Can you really solve for everything?

My answer is yes, I believe you can solve for everything. This is my superpower. If you wonder why I have had success at work, school, in NSBE, and in my own personal life, it comes down to my belief that you can solve for anything. Note, what I am not saying is that everything solvable is easy. With enough time and effort, think about what we have accomplished. Using a quick example, here is what a phone used to look like compared to it’s updated counterpart the cell phone.

That is why in this post, I want to share 3 tips that I use to solve everything.

Tip 1: Find out if there’s a standard

As humans we love to standardize how we do things. For example, did you know there’s a standard on how far electrical outlets are supposed to be from each other? Thanks to my high school STEM teacher I learned there was a standard for that. When Binging It, the standard is 48 inches. While this might be interesting information, my point is that even the simplest thing might have a standard. That standard can be a guide to reverse engineer the solution or to determine how the solution works. If you can discover the how, usually you can modify or manipulate something into the form you need it. Just like that you create your own solution!

Tip 2: Ask someone who’s done something similar

I was speaking with a peer, and I told him “If you compliment someone on their work, and ask can you tell me more information about how you did that?, typically people will explain it to you.” A lot of people love talking about their work, especially when they are being complimented about their work. We, humans, have egos and our ego makes us want to share what we’re proud of. Even if we are not proud of something, we might be likely to talk about the mistakes that we have made. You can learn from all of this information. For example, my dog King loves to lay on me all the time instead of his bed. If I wanted to solve for that, I could walk to a local pet store and talk to a local dog trainer and ask what is the best way to get a dog to want to sleep in their bed? While the answer probably would vary, ask that question to enough people and more than like you can find a solution that works for you.

“If you compliment someone on their work, and ask can you tell me more information about how you did that?, typically people will explain it to you.”

Demetri 01/12/2022

If you were wondering what King looks like, here is a picture of him from today sleeping on my arm while at work.

Tip 3: Ask people what they think about your solution

Ok so I will admit, I had to take a class on this to learn this one. Don’t judge me. In my Tech Startup: Market Discovery class, we had to survey 50 people to determine if our idea was viable. At first I was thinking this is going to be easy, everyone is going to agree with this idea. I quickly found out that my idea was not the biggest problem that people struggle with. I thought people had difficult planning dates with their partner. I discovered that people had problems planning events with groups and forming consensus. Without asking people I could have potentially solved for a problem that doesn’t really exists. The point of this story is you might think solution XYZ is the best solution, when everyone is doing ABC. ABC is not compatible with XYZ so your solution is doomed to fail. Another more relevant example of this might be presenting a solution to your team, without asking your team if that solution would help them. Ultimately, asking others about what would help them sets you up for success.

Review

While there are more ways to solve for anything, these are some of the things I use. I am sure there is another Bingable/Googlable article, a book, a guide, or more that talks about how they solve for everything. If this inspired you to solve for everything, look for more resources, and spend sometime working on your solution. A young engineer and scholar once said, “A great solution is only a you away.” (Demetri 2022).