The Science of Deduction

'The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.'

- Sherlock Holmes

Everything in this vast world is a pattern. Randomness is just a segment of a vast and complex pattern that seems indecipherable.
The science of deduction is based on the principle of identifying such patterns. Everything we come across in our daily lives are marked by traits that will surely not escape the eyes of the vigilant. Everything is related by the principle of "Cause & Effect".

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However, before one comes to deductions, the primary aspect of the art is Observation. When you walk from home to school and back, you see many things on the way. But how many among them do you observe?

'You see, but you do not observe. The distinction is clear.'

- Sherlock Holmes

You see the bus conductor, the traffic police and the beggar near the temple stairs everyday, but did you notice that the 1st button was missing from the conductor's shirt? Did you notice that the beggar was not crying for alms anymore today? He sat still and even did not bother to notice when someone dropped a coin on his bowl?
Well, when you go back home and read the newspaper, definitely everything will begin to make sense, once you start connecting the dots and start to look for reasons behind your observations. The bus conductor might have gotten into a fight trying to save a girl, who had boarded the last bus home, from being molested. Maybe someone had got hurt too amidst all. And nobody knows the truth better than the eyes of the beggar, that still refused to blink with terror. The horrors of the last night were perhaps why he was oblivious to any generous man who had cared to drop a penny in his bowl.

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# Pay attention to details. Nothing is big or small when it comes to observation.

# Try to look for things that most people would think are not there. Gather as much facts you can, before you start analysing them.

'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.'

- Sherlock Holmes

# Read books about stuffs that fascinates you. Knowledge is the most powerful tool that you can have in order to unravel mysteries. Holmes could name a cigarette from the look of the ash,  Feluda could name the font just by a glimpse of a piece of text!

# Try to map the things you see in your mind. Try to spin a story out of it. Never omit any detail, however petty it might seem.

'There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.'

- Sherlock Holmes

# Make deductions that are logically explainable. If you run out of logic, derive a few of your own and test them against a set of known facts that you have gathered. As Holmes always said, 'when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?'

# Most important of all, make it a point to read the classic thriller and mystery novels - Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Hardy Boys etc. and even the recent ones by Dan Brown and others. Once you start understanding the flow of thoughts, you will surely be able to join in a stream of your own!

'What one man can invent another can discover.'