Information looks different when you see it through the right lens.
Feynman’s Twelve
Nobel Prize–winning physicist Richard Feynman was said to keep a list of 12 core problems that anchored his thinking. Every piece of information he encountered was held up against those problems to see if it could move one of them forward. That kind of disciplined focus often leads to what looks like serendipity — the kind of “genius” insight that’s really just the product of steady, deliberate curiosity.
Quote
“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!”
Richard Feynman
My 12 Favorite Problems
- How can I transform slow, steady learning into a system that naturally generates products people are willing to pay for?
- What will it take to keep my bond with my heartmate a wellspring of joy and resilience for life?
- How can I make the value I deliver at work visible in creative, evidence-based ways?
- What’s the most effective way to maximize the flow and value that my team delivers?
- How do I steer tricky interactions toward shared outcomes when authority is limited and conflict is inevitable?
- How can I learn just enough Data Engineering to be effective without getting lost in trying to know it all?
- What kind of working system will let me scale beyond my own effort, staying impactful without burning out?
- How might I embed empiricism and experimentation into everything I do so that improvement becomes inevitable?
- How might I use storytelling to make complex ideas resonate so people not only understand but care?
- How do I design processes and frameworks that clarify and simplify instead of bogging people down in bureaucracy?
- How can I build authentic reach (audience, network, and insight) without forcing awkward interactions?
- How do I channel my knack for mastering new tools into solving meaningful problems rather than just tinkering?