← Glossary/Learning
Natural route and stretch route
The way of thinking you reach for first, plus a second one you can practise for when the first one stalls.
Example
Solving a tricky homework problem, you usually start by drawing a diagram. That is your natural route. When the diagram does not help, you switch to writing the steps in order. That second move is your stretch route.
How it fits in
Visual, verbal, and step-by-step thinkers can each get further by leaning into their natural route. They go further still when they have one deliberate stretch route to practise. The point is not to be equally good at all three. It is to know which one you trust and which one you are still building.
Where this is taught
Related terms
Three different ways to work through a problem. Most people prefer one but can practise the others.
Explain a topic out loud as if teaching a ten-year-old. The places you stumble are what you do not yet understand.
Test yourself instead of re-reading. Pulling information out of your head is what builds memory, not putting it back in.