Richard Feynman was a Nobel Prize-winning physicist. He is best known for his groundbreaking discoveries in Theoretical Physics and Quantum Mechanics for which he received Nobel Prize in 1965.
As a child, he already showed a talent for engineering, once building a functioning home alarm system out of spare parts while his parents were out running errands.
He was also known for his wide-ranging, eclectic tastes. During his colorful lifetime, he enthusiastically traveled around the world exploring other cultures and giving lectures. He learned to play the bongo and the conga drums well enough to play with orchestras. He wrote half a dozen books and played a pivotal role on the commission that investigated the Challenger space shuttle disaster
How could one person make so many contributions across so many areas?
Feynman revealed his strategy in an interview:
“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!”
This cross-disciplinary approach allowed him to make connections across seemingly unrelated subjects while continuing to follow his sense of curiosity.
In the book Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman James Gleick, tells the story of how Feynman once took inspiration for his physics from an accident at dinner:
” . . . he was eating in the student cafeteria when someone tossed a dinner plate into the air—a Cornell cafeteria plate with the university seal imprinted on one rim—and in the instant of its flight he experienced what he long afterward considered an epiphany. As the plate spun, it wobbled. Because of the insignia, he could see that the spin and the wobble were not quite in synchrony. Yet just in that instant, it seemed to him – or was it his physicist’s intuition? – that the two rotations were related.
After working out the problem, Feynman discovered a 2-to-1 ratio between the plate’s wobble and spin, a neat relationship that suggested a deeper underlying principle at work.
That simple observation became the basis of his research into rotation into the equations underlying rotation informing the work that ultimately led to his receiving the Nobel Prize.
When a fellow physicist and mentor asked what the use of such insight was, Feynman responded: “It doesn’t have any importance . . . I don’t care whether a thing has importance. Isn’t it fun?”
He was following his intuition and curiosity. Feynman’s unique approach encouraged him to follow his interests wherever they might lead.
He posed questions and constantly scanned for solutions to long-standing problems in his reading, conversations, and everyday life. When he found one, he could make a connection that looked to others like a flash of unparalleled brilliance.
I have adopted Feynman’s approach to having a list of open-ended questions. Below is the list of 12 areas I have always been interested in.
- Writing
- Creativity
- Productivity
- Learning
- Marketing
- Storytelling
- Sketching
- Fiction
- Travel
- Artificial Intelligence
- Human Potential
- Personal Knowledge Management
I have now created an overarching open-ended question about them. These questions have made my reading more intentional.
- How to learn and teach the art and craft of writing?
- What is creativity and how to unleash it?
- How to be more productive and still live a balanced life?
- How to learn fast and retain what I learn?
- How to market myself and my work?
- How to master storytelling?
- How to convert conceptual ideas into sketches and how to sketch better?
- How to master fiction writing?
- How to travel deliberately?
- How to embed artificial intelligence in my work and life to help me achieve more.
- How to be extraordinary and help others to maximize their potential?
- How can I consolidate all the information I have accumulated and make it readily available to me when I need it?
Surprisingly, it is the last area, “personal knowledge management,” will make it possible to find answers to all the above questions.
For the past two years, I have been building my personal knowledge management system. It is helping me write consistently and prolifically. Now I have added another layer of sophistication to it – Feynman’s Twelve Problems Approach.
It will make my research and notes taking more intentional.
Although the questions might seem mundane but they are relevant to so many people. If I continue to research them and share what I learn, I will not help myself but many of my readers.