Whether you’re a solopreneur, a single mother, a family, a business owner, the CEO of a multinational corporation, a teacher, or a public servant, you have problems that you need to solve.
The problems we have in our day-to-day lives can make us or break us, and whether we become wounded or wise depends on how we tackle our most pressing troubles.
Fortunately, there are a plethora of ways you can solve problems, and the technique we are about to share with you can act like a Swiss army knife of troubleshooting while also helping to elevate your thinking in the long term.
12 Favorite Problems Overview
The 12 favorite problems concept comes from the scientist Richard Feynman, a man renowned for his work in physics and his contribution to the Manhattan Project – which allowed the USA to develop nuclear weaponry before the Nazis in WWII.
His method is simple but brutally effective:
- He asked 12 open-ended questions on interests or challenges he thought about often (which he called his favorite problems).
- The question's purpose is to filter information that can be applied to problems you are facing in the present moment.
- The questions allow for insights and surprising solutions to come from perspectives you may have never thought to combine.
Richard Feynman said that these questions were on the “back burner of his mind” or that they were issues that he was actively solving at the time.
Gian-Carlo Rota (a contemporary of Richard Feynman and a renowned mathematician in his own right) said this:
“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.”
Also check out this video showcasing another brilliant technique by Feynman designed to help you learn anything faster:
12 Favorite Problems Action Plan
Step 1: Have a means to take notes
Get some notepads or use the Notes application on your phone.
Keep the notepad or your Notes app within reach of you at all times.
This means whenever you have an idea you can record it down and this reinforces the behavior of generating ideas and thinking about solutions to problems.
Have one page or folder per question or problem.
For example, you would have a page or folder dedicated solely to “business ideas”.
Step 2: Crafting questions and challenges
The problems and questions have to be both personal and applicable.
Here are some of the questions that Richard Feynman asked – according to this article by Forte Labs.
- How can we measure the probability that a lump of uranium might explode too soon?
- How can we design a large-scale computing system using only basic equipment?
- What is the smallest working machine that can be constructed?
- How could the discoveries of nuclear physics be used to promote peace instead of war?
However, you don’t necessarily need to ask complex questions like this (unless you want to).
The categories and questions that work for you depend on your circumstances.
Step 3: Commit daily
Commit to thinking about one or more of your challenges or questions.
Record down the ideas that you have for each category every day.
You don’t need to force yourself to think of ideas for all 12 questions all the time (that will simply turn this process into a chore).
Instead, focus on the category/categories that are most pressing to you at the moment.
This creates an open loop in your mind that allows ideas to come to you and to find inspiration in all sorts of different contexts.
12 Favorite Problems Example
John is the owner of multiple online businesses.
John goes to the shop and purchases a notepad.
Firstly, he thinks of 12 different questions or challenges that are based on what he’s currently facing.
- Goals to set
- Product ideas
- Titles & hooks
- Tweets to write
- Systems to build
- Newsletter topics
- Next action steps
- Tasks to eliminate
- Tasks to outsource
- Fun activities to try
- Random cool ideas
- New business ideas
He commits to recording whatever ideas he comes up with.
Some days he has ideas for all 12 categories and on other days he focuses on the most important ones.
Over time he finds that he can generate much higher quality ideas than before and more of them.
It also allows him to incorporate different information and turn that into valuable insights.
Final Thoughts on 12 Favorite Problems
Feynman’s 12 Favorite Problems is an excellent thinking tool that anyone can use to generate more ideas, to find solutions to problems, and as a general way to elevate the quality of their thinking to be more profound and insightful.
Feynman used this method to great success in every scientific undertaking he was involved in and it allowed him to see remarkable results in most of his hobbies (including teaching himself to play the drums, pick locks, and decipher Mayan hieroglyphs).
And if you want more resources about 12 favorite problems, be sure to check out these blog posts:
- 7 Habits to Develop Better Critical Thinking Skills
- 169 Fun 30-Day Challenge Ideas for Personal Growth
- 17 Daily Goal Examples to Help You Conquer the Day
Finally, if you need help with building habits, then check out this nine-step blueprint that walks you through the entire process of creating lifelong habits.)
