12 Favorite Problems
“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, Nobel Prize-winning physicist
The 12 Problems framework is helping me to pay closer attention to my inputs— what notes I’m taking, voice memos I’m leaving, and what filters down into essays. What I love about the 12 Problems is the spread of issues and ideas they can capture. Rough day with my team? That’s a time to reflect on how to balance the needs of employees, customers and investors while building a purpose driven business.
The problems are not static: I’ve decided that after every six months of writing, I’ll have enough signal from my attention and feedback from others to revisit and reflect on the biggest things to explore next. I’m experimenting with sorting my writing by problem, not publish date or theme (beta organization here) and launching a fun challenge with my writing group that we’ll share in the coming months.
My (current) 12 Favorite Problems
How would I give away $1 billion dollars?
What are the right models to support social innovation without distorting markets & incentives?
How can we promote better health through the design of neighborhoods and cities?
How to I build a purpose driven business that supports employees as people, balancing their needs with those of customers and investors?
How can we maintain a sense of equilibrium — an “emergent character” — in neighborhoods, while they evolve and change?
How can I enjoy life while still building big and important things (how can solving problems and building companies not consume me?)
What are meaningful ways to build community online that doesn't sacrifice the desire for / importance of face to face interaction?
How can I invest more in making and maintaining friendships?
How does the beauty of our surroundings impact our lives? How do we advocate for beauty when there are so many other pressing problems in this world?
How can we use data science to improve access to opportunities including capital allocation without reinforcing biases?
How do I get the right quality filters so that I focus on the right things but not miss out on serendipity/ new ideas?
What does a digital and distributed health model look like? How do we balance accessibility and quality patient experience?
Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash