Favorite Problem

Richard Feynman process of learning and problem solving and innovation (cf Grand Challenge, Working Question)

Anne-Laure LeCunff: How to turn problems into a curiosity engine

what if we learned to fall in love with problems, to see them as puzzles to play with, a lens through which we can better see the world?

Richard Feynman was a true philomath — a lover of learning

One of Feynman’s most enduring characteristics was that he loved problems. Instead of avoiding them or trying to solve them as fast as possible, he would seek interesting problems, keep them in mind, let them simmer, and constantly try to connect his everyday experiences to these big questions.

During a talk at MIT, mathematician Gian-Carlo Rota recalled: “Richard Feynman was fond of giving the following advice on how to be a genius. You have to keep a dozen of your favorite problems constantly present in your mind, although by and large they will lay in a dormant state. Every time you hear or read a new trick or a new result, test it against each of your twelve problems to see whether it helps.”

As Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Hackett Fischer aptly said: “Questions are the engines of intellect — cerebral machines that convert curiosity into controlled inquiry.”

Tiago Forte: 12 Favorite Problems Archives

How Favorite Problems Evolve: A Case Study

Your favorite problems will likely stay consistent over many years, but that doesn’t mean they can’t evolve.

the question changes as I learn more. (Wicked)

Once again, my attitude toward teaching had to adapt in line with my changing life.

My job is instead to build the team that does all those things, and to keep them productive and happy.

How to Generate Your Own Favorite Problems: A 4-Step Guide

Open questions are “serendipity engines” – active generators of possibility to fuel your learning and growth over many months and years.

Here’s my 4-step guide to formulating your own favorite problems.

1. Get started with these prompts

• What common themes or patterns do you notice emerging in your life repeatedly?
• What kinds of stories, art, or music give you goosebumps, make your hair stand up, or move you to tears?

2. Formulate your own “How/What” questions

3. Make your questions specific, counter-intuitive, or cross-disciplinary

4. Start capturing information relevant to your favorite problems

12 Favorite Problems: How to Spark Genius With the Power of Open Questions

Feynman’s brilliance was not solely due to his natural cognitive abilities. He relied on a method: a simple technique for seeing the world through the lens of open-ended questions, which he called his “favorite problems.”

You can create a list of your own favorite problems – a concrete set of questions you rely on both to filter the information you consume and to connect the dots between challenges and potential solutions.

You have to keep a dozen of your favorite problems constantly present in your mind, although by and large they will lay in a dormant state. Every time you hear or read a new trick or a new result, test it against each of your twelve problems to see whether it helps. Every once in a while there will be a hit, and people will say, “How did he do it? He must be a genius!”

When he heard about a new finding in a research paper or a new result from an experiment, he would ask himself: Does this have any relevance to any of my favorite problems?

It may seem strange to label questions as “problems,” since that word usually has a negative connotation. But that is exactly what we are trying to do here – change the connotation in our minds from a negative one to a positive one.