The method of the 12 favorite problems

Reference: https://zettelkasten.de/posts/feynmans-darlings-become-brilliant/

What is it?

1. Maintain a collection of 12 favorite problems.
2. Whenever you learn something new, check if it helps you with one of your 12 favorite problems.

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 lie 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!”

In his talk You and Your Research (https://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html), Richard Hamming said:

Most great scientists know many important problems. They have something between ten and twenty important problems for which they are looking for an attack. And when they see a new idea come up, one hears them say, “Well that bears on this problem.” They drop all the other things and get after it.

Why it works

Part of the genius is in the simplicity of this technique. The other part of the genius is in the use of Antifragility

This is the mechanics behind Feynman’s 12 favorite problems:

everything we learn becomes an opportunity to be an important step toward solving problems important to us. If we learn something new, we can test that new thing for its usefulness to our 12 favorite problems. Each time we go through the list, it costs us very little time and energy (low cost). But each time we have the chance to take a giant leap toward the solution (anastrophic consequences).

Without the 12 Favorite Problems, these opportunities would likely slip through our fingers. In a sense, this system guarantees our chances of seizing these opportunities.

In short, having 12 favorite problems is a clever system to increase the probability of having brilliant ideas.

Most productive researchers typically have lots of ideas while remaining uncommitted to any of them. These researchers are not necessarily having better ideas on average; rather, they are increasing the odds that they find a good idea.

Bad ideas is good, good ideas is terrific, no ideas is terrible.

You slowly chip away at important problems rather than spending 40 hours a week on them.

How to find your 12 favorite problems

1. Make a list of the areas of your life. These will serve as your backbone for your later thinking.
2. Use an outline or mind map as a creative technique. You can use any creative technique. Now it is only a matter of producing for the time being. Collect all problems and possible projects that seem interesting to you in some way. Sort everything into groups. Try to find patterns.
3. Throw out everything that does not inspire you.

This method is only a suggestion! All good methods follow these two meta-rules:

1. Collect first without judging.
2. Then sift out the gold pieces.

Additional tips and tricks

12 is not a magic number! It doesn’t matter how many favorites you have. Yet, there should be no completely inactive favorites.

Not all favorites are problems! I don’t phrase everything as a problem. For example, I am writing a collection of short stories set in a prison valley. It is also part of my list of favorites. I think Feynman has 12 favorite problems because as a physicist, you mainly solve problems. But as a writer, you don’t only solve problems, you write texts. There are different types of opportunities, not just problems.

Particularly relevant favorites are your life goals! Need help finding your favorites? Make a list of all your life goals. Which of your collected problems and projects are especially relevant to your life goals? The more important a life goal is to you, the more the problems and projects related to it inspire you.

You don’t know what your areas of life are? No problem! Here is a list of possible responsibilities in your life:

1. Personal
   1. Physical health, robustness and fitness
   2. Mental health, robustness and fitness
   3. Spiritual health, robustness and fitness
2. Occupation and career
3. Material prosperity
4. Home and homeland
5. Spirituality and faith
6. Social life
   1. Partnership
   2. Family and friends
   3. Friends
   4. Enemies
   5. Community

As a knowledge worker, you have it easy! The field of “job and career” can produce a large number of darlings. After all, your profession is to deal with problems or knowledge-based projects.

Another place where you can use the 12 favorites is your task management. Check if something helps you with your favorites when you empty your inbox.