Related: Building a Second Brain by Tiago Forte, Personal Development MOC
my twelve favorite problems
- What fundamentals can I train to improve a skill? #skill #learning
- How can I automate time-consuming tasks without sacrificing quality and experience-based learning? #programming #learning
- What role does environment (including culture) play in human behavior and habits? #culture #neuroscience
- Do I believe the actions, reactions, and interactions of this character? #writing
- What’s the smallest change that can make the biggest difference? #change
- How far can we push biology as a design material?
- How do you protect a vision from the demands of now?
- What can the rigor of science and the depth of humanities teach each other?
- How do I work with my attention instead of against it?
A little more about how to actually use this:
[!Quote] “Each time he learned something new, Feynman used it as an opportunity to see if it could help him make progress on something he was already curious about. 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?
Most of the time, the answer was no. After all, the chances of making a connection between any two random ideas was relatively low.
But once in a while his method would strike gold. He would compare a new finding or result with one of his open questions – even if they were from completely different fields – and find a match. And the insights and breakthroughs that came pouring out as a result would leave everyone around him astonished. “
The (potential) list of Feynman’s own 12 favorite problems (from Forte Labs)
- How can we measure the probability that a lump of uranium might explode too soon?
- How can I accurately keep track of time in my head?
- How can we design a large-scale computing system using only basic equipment?
- How can I write a sentence in perfect handwritten Chinese script?
- What is the unifying principle underlying light, radio, magnetism, and electricity?
- How can I sustain a two-handed polyrhythm on the drums?
- What are the most effective ways of teaching introductory physics concepts?
- What is the smallest working machine that can be constructed?
- How can I compute the emission of light from an excited atom?
- What was the root cause of the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster?
- How could the discoveries of nuclear physics be used to promote peace instead of war?
- How can I keep doing important research with all the fame brought by the Nobel Prize?