I think that there’s a common variable here that’s useful for both thinking broad as well as deep. I suspect it’s something closely related to speed. When thin

I think that there’s a common variable here that’s useful for both thinking broad as well as deep. I suspect it’s something closely related to speed. When thinking broadly, it translates to speed of flipping through different patterns and frameworks to see which applies. This process is often silent and appears dumb because you end up rejecting most of the inapplicable patterns. It is difficult to verbalize these patterns because they are often in pictures. Some people with a high verbal fluency e.g. Patrick Collison can describe their thought process quite verbosely and the sheer speed of thought comes across but it’s not a very common trait which is why broad thinkers are often slow talkers e.g. Musk. When thinking deeply, the path is often linear and requires recalling and describing known concepts and perhaps incorporating figures to come to a conclusion. This is similar to solving a math problem on a test where the inferences are mostly linear but lead to a non obvious conclusion. When someone can do this process fast, they’re also seen as smart. Certainly it relies on similar faculties as broad thinking like a good memory and sheer speed of thought and verbalization. I think peoples life experiences and domain of study/work determime which kind of thinking they prefer and are more comfortable with but the underlying horsepower for both types of thinking are the same thing.