An idea to learn and understand what you do and how you do it. And maybe do this a little bit better.
I’ve been reading this book by Richard Feynman recently. The curiousity he approaches life with and the energy to understand rather than accept passed on knowledge is inspiring! If you haven’t read it, I’d definitely recommend it.
It got me curious about learning, idea generating and thinking.
One of the things Richard speaks about is solving equations by thinking about them in different ways. He worked his way through some complex equations and problems by drawing pictures of the situation and then going back to the mathematical equations these pictures represented.
He used this method to reduce dramatically the time it took to come up with a solution to a quantum mechanics problem – and came up with the most accurate equation of nature ever created!
I’m in a new position currently working in Learning and Leadership Development and I’m experiencing learning as an observer aswell as experiencing it.
I come up with sometimes wacky ideas often because I find it hard to switch off from work. I often day dream about work and the things we’re working on. I think it’s because I love it and I’m interested in solving these problems!
One of the things in Richards book, while as a kid he was working through equations in a book, he eventually got to the end of the book and it stated “and now we need some new ideas to solve these problems.” The equations hadn’t been solved! He’d worked through, learned and understood the equations until there was no more equations!
I’ve been daydreaming about problems in work related to innovation and sometimes come up with ideas that when I Google them, have been done already or thought about and tried already.
I think this helps me to learn better, understand deeper and then apply this knowledge. I’m wondering if you tried this idea generating would it increase your learning and understanding.
I’m excited to get to the end of “the book” like Feynman and come up with some new ideas that haven’t been thought of before!
What would you like to learn? How could you come up with ideas to solve some of your current problems? Can you sketch the problem and break it down?
Daydream, brainstorm, execute on the ideas and then pivot and learn!
