The method we’re taught in school is bogus.
While you're busy researching and working on the fundamentals to avoid mistakes or rash actions (and not getting a bad grade because "you didn't work hard enough"), the sly ones have already taken action to grab everything up for grabs.
These folks understand that the jury doesn’t deliberate after the closing argument: decisions are already made in the hallways, in the antechambers, between two doors, driven by those who didn't stay home to calmly ponder the problem.
Besides, what's the point of thinking? When the world boils down to "me against the others," there’s no subtlety left to consider. You can just act.
Thomas Piketty explains this well in a paragraph from Capital in the Twenty-First Century:
Sure, there is a simple economic principle to balance the process: the law of supply and demand. If a good is in short supply and its price is too high, then demand for that good must decrease, which will help stabilize the market. In other words, if real estate and oil prices rise, just move to the countryside or ride a bike (or both). But aside from the fact that this can be unpleasant or complicated, such an adjustment can take several decades, during which the owners of the buildings and oil can accumulate so many claims against the rest of the population that they will end up permanently owning everything worth owning, including the countryside and the bikes.
I think the consequences of this idea are clearly seen in the testimony of Jean-Baptiste Rivoire, former deputy director of *Special Investigation*, who recounts how Vincent Bolloré worked to strip Canal+ of real journalism (French only):
It’s a note I remember writing in my notebook a long time ago: "It’s not the deserving who rise to the top." Or, as Keynes said:
"Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work together for the benefit of all."
– John Maynard Keynes
UPDATE: Another example from the New York Times. The lead Google has amassed by abusing its monopoly can’t be caught up by its competitors, despite the recent ruling against it.