We were finishing up a 5 weeks foreign interanl defense mission. We had had the final ceremony and were back at the hotel and some of the guys we had been working with came over--So one of them pulls me aside and says, "I will never forget your taking the time to think. I remeber watching you thinking and I want to be like that. Thank you" and itmade me remember watching my father think. You could not ask him a question or present him with a problem that he reacted to. He always thought first. Now, Dad was plumber, not a college professor. But from early on it was instilled by example to think.
By quirk of fate, I was never much interested in thinking things that other people had already thought--I mean, what was the sense? That caused me some problems in school, but over all, I think it has worked to my advantage.
So that predisposed me to thinking and attempting to think originally. EOD, specifically imrpovised explosive devices, made me think from other peoples perspective--why did they design a bomb a specific way and then the Teams brought the whole aspect of thinking around someone elses planning. Then, when I was given the Combating Terrorism job I knew that thinking like everyone else was thinking would be useless and a mistake--so, I really consciously designed the box and stepped out side it--not sure if that really answered the question but...
2. WHAT? You don't know everything already? Actually, there is one thing but we are sworn not to tell
I don't know about men in general but for me, it would be to just look at what I have done and am doing---don't worry about the face I am making my body language, what I am thinking while I am doing it etc--