the Wi-Fi signal of your local café: brilliant when it works, but prone to dropping out right when you need it most. Especially when faced with complex problems – the kind that come with multiple layers, conflicting information, and a vague sense of operating in the grey area between white and black.
You sit down, ready to “think things through” only to find yourself 40 minutes deep into a YouTube rabbit hole about how octopuses open jars, which is technically problem-solving but not your problem! But fear not, deep reasoning is not just for philosophers, chess grandmasters, or that one friend who insists on reading all the terms and conditions. It’s a skill – a power – and with a little guidance we can learn to harness it to navigate even the knottiest of challenges.
But let’s look at the smorgasbord of leadership that this country has been blessed with till date and one would soon realise that almost all have mostly failed to think through the maze of national, regional and global complexities. Consequently, we have not only been able to not secure the population but have also often shot ourselves in the proverbial foot. How come? The missing ingredient lies in what all renowned world schools, colleges, universities teach and mentor their students for – the power to think and reason through complex problems of life. If details were your thing, it would mean that be it Cambridge, Harvard, Oxford, Stanford or Yale – or perhaps one of our own Ivy League IBA or LUMS; all train for verbal and non-verbal reasoning abilities. Verbal – what we speak and non-verbal – what our body language, mannerisms and beliefs convey. One would be pleasantly surprised to find that our military selection system at Inter Services Selection Board (ISSB) does exactly the same. It tests young boys and girls for the same competencies that are taught in the greatest halls of learning throughout the world.
To create not just degree-hold- ers, but actual thinking men and women – people who can navigate more than just campus traffic
Nevertheless, the list of glimmering oversights of this ability to think through problems is long and illustrious. Thus, examples of such blunders are, sadly, not in short supply. Ayub, for instance, couldn’t quite navigate the geopolitical maze of
the Rann of Kutch and the subsequent Operation Gibraltar – apparently thinking it was more of a game of Risk than a prelude to the full-blown 1965 war he definitely didn’t RSVP to. He was saved, somewhat miraculously, by the sheer brilliance of troops on the ground pulling off tactical magic. Then there was Bhutto – one of our sharpest leaders and with a silver tongue to boot – but when it came to Operation Gibraltar, even he missed the plot. Yahya followed suit in 1971, proving that seeing through engagement misadventures isn’t exactly a hereditary talent in leadership circles. Fast-forward to Musharraf and Nawaz Sharif during the Kargil episode – neither could quite grasp the basic rule of geopolitics: if the world isn’t cheering you on then you need every instrument of statecraft supporting a clearly defined purpose to take such operations to their logical conclusion. Tactical wins? 100% yes. Strategic clarity?
Capable leaders around the world have managed to untangle complex cri- ses with the finesse of a diplomat and the logic of a seasoned chess player
Perhaps not so much. Both seemed to believe that you could win a war with only the armed forces playing while the rest of the state was still in the locker room. Time and again, our leaders have fumbled the fundamental art of connecting the dots between war and peace. These weren’t just harmless miscalculations as they led to major crises and deep insecurities for the state and its people. And sadly, we’ve displayed similar “strategic brilliance” in handling the economy, health, education, and governance – with equally baffling results.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the leadership spectrum, capable leaders around the world have managed to untangle complex crises with the finesse of a diplomat and the logic of a seasoned chess player. Take Truman, for example. Faced with the Korean War and the ever-dramatic General MacArthur – who basically thought expanding the war (possibly all the way to China and beyond) was a great idea – Truman had the wisdom to say, “Thanks, but no thanks.” He saw the escalation ladder clearly and realized that poking both China and the USSR at the same time was not exactly a shortcut to world peace. Despite MacArthur’s near-deity status in the U.S. at the time (he could probably sign autographs with just a raised eyebrow), Truman calmly showed him the exit. Celebrity General or not, the Commander-in-Chief was not in the mood for World War III. Then there was Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis – surrounded by military brass who thought nuking the planet might solve things quickly. Curtis LeMay, head of Strategic Air Command, basically wanted to turn Cuba into a glowing island. But JFK, thankfully, went with the more sensible “let’s not end civilization” approach and overruled the hawks. Instead of pressing the red button, he kept his cool and talked the world back from the nuclear cliff.
The list of glimmering oversights of this ability to think through problems is long and illustrious
So, what’s the moral of the story? The best institutions around the globe don’t just hand out degrees – they mould leaders and managers who can actually think their way through the world’s messiest problems. Whether it’s war, peace, science, culture, or the fine line between disaster and survival, these folks are trained to reason their way out of chaos – both with words and with those intense, knowing nods in high-stakes meetings. The West didn’t just wake up one day running the world; they built a system that trains their helmsmen to steer through storms with both brains and restraint. Meanwhile, we, not wanting to be left out of the intellectual party, took notes (quite literally) from the “Thinking West” and came up with our own heavyweights – I’m talking IBA and LUMS. And how do these institutions pick their future nation-savers? Not with a coin toss, but with SAT and GMAT-style exams that make your brain sweat. The goal? To create not just degree-holders, but actual thinking men and women – people who can navigate more than just campus traffic.
The way forward? It’s time for everyone – parents, teachers, principals, the clergy, and yes, even Prime Ministers (especially them) – to realize that education isn’t just about turning students into walking encyclopaedias. We’ve got Google for that! Instead of rewarding who can memorize the most facts like a quiz show contestant, we need to mentor students to actually think. That means analyzing, evaluating, synthesizing (yes, big word alert), and applying what they’ve learned to real-life problems – like why their group project always falls apart or why there’s never chalk in the classroom when needed. In short, we don’t need more human photocopiers. We need curious, thinking people who can tackle the everyday puzzles of life – and maybe even run a country without accidentally lighting the fuse. Just a thought.
It’s a skill – a power – and with a little guid- ance we can learn to harness it to navigate even the knottiest of challenges
