How To Make Deductions Like Sherlock

Image by Amanda Brandenburger for my fanfiction "A Detective Without His Deductions" on fanfiction.net

Everybody wants to be Sherlock Holmes, the world's only consulting detective and a certifiable genius. If you don't believe me, ask him to deduce you. He can tell a whole person's life just by looking at them. In theory. Sadly, he doesn't exist in real life. But we can still emulate him. Here's how:

1. Observation
A key reason that Sherlock knows all he does is because he observes. He frequently tells people in a tone of frustration "you see, you just don't observe." Stop reading and take a minute to look around the room/vehicle you are currently in. What do you see?

Wait, why are you still reading? I said look around first.
Good. Now, what did you see?

Okay, not bad, but I bet you can notice more. Look around and take note of EVERYTHING. Even the little things. Sherlock says in A Case of Identity "It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important." If something is hidden, uncover it and take a look. Examine all the nooks and crannies as best you can. Don't be afraid to crawl around and get up close and personal with your belongings. There's a lot to see, isn't there? I suggest you write down your observations to keep track. In fact, if you really want to be a good detective, you ought to keep a record of all your observations. I'd do this for at least a day, but the longer you do it, the better. Good. Now on to the next step.

2. Don't forget the obvious
In The Bascombe Valley Mystery, Sherlock says "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact." Don't ignore the evidence glaring you in the face. It's easy to forget or rule out. For example, in the Doctor Who episode "The Day of the Doctor", the three Doctors come up with an elaborate plot for getting out of the dungeon, only to find that the door is unlocked.

2. Don't jump to conclusions
Okay, so technically this isn't a step, but it's still important. Sherlock hates making a conclusion with insufficient data, and you should too. He said in A Scandal In Bohemia "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts." Bias clouds judgement and makes it hard for you to deduce properly.

3. Don't let your emotions get in the way
"Detection is, or ought to be, an exact science, and should be treated in the same cold and unemotional manner." So, don't get too emotionally attached to any given problem, including the people or objects involved.

4. Ignore the information that is insignificant, and focus on what's important
Sherlock tells us in The Reigate Puzzle "It is of the highest importance in the art of detection to be able to recognize, out of a number of facts, which are incidental and which vital. Otherwise your energy and attention must be dissipated instead of being concentrated." In many cases, time is of the essence, so even though you need to be able to notice everything, you also need to be able to discard anything that's irrelevant.

5. Deduction
Remember all your observations that are relevant (here's where having them written down helps), and think backwards. Instead of thinking of what will logically happen when given a series of events (reasoning analytically), you are thinking of what series of events could have logically led up to the current state of things (reasoning synthetically). This is called synthesizing information. Okay, got it all? Now you can begin to theorize. Use your new information, along with common sense, to come up with plausible theories. Keep in mind they should be plausible. Just guessing is a bad idea. For example, in solving a murder mystery, don't say the culprit is a ghost (unless, you're talking about Supernatural, Doctor Who, or other related fiction, of course). It's usually a good idea to come up with a few theories, so you can discard ones that are disproved. All of this together is called deduction.

6. Eliminate the impossible
Good work so far! Now you can start ruling out answers. "How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?" Sherlock says repeatedly, including in The Sign of Four. Get rid of anything that has been proved to be untrue or that is just flat out impossible.

7. Conclusion
And finally, you get to draw conclusions. Tie up all the loose ends (well, all that you can) and think about what it all means. It may be helpful to use your imagination for this part. You may also want to talk to other people who can give you another angle on things or offer more information. When you've got it all, wrap it up. Speak your conclusion in a confident, rapid-fire manner, and people will think you're a genius regardless of what you say. If you followed all the steps correctly, you are something of a genius. Good for you!

Sherlock Holmes quotes collected courtesy of www.sherlockholmesquotes.com. The quotes themselves belong to the wonderful Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who started the whole thing.

(In response to a comment on this post, yes, I did write this. That being said, a lot of credit goes to the website I mentioned above for collecting quotes about deduction. I basically figured out what those quotes meant, elaborated, organized them, and put them into a blog post. If you want to see how close I am to that website, just click the link I gave.)