17/04/2026
Studies of elite chess players consistently show something counterintuitive about how they actually think.
It is not what most people imagine. The popular image is the genius calculating fifty moves ahead in real time, processing every possible branch of the game simultaneously. The reality is almost the opposite. Grandmasters do not grind forward from the current position. They start from the end. They identify the specific board state they are trying to create and work backwards to figure out what sequence of moves leads there. The current position is not the starting point. It is just where the pieces happen to be right now.
This distinction sounds small. It is not. A player thinking forward is reacting. A player thinking backwards is constructing. One is responding to what the opponent does. The other is shaping the conditions under which the opponent has to respond. The difference in outcomes, over the course of a game, is enormous.
Similarly when starting a music project, writing a song, or setting up for a recording ......determine what is the end result you are wanting to attain and work back from there!
The emotion or message in a song .... The theme of an album or project for a client .....the tone of a guitar or other instrument you want to end up with on a recording ... etc etc
What can you define for the final product and then work back to what steps do now till then to achieve that.
