Bart Vanderhaegen, business consultant and host of the Seeking Good Explanations podcast, joins me to explain his Problem Based Management method, built on critical rationalism. We discuss how organizations can improve by focusing on knowledge creation, a simple four-step problem-solving process, and the common traps businesses fall into when defending ideas instead of improving them. We also touch on Austrian economics, the experience of flow, and why personality tests can be misleading—plus much more.

📚 Mentioned Resources
Bart's Problem based management paper:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aWIUHqjv_wr6Y1F1ozPCV2s-9k6ATjdQ/view

Bart's TEDx on Flow:

https://youtu.be/XnPy3uVc3xo?si=XJyihagGxNnGiZV5

Seeking Good Explanations podcast:

https://open.spotify.com/show/0hypZrKSlBFktwXaD1qp4m?si=cv5hJkh9TxO5UAffY9GJlw&nd=1&dlsi=64ce27b28cdd4271

The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch:

https://www.thebeginningofinfinity.com/

⏱️ Timestamps
00:00 Intro
00:53 The role of knowledge creation in business
06:51 The basic process of knowledge creation
09:11 Visual walkthrough of the 4 moves of problem solving
13:40 What is a "problem"?
18:13 The role of goals/success criteria
23:28 Generating ideas
26:16 The explanatory component of an idea
29:35 The different modes of criticism
33:43 When (not) to move on to execution
40:48 The wrong approach to problem solving
49:37 Assigning idea "owners" or not?
51:24 Encouraging a problem-solving mindset
53:19 The benefits of CR-based problem solving
58:47 Are we early to CR-based problem solving?
01:00:44 The Flow state
01:02:39 Austrian economics
01:07:27 Personality tests
01:10:39 How Bart approaches problem solving in daily life
01:12:41 Outro

🧠 More from me
Book: ⁠https://edwindoit.com/4acts⁠
Website: ⁠https://edwindoit.com⁠
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Productivity blog: ⁠https://medium.com/@edwindoit⁠
X: ⁠https://x.com/Edwindoit⁠