How To Think Like A Detective Pdf

[Keri Gamrath]

AsMaria Konnikova explains in Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes, the English detective was always observing, rather than merely seeing. Being present and focused allowed him to look for clues that will guide him to the real solution.

Often toward the end, the detective has a moment of realization. An ordinary element or event triggers an Aha! moment and helps him solve the crime. It could be an empty bottle of ketchup, ants on a window, or something a suspect said.

Everyone is guilty until proven innocent. Goodman likes to assemble all suspects to reveal who the killer is. He first explains why each of them might be the murderer. Then, one by one, he eliminates all possibilities.

His appearance provides freedom to pass inadvertently. It disguises his bright mind, penetrating insight, and a gift for observation. While the police use more straightforward methods, the priest relies on the power of empathy.

Sherlock finds the criminal by starting from the outside. He relies on science, experimental methods, and induction. Father Brown, on the other hand, uses refined psychological experiences learned from confession. He relies on empathy, intuition, and introspection.

Sherlock had Watson. Linden has Holder. Ellie Miller is Alec Hardy perfect sidekick. She counterbalances his rational and relentless spirit. But, Alec offsets hers too. Especially, after Ellie realizes that his own husband was the murderer.

Solving problems is about embracing different mindsets. Not all detectives think alike. Sherlock uses mindfulness; Father Brown intuition. Clarice benefited from embracing vulnerability and Linden from being relentless.

When writing a mystery or thriller, I find it necessary to think like a crime scene detective. Now that is not to say that the story should read like a police report. That would be boring! Rather, ask yourself those burning questions of how the murderer committed the crime and what motivated him/her to take those specific, drastic measures. It is a creative timeline of the events before, during, and after the crime.

I create my crime(s) by working it forwards and backwards. You get a different perspective and it allows you not to leave anything out of the story. You can decide how many clues you want to give the reader.

Pulsara's Chief Growth Officer, Kris Kaull, recently had the opportunity to sit down with Rob Lawrence on the EMS One-Stop podcast. In this episode, Rob talks with Kris about history taking and how to improve communication and gather better intel. Kris shares his top 10 hacks to improve your history taking, including thinking like a detective, thinking outside the box, understanding medical medicine, being a good listener, and more.

Hello and welcome back to another edition of EMS One-Stop. I'm your host, Rob Lawrence, and don't forget, we're now on a brand new channel all on our own. We separated from the Inside EMS1 boys. We love you all, but actually, we're now flying alone. And so of course, please like and subscribe. I'll get that in early before you go away. On to the main guest this week: I'm delighted to welcome the Chief Growth Officer for Pulsara, Kris Kaull. Kris, welcome, sir.

For full disclosure, we're both sitting here looking at each other on the screen, drinking really good coffee. For further full disclosure, we spent all weekend drinking other stuff as well, perhaps. And the reason why is because we were up in Montana, in Billings, at the Big Sky EMS conference. And I've got to say, if you need to go to a regional conference that's friendly, welcoming, and with some amazing education, head for Montana next year. Let's talk about that first, Kris, because, of course, you and I were there presenting. Tell us about the Big Sky EMS conference. Let's give it some love.

And there's no hiding, right? So you're in Las Vegas, and you know, I have a short transport time. Five, ten, fifteen minutes, maybe, and I have to pick which one of my trauma centers, and then which one of those triage nurses, and there's a lot of turnover right now. And so, you know, there's an opportunity to be anonymous.

If you've watched the Dr. Glaucomflecken skits on rural medicine, it's just that. And when I went to Montana this weekend, it took me back also to chatting with some mates from the Royal Flying Doctor Service. You know, when you know the farmer's pain score, what is a ten for us is a two for them. And also just the resilience of people in these areas. But it doesn't take away from the fact that you need to have a good system, and obviously a lot of helicopters (that's what you do in your spare time), and a great chain of evacuation to get these people from literally the middle of nowhere to places where they can get definitive care. And so we shouldn't underestimate that.

And with your permission, I will put those hacks in the show notes and also the rather cool video you shared of situational awareness. I won't issue any spoilers now, but I think that was absolutely outstanding as well. So if we can do that, we'll put that in the show notes too. So anyway, do carry on.

But that isn't the end of our medical history. I look at that as the beginning. The basis of a good history takes practice. It takes patience. It takes understanding. And, it takes concentration. And Rob, I'll tell you, on our best day with our best patients, there's still this wall of resistance. They're in pain. They may be the elderly or the very young. They might have cultural differences from us. They may be sick or lethargic, or altered mental status. They may have different language barriers. And then let's talk about us. It's unfair to think that we would be at our best every day, every time. We may be tired or have things going on in our personal life. So we have this wall of resistance, and we have to get over that.

And so this whole communicating and this entire history-taking is a practiced, intentional skill. And studies out there show that, hey, we might be able to, 70% of the time, make a diagnosis based on just history alone.

Well, I'm just going to jump in before you carry on and say we had this discussion about, you know, who's a good interviewer. And my response to you was, as a podcaster, I'm going to ask the question, and then I'm just going to listen because you've got more information than I have. So keep going, and I'm listening.

Has it gotten worse? Has it gotten better? And it seems like, well, it's gotten better. Like, oh, what made it better? When I relaxed. Have you had this before? They just keep asking questions and questions. So number one is, think like a detective.

Well, that's it? I need to solve this case. So you start asking questions: Is this a real person? No. Is this a story? Yes. Is it from a movie? Yes. As you start walking through, you actually discover that this is from The Wizard of Oz. It's the Wicked Witch. And when Dorothy put water on her, she melted and left her clothes there. And so that was the answer. So by playing these solving-type games, you start asking a lot of these questions.

I can give you a riddle: There's a gentleman. He's been imprisoned. He has a shovel. (Why does he have a shovel in a cell? Well, I'm the one putting the riddle, so it just is.) And so he's in this closed cell. There are no windows. There is a skylight above him. And he knows that if he uses the shovel to dig a hole, it hits concrete. And there's no way he can get past and dig a tunnel out. But yet, every day, he's digging and digging and digging and digging. Why is he digging?

And as you start to go through, like: was there a difference between the people? No. Was it because one guy was big and one was skinny? No. Were their drinks different? No. Were there drinks identical? Yes. Was it something that was in the drink?

You can keep asking these questions with yes or no answers. And the answer to the riddle is, well, the poison wasn't in the drink, but it was in the ice cubes. So as the linebacker drank slowly, the ice cubes melted, put the poison into the drink, and that's why he died. Right?

All in order, as we all know, right, Kris? In order to graduate from the Starfleet Academy, you have to pass that capstone class, that final test, that final exercise, that final hill that you have to climb in order to succeed. And of course, the Kobayashi Maru was set up to be unachievable within the conventions of normal thinking, normal operating, and normal training.

And so it's about the way that you think and the way that you operate and coming back to the way that you take history. So if you're a sci-fi geek, Kobayashi Maru. Carry on with the next hack, Kris.

When a health system is looking for ways to improve patient care, there are a lot of factors to consider. How will new solutions affect existing workflows, and how will they reduce time-to-treatment for patients? Check out this episode of the Becker's Healthcare podcast, where host Marcus Robertson and Kate Leatherby, Pulsara's Sales VP for the West, sit down to discuss.

But there is one small problem for parents who agree with my mission: resources are thin. There are my books of course. And there are websites like this one. But they are mostly for middle school kids. What about the youngest children? Those that are just learning to read? Luckily there is a new book that has you covered.

But what is unusual about Pakman is that he routinely interviews people with whom he disagrees and tries to understand their perspective through Socratic dialogue. It is fascinating to watch, and it often reminds me of the kinds of dialogue taught in Street Epistemology (he also interviews Peter Boghossian the creator of street epistemology). Pakman works with reporters who go to political events, such as Trump rallies, where they interview people about what they believe and why. Through all these interactions Pakman has been voicing an urgent concern: we need to make critical thinking a bigger priority in our culture.

To think like a detective gives teachers both a memorable metaphor for inquiry and a compelling methodology that leads to effective inclusive teaching. Like expert detectives, expert teachers should be trained to think about how they think.

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