My thoughts on how to approach a novel or "hard" problem.
After being struck by a semi truck when I was 8 years old I was left with a mangled leg for the rest of my life. This is my "hard" problem. After seeing all of the experts, undergoing all of the procedures, completing all of the physical therapy and utilizing all of the available medical equipment, I was left completely unsatisfied with my condition. My skinny, crooked, deformed leg that was barely functional. I lived with this dissatisfaction for decades. Starting a few years ago, despite the seeming insurmountable difficulty of finding a solution I decided to dedicate myself to finding a solution. Within six months of me doing this full time, I made more progress than I had in the previous two decades.
This video contains the lessons I learned along the way that I wish I had been told immediately after the accident when I was eight-years-old. They are as follows:
1) Know Your Problem
You need to know your problem backwards and forwards if you expect anyone, especially professionals, to take you seriously.
2) Give 100% Effort
Your level of effort will set the level of effort of others from which you need help. The knowledge and tools to solve your problem exists in the heads of a certain number of strangers . If you expect anyone to expend any extra energy on your problem you need to lead by example. If you don't care enough to give 100%. then know one else will.
3) Share Everything, With Everyone, All of the Time
You'll need all the help you can get and finding people to help you is difficult. Take every opportunity to broadcast what you are doing. You can't be shy about any of it. You never know when the person that you need could enter your life. They could be sitting next to you on a plane, standing behind you in line for coffee, they could be the brother-in-law's mother to your friend at the gym.
4) Live Your Goals
It's not good enough to have aspirations. You need to be attempting your goals on a daily basis. If you are trying to build a device, you need to be on the workbench everyday struggling with it. If you are trying to increase the function of your body, you need to be in the gym working through it everyday. This is how your story is created.
After being struck by a semi truck when I was 8 years old I was left with a mangled leg for the rest of my life. This is my "hard" problem. After seeing all of the experts, undergoing all of the procedures, completing all of the physical therapy and utilizing all of the available medical equipment, I was left completely unsatisfied with my condition. My skinny, crooked, deformed leg that was barely functional. I lived with this dissatisfaction for decades. Starting a few years ago, despite the seeming insurmountable difficulty of finding a solution I decided to dedicate myself to finding a solution. Within six months of me doing this full time, I made more progress than I had in the previous two decades.
This video contains the lessons I learned along the way that I wish I had been told immediately after the accident when I was eight-years-old. They are as follows:
1) Know Your Problem
You need to know your problem backwards and forwards if you expect anyone, especially professionals, to take you seriously.
2) Give 100% Effort
Your level of effort will set the level of effort of others from which you need help. The knowledge and tools to solve your problem exists in the heads of a certain number of strangers . If you expect anyone to expend any extra energy on your problem you need to lead by example. If you don't care enough to give 100%. then know one else will.
3) Share Everything, With Everyone, All of the Time
You'll need all the help you can get and finding people to help you is difficult. Take every opportunity to broadcast what you are doing. You can't be shy about any of it. You never know when the person that you need could enter your life. They could be sitting next to you on a plane, standing behind you in line for coffee, they could be the brother-in-law's mother to your friend at the gym.
4) Live Your Goals
It's not good enough to have aspirations. You need to be attempting your goals on a daily basis. If you are trying to build a device, you need to be on the workbench everyday struggling with it. If you are trying to increase the function of your body, you need to be in the gym working through it everyday. This is how your story is created.