keep your focus make achievement your
habit chapter 10 hardening of the
categories leads to art disease Kenneth
I took the view that life is basically a
problem-solving activity and you can
learn to make both a process and the
result better my goal with this book has
been to give you tools and concepts that
you can use to achieve a fuller more
fruitful more satisfying life problems
are good for you the word problem has
negative connotations it implies there
is something wrong that needs fixing
however if a problem is reframed as an
opportunity to make things in our life
better then it becomes a positive and
problem-solving can be recognized as one
of our basic life forces some
enlightened individuals think of all
problems as opportunities still you
don’t have to wait for enlightenment to
realize the positive influence problems
can have in your life you can just look
at your own experience when I’m working
on a problem it can take over my life I
find it hard to go to sleep and I wake
up early excited to deal with it in his
classic 19th century Russian novel Ivan
goncharov creates the antihero ilya
ilyich Oblomov the ultimate embodiment
of a superfluous person Bob lamothe is
incapable of making a decision or
undertaking any significant action he
has no real problem so he rarely leaves
his bed in fact he fails to leave his
bed for the first 150 pages of the novel
this is a fictitious story that in its
time was meant to parody the life of
idealistic rats it represents for me a
portrait of what happens in life without
problems it reaffirms my experience that
problems like satisfying work are gifts
that provide vehicles for the natural
development of our life-giving forces so
what are
I use the word problem to describe any
situation that we want to change usually
problems are stated as questions how do
I get a job or statements I cannot
afford college generally we want to deal
with problems in order to effect a
positive change in some situation life
consists of solving a series of problems
we are nearly all very good at it
we learn by repetition and to a great
extent are not consciously aware of our
abilities most people dress themselves
suitably on a daily basis make their way
to their destinations and accomplish
basic tasks such as feeding themselves
furthermore they manage all this within
their environmental cultural and
economic constraints in addition to this
daily onslaught of success we also find
frustrations and failures we all have
unsolved issues in our lives there are
situations and people that bug us and
there are vexing personal and
professional problems it’s often easy to
resolve these issues by applying the
simple techniques described in Chapter
three I’ve employed these techniques in
my own life and share them with many
groups throughout the world
if you reframe your problem many
possible options become apparent and a
path to a solution often becomes obvious
once you have a clear view of what you
want to accomplish there are various
prototype your way to success a
prototype is a sample or model created a
show or test a concept something to be
learned from in solving problems an
excellent way to move forward is to
incorporate prototyping into your
process early in the problem-solving
process it’s best to think of prototypes
as simply trial balloons ideas or
statements sent out to gauge people’s
reactions to your ideas prototypes don’t
necessarily have to resemble a physical
object they can take any form they could
be conversations written drafts short
movies skits physical embodiments of
social or personal problems or actual
physical models of objects prototypes
can be in any form that gives
information they don’t need to look like
or work like the final solution and they
certainly do not need to do both in a
culture of prototyping things are always
being tried out the road to a final
solution is strewn with ideas that have
been prototype dis ways to get
information directions to take ideas to
modify and ideas to abandon prototyping
is a great way to show people what you
have in mind so you can elicit their
feedback when the result of prototyping
is a physical object it is usually best
that it not be too precious
the term mock-up is sometimes used to
denote an early stage non-precious
prototype I think the term crap up would
be a better way to describe the ideal
early prototype
[Music]
you’re eternal the next time you’re
asked to do something don’t spend too
much time thinking simply charge ahead
do this by taking the first idea that
comes into your head and making a quick
prototype of the crap up variety then
think about what you have learned from
this if you’re brave enough try it out
on some people and get their thoughts in
the d.school and our design programs at
Stanford prototyping is a way of life
the same is true for our neighbors the
design consultancy I do between Stanford
and I do I have seen thousands of
prototyping examples most have been very
useful and some have become iconic in my
transformative design class a three
student team was interested in improving
the patient experience in Stanford
Hospital’s emergency room they were
particularly interested in how patients
in the waiting room were managed they
arranged to visit the emergency room to
do patient observations and interviews
unfortunately a day before their visit
permission for their visit was revoked
due to issues of patient privacy
undeterred the students thought up a
prototype that worked like the emergency
room system they based their prototype
on making the need to urinate analogous
to the need for emergency medical
treatment they invited a group of
friends and asked them to be sure not to
have urinated for several hours when
their friends arrived they offered them
drinks and also denied them access to
the bathroom
eventually the bathroom was open however
people wanted to use it had to sit in a
special waiting area until they were
called the order of the call was not
according to arrival time in the waiting
area it was according to how much a
person had drunk in the students analogy
the more people drank the greater their
need for priority medical treatment and
thus those who had drunk the most were
given earlier access to the bathroom
this prototype yielded important
insights as to how to better inform
patients and gain their understanding
when they see others taken out of turn
while waiting for service in a hospital
emergency room prototyping like this
gets you past the cerebral what it might
be like stage and into the reality of
problem simply in another case designers
made a film to show how a proposed
children’s smartphone application would
work using the app kids would touch or
flick the screen to animate creatures
the film demonstrated this by using a
man in place of the teachers was the
film made by recording the actual app on
a smartphone no the prototype was simply
a piece of cardboard in the shape of a
phone screen and there was a real person
on the other side the person would move
in response to the users hand as he
pretended to touch the imitation phone
screen in this way the designers could
test and demonstrate various different
ideas without the need to actually
create the animated figure and the
program’s to control it this led to
Sesame Street’s Elmo’s monster maker a
very successful smartphone app for
children what is being prototyped in
these examples is the basic idea that is
the concept behind the eventual
solutions they fall under the broad
heading of conceptual prototypes as
opposed to functional prototypes which
are made to test the actual functioning
of the solution because prototypes can
be physical objects sketches videos
conversations or any trial balloon the
bottom line with prototyping is to
choose the type that would let you learn
the most in the fastest way prototyping
has different purposes depending on
where we are in the solution process
let’s divide this process into three
stages in the first stage we use
prototyping to inspire a good concept
this is often called a concept prototype
the second stage is to concretely evolve
the solution this is a feasibility
prototype the final stage is to validate
that the solution is actually going to
work as expected this is a functional
prototype when I’ve been talking about
is mainly the first stage as the
solution process proceeds the
approximations to the final solution get
more exact and the prototypes tend to
become more like dress rehearsals for
the real thing even though we rarely
think in these formal terms when dealing
with personal issues these same concepts
about prototyping apply to most problems
for every issue you deal with you need
to be inspired to find a solution idea
if all the details of a solution and
validate that the solution works in
everyday life you may show a draft of a
letter to someone or simply ask for
advice about something you were thinking
of doing by doing this you two are
prototyping it may be helpful to keep
this in mind when you’re facing a
project you keep putting off if you’ve
long had an idea for a screenplay at the
back of your mind or if you want to
design a dress don’t get caught up in
how you’re going to get it just right
that’s what causes many people to shut
down and never get started
avoid the desire for perfection right
out of the game instead tell yourself
that you’re prototyping your screenplay
or your dress the final version can come
keep your focus in problem-solving as in
all facets of life sometimes things go
very wrong when they do go wrong we tend
not to take responsibility for our part
in the malfunction one common way of
avoiding responsibility is to label the
missteps as accidents my main athletic
activity is biking
I am extremely fortunate in being able
to bike to work every day I also have a
group of friends that I ride with on
Sundays and several times a year we go
on extended bike trips this ritual has
gone on for over 30 years
and in that time I have witnessed many
bike accidents
unfortunately I too have had my share of
spills looking back over all the
accidents I see that almost all of them
have a single root cause loss of focus I
or someone wasn’t paying attention my
two worst bicycle accidents are classic
examples in the first we had cycled over
30 miles from Stanford University to San
Francisco the plan was to take the train
back home when we got within sight of
the train station
I felt the ride was over and I started
thinking about a presentation I was
scheduled to make that evening I was not
paying attention to riding suddenly my
tires got trapped in a trolley track
roof and I fell sprawling into the
middle of a busy intersection
luckily I did not get hit by any
vehicles although I did get badly
bruised and bloodied if I had been
paying attention I could easily have
steered to cross the rail groove at an
angle as the rest of my group
after this incident I resolved to always
keep my focus in the road when I am
biking fast forward a few years to my
usual Sunday ride one of the other
riders was talking to me about his
upcoming trip to India and we were
falling behind the rest of the group as
we ended the conversation I wanted to
recommend a change in his itinerary
momentarily I was unable to recall the
name of that nice city south of
Bangalore I started pedaling faster to
catch up to the group thinking of India
and searching my brain for the name I
was forgetting suddenly I hid what
seemed like a 3-foot high wall my bike
flipped 180 degrees and I landed on my
head and shoulders in the middle of the
road the rider I had been talking to
immediately stopped the traffic and
eventually I was taken to the side of
the road with a trashed helmet a
dislocated shoulder and a bleeding head
and face oh yes the name of the city was
my sword sort of poetic justice don’t
you think the 3-foot wall I thought I’d
crashed into was in reality a three inch
high triangular island to split the
traffic at a three-way intersection
I had cycled around that Island without
incident almost every Sunday for over 30
years
yep I had broken my vow not to lose
focus keeping focus is important in many
parts of your life even if you don’t
bicycle it’ll keep you safe I am NOT
just talking about driving cars
skateboarding rollerblading piloting an
airplane running walking or other forms
of physical activity this holds for all
aspects of life just as you give life
its meaning you give all your activities
their meaning in addition to your
physical activities your emotional and
intellectual activities also require
your focus if you don’t focus on these
you may also hit a three foot high wall
even if you have gone past it safely
many times before
I cannot call such malfunctions
accidents it’s not about you we tend to
inflate our own importance in other
people’s lives and actions and this is
another cause of things going wrong in
problem-solving and other aspects of our
lives we need to realize that other
people are not concerned about our
hairstyle or what we are wearing they
are too busy worrying about themselves
to take much notice of us people are
mainly preoccupied with their own
careers and problems not yours
in spite of this many of us believe we
are the principal cause of other
people’s actions a more realistic model
is implied by the phrase it’s not about
me
I often found that when I thought I was
the cause of another person’s behavior
or mood it turned out later that their
actions had nothing to do with me even
recently I needed a reminder of this
when I took a trip overseas I had signed
up to give a series of lectures in
Santiago and then to co-lead a five-day
workshop on a ship off the southern
coast of Chile my wife was not happy to
be left alone for two weeks although I
left feeling a bit uneasy and our
parting was framed
I was not overly concerned as soon as I
got to Chile I sent her a series of
emails after three days with no response
I figured she was probably not at me so
I phoned thinking that speaking directly
would be the best way to clear things up
she did not answer the phone I left a
voice message asking her to phone me I
repeated this four times she did not
return my calls I felt sure she was mad
at me I phoned our son Elliot and asked
him to call her she always picks up his
calls when he reported that he too could
not reach her I started to get very
concerned
I asked Elliot to contact Ruth’s friends
those he could reach did not know where
she was from a neighbor he found out
that her car was still in the carport
the neighbor went into our house and
everything looked normal
however there was no sign of Ruth it was
now a few hours before I was scheduled
to fly south from Santiago to meet the
ship I had to decide whether to cancel
the trip and fly home finally at the
last minute Elliot found her she was ill
and had been taken to the hospital by a
friend Ruth had been sending us emails
the whole time and wondering why no one
was responding she found out later that
she hadn’t been sending or receiving
emails because she had not properly
connected to the hospital’s Wi-Fi system
with her new smartphone by the time I
came back home Ruth had returned to good
health she had not been mad at me
if I had remembered the mantra it’s not
about me I could have avoided
your turn the next few times something
happens where you think people’s actions
are related to what you did or did not
do tell yourself it’s not about me and
then note how you feel and if possible
check how they feel motivation
motivation is at the heart of
problem-solving I once returned to
Stanford after spending about a month
lecturing in China I was standing in
front of a classroom on the first day of
the term looking at a group of graduate
students who were there shopping for
which classes to take it was my job to
motivate them to sit through ten weeks
of lectures in my class what went
through my mind was an item on the
questionnaire they would be asked to
fill out at the end of the last class
which was on a scale of 1 to 5 does the
teacher motivate me to do my best work
in our system it’s up to the teacher to
motivate the students if I don’t
motivate them I am not doing a good job
for the first time it seemed absurd to
me that I was supposed to motivate
graduate students during my trip to
China I had experienced people who were
highly self-motivated to learn there was
a stark contrast between that experience
and what I was seeing in my classroom my
China trip occurred shortly after the
normalization of diplomatic relations
between the People’s Republic of China
and the United States and there was a
great societal thrust in China to learn
English no matter what city I was in
every time I left my hotel there would
be people waiting outside
wanting to practice English I was
enthralled by their eagerness to learn
and at times ended up sitting in the
street correcting pronunciation while
several people read aloud to me some
years later when I started participating
in the Burning Man festival
I was again struck by the power of self
motivation I witnessed thousands of
people who put in analyst hours of labor
and in some cases lots of money to
create things that had no commercial
value they were doing it for self
satisfaction and the entertainment of
their friends they thought what they
were making was cool and they were proud
to show it off again I thought about
this in contrast to my experience as a
teacher education systems tend to use
rewards as motivators the most immediate
reward is a grade once you get a certain
number of those you earn the system’s
ultimate reward
a degree the problem with this is that
the rewards are basically extrinsic not
intrinsic getting a degree for many
students is highly instrumental it is
for them the same as if they were
working all week at an odious job just
to earn enough money to have fun on the
weekend the system does not give them
the tools to be self-motivated it may
provide heroic role models but
unfortunately for most students these
models represent an unattainable
lifestyle that they can only worship
from afar no matter how high their
grades their education can leave them
with a lack of focus a lack of direction
and a lack of confidence many people who
graduate are not sure they can do
anything the system is not geared toward
fostering their growth to a point where
they can develop intrinsic motivation it
often does not give them an opportunity
to do something that matters to them and
that they feel is actually important I
have found that project-based learning
greatly increases intrinsic motivation
my experience with student motivation
comes mainly from my experience at an
elite University in the years when we
used to do the two-week creativity
workshops we would often hear well you
can do that at Stanford but you don’t
know how impossible that would be back
at my school after the first year we
found a way to answer that concern
toward the end of the first week we
screamed a movie called Stand and
Deliver based on the true story of a
high school math teacher Jaime Escalante
it shows how he succeeded in getting
remarkable results by motivating
underperforming economically challenged
students at Garfield High High School in
the predominantly Hispanic ghetto of
East Los Angeles everything was against
Escalante initially the school
administration opposed him the students
had little family support there were no
positive role models and the school had
very limited resources the main thing he
had was his own motivation for his
student success
determined to change the status quo
Escalante had to persuade the first few
students who would listen to him but
they could control their futures with
the right education and he enrolled him
in a newly created calculus class
ultimately he was able to create a math
program that every year turned out
classes in which almost all the students
passed the challenging Advanced
Placement calculus examination the film
is a tear jerker and worth seeing it
served our purpose of inspiring and
motivating attendees in our workshop and
it will do the same for you
the message the workshop participants
always came away with was if Escalante
could accomplish what he did in
circumstances that were many times more
difficult than anything I will ever face
then I cannot hide behind the excuse
that my environment does not support
what I want to accomplish be the cause
in the matter the Escalante story is not
only about education just as my
experiences in China and its Stanford or
not only about teaching all these
stories are about the human experience
they are relevant to all human
interactions and all walks of life they
are relevant to your and my family
situations to mom and pop business to a
startup into a large corporation
it does not matter what you do for a
living or what your job title is or is
not we all face these same issues of how
to get the job done and live a
satisfying life being the cause in the
matter means taking full responsibility
for whatever you’re dealing with and
whatever happens in your life even when
it seems that things are not totally in
your control it’s a declaration of
choice instead of playing the role of
passive protagonist in your life choose
to take charge of your future resolve to
get things done whatever it takes and no
matter how many valid reasons pop up on
a long train ride in China I noticed
that the windows were dirty
I could have complained or sulked about
it instead I got out during a stop got a
bucket of water and washed the windows I
decided to be the cause in the matter of
my trip if you’re missing opportunities
because you’re waiting for someone else
to act consider how empowering it is to
take responsibility for your own
experiences even if we have never met
this book has been about you by telling
you my stories I hope I am motivating
you to look at your life in an honest
and open way underpinning everything is
my assumption that you are willing to
examine your own experiences and make
desired corrections to your future story
this book has offered many tools and
concepts they can only be a value to you
if you are willing to give them a chance
do not prejudge them it doesn’t matter
if you think they are great or not what
matters is whether they prove to be
valuable in your life adopt an attitude
of willingness to give things a chance
allow yourself to test things out and
see what happens without thinking you
know they outcome to test things you
need to give them your attention
attention begins with noticing your
behaviors and interactions notice both
yourself and the people you interact
with what works and what doesn’t luck
had worked better and then test the
various tools and exercises in this book
by inserting them into your everyday
interactions you can do one of them to
start and then at another for example
notice how you and your friends use
reasons then cut back on your use of
reasons just say what you have to say
without justifying it modify your way of
speaking until you are practically
Reason free next notice how much of what
you think and say is clearly a
projection check yourself on projections
you do this by reversing subject and
object in your thoughts or speech be
aware of which version feels closer to
the truth the projection exercise will
not work if you are not honest with
yourself and one of my students told me
that the projection exercises did not
work for me I asked him for an example
he told me that reversing the following
sentence did not work I am listening to
this boring speaker he goes on and on
and does not say anything I asked him to
change the subject in on Jenna he came
up with he is listening to my boring
talk I go on and on and do not say
anything I asked the student if the
reversal felt like it had some truth him
he said no there was an almost audible
sound from the restrained smirks in the
class the other students could not have
imagined he would say no the projection
seemed 100% accurate to all of us this
student regularly came to class
ill-prepared and to fake it he would
ramble on and on repeating the same
inane comments until I found a way to
finally interrupt me clearly he was not
willing to tell himself the truth when
he looked at the sentence reversal it
described his behavior perfectly after I
worked with him for a while he smiled
and admitted there might be something
for him to think about in the projection
exercise unfortunately I will not be
with you to assist you in being honest
with yourself you will need to do it for
yourself
believe me the projection exercise works
if it doesn’t work for you chances are
you are not willing to look at your
truth attempt various slight variations
in the wording
if it still doesn’t work imagine me
standing behind you saying tell yourself
the truth if that still doesn’t work
imagine me standing behind you shouting
bullshit’s after you get the hang of
noticing your use of reasons and
projections move on to reducing the
number of times you say but and start
using and instead then move to some of
the other exercises in this book
informed by your insights and clear
intentions you can use the tools in this
book to modify your behavior eventually
you will think you are getting perfect
that’s when you need to start looking at
the exercises all over again go back to
square one and keep fixing yourself it
will keep you busy until you die it’s
best to think of the material in this
book as a tonic that you need to keep
taking or at least as a seasonal dose
much like an annual flu shot one shot
will not inoculate you for life I speak
from personal experience
I was on sabbatical leave in Sweden
during the day I was leading workshops
on creativity and problem-solving using
many of the techniques described in this
book at night I was losing sleep
wondering about whether I should retire
because I was about to reach what was
then the normal retirement age in the
middle of one of the sessions I realised
I had not applied what I was teaching to
my own problem
that evening I asked myself what would
it do for me if I were tired the answer
was I could stop worrying about whether
I should retire in a flash I realized I
had spent six months thinking about the
wrong problem I now have the real
question how do I stop worrying about
whether to retire the answer was obvious
stop thinking about it now over 15 years
later I can tell you that since that
evening I have never once thought about
retirement I feel really stupid that I
wasted six months on something I didn’t
really care about and then I was doing
it while I was teaching others how to
deal with the right question be smarter
than I was realized that your mind is
trickier than you think and is always
working with your ego to make you
believe you are doing better than you
really are that’s the human condition
what you have going for yourself is that
if you choose to you can be mindful
about controlling both your intentions
and your attention to make your life
better for yourself
and for those around you you can choose
to be the cause in the matter of the
circumstances of your life and you can
instill in yourself the habit of
achievement for a more functional and
satisfying life I hope this book
contributes to those worthy goals the
achievement habit stop wishing start
doing and take command of your life by
bernard roth
[Music]
it’s about my life and it’s about your
life so as Tina says I actually started
as a pretty straight mechanical engineer
out of New York City I still have the
accent and only been off the boat 50
some odd years so takes a while and I
have three degrees in mechanical
engineering that I actually earned and
after my PhD I actually was supposed to
stay at Columbia but I got a free
vacation to California and since my wife
hated New York we ended up staying at
Stanford and I’ve been here since 1962
which is before a lot of you have been
boy so I’ve been here a long time and
the thing to understand is the Stanford
and the Silicon Valley I came to is very
very different but was very different
than it is today and one of the things
that struck me when I was here is a
there was the human potential movement
and all that so I learned there were
other things that machines and robots do
to people and I got interested in that
in creativity but and I started to think
about teaching in addition to the things
I knew something about the things I wish
I had learned in school myself and one
of the things I noticed was that people
talked a lot about starting your own
companies and most of them didn’t in the
design program where I was in me most of
students ended up working for youlet
Packard wellmaybe Ampex which doesn’t
exist anymore ray Kevin which doesn’t
exist but they went to these large
companies and they all had this kind of
pipe dream this fantasy of starting
their own company and that kind of I
didn’t really care but it actually
reminded me of a play called The Iceman
Cometh in a Neil play and in that play
these people are in the bar and the
whole play takes place in the bar and
they talk about leaving the bar and the
whole play nobody leaves the bar and
somehow this whole idea of starting a
company reminded me of that that
bothered me a lot so I decided to start
a course which had in a tube you could
do a project and the project involved
one of two topics one was
do something you’ve never done before in
your life when the other was get rid of
a problem in your life and then we had
all sorts of processes some of the
things I wrote about in the book are
from that class and it kind of was
really interesting because what I hit
upon was this whole idea that if you do
something you’re never the same it’s
kind of really interesting and so people
did projects which you know they weren’t
kind of academic projects they were
jumping out of airplanes and riding
motorcycles and the building stuff and
all that and I noticed the people it
changed people it gave them a kind of
impetus and this whole idea of doing
became a very important part of my life
and my teaching and it’s rather than
talk about it let’s do it and the whole
pragmatic thing is if it works in your
life fine it’ll incorporate it and
change you if you want to if it doesn’t
work forget about it and do something
else so I kind of developed this class
which is cool designers society based on
these principles and my life was pretty
okay and I developed something called
the creativity workshop which we get
around the world and for professors and
that was kind of great and then about 12
years ago or so this thing called the
d.school appeared in my life and it was
sort of a sidelight for me
and then David Kelly who was sort of the
principal of the people who founded it
I’ve got cancer and I was at home
minding my own business Friday night at
about 11 o’clock at night and I got a
call from Jim Plummer who was the Dean
of engineering those days and he said
I’m really uncomfortable with David
being out for his treatments not having
a faculty person in charge there and
would you do that till he comes back so
I said sure I didn’t negotiate or
anything to sit by Monday morning I
walked into the d.school and I never
left
and it totally changed my life and what
it did is it kind of took the things we
have been talking about always we in
those days we called the lead finding
and we change it to new me center design
and it kind of was a way to express all
these things which were kind of they
were kind of part of my life but healing
there was too many other pieces to make
it all come together and when I got to
the desk or it kind of crystallized this
thing we call Design Thinking is really
what we’ve been talking about all along
and we really can use it for the things
rather than designing stuff so let me
just make that clear this this thing
called design thinking the world which
you’ve probably heard about and the way
the name came about its uses methods
that traditionally we use by design as
the design stuff uses some of those
ideas and but now it applies it to
almost everything so it’s it’s very
widespread in business now it’s in
health I cannot tell you how many
different groups want me to talk about
design thinking nurses and trainers and
all this guy you know you name it a
groups of people working with one one so
some I use design thinking in the world
and people come into the d.school and
think we can cure a cancer and all that
so it’s kind of you know kind of gets a
little inflated but really it’s the kind
of useful tool and problem-solving and
all that and what I decided to do is to
apply it to ourselves
and I thought my colleagues would kill
me because one of the things in design
thinking is don’t design for yourself
design for someone else okay and that’s
a really good thing because others can
see things you can’t see but to me it
doesn’t mean you can’t also use it until
something better comes along use it on
yourself and so I try to use the
principles as design thinking and my
ideas and creativity and my teaching
from designer society to make a kind of
holistic thing for you
or me to go forward in the world and
these are things I’ve used with students
for you know forty some odd years so I
know they work and I’ve used them in my
life so I know that they work also so
what I want to do today is share some of
these things with you and the first
thing is this whole idea of problem
solving so first of all problems have a
bad rap not around here because Tina’s
brainwashed everyone that they’re
opportunities but basically in the real
world problems have a bad rap because
people think oh it’s a problem it’s oh
it’s terrible and all that stuff but in
fact it’s important to understand that
that’s that’s where my life force comes
from and I’m sure there are others in
the room whose life force comes for that
also so when I have a problem I’m
excited I can’t sleep I get up I’m
always activated to do that and in fact
that’s kind of what it’s about and one
of my favorite stories is a book that
was written in the 1800s in the Russian
Imperial Russia about a character called
Oblomov and for the first 250 pages of
the book he doesn’t get out of bed and
the whole it-it’s a fantasy but the
whole idea was to be critical this
aristocracy that has no reason to get
out of bed and everything is taken care
of for why would you get out of bed if
everything is taken care of for you
so that’s the kind of idea to understand
about problems it’s a good reason to get
out of bed okay and if people get
depressed they don’t get out of bed you
know so it’s a good song you want to get
out of bed so you get out of bed and
that’s great you got these things which
are energizing and you want to work on
them and we have them in our lives and
most of people in this room are great
problem solvers and I think of myself as
a great problem solver so the question
is why do people like you and me have
things in our lives which are troubling
which we cannot handle how come we’re so
smart you a very smart guy I can tell
right off the bat you’re a smart guy too
and yours
woman right sure we all know that I must
say this is in the side but I went to a
Moorhead memorial service for Sandy dawn
was she was a colleague I knew for many
years from sociology and I heard he
would tell his students don’t worry that
you don’t feel smart when you go home
for Christmas break you’ll feel smart
again so the point this point was
everyone is so smart around here it’s
hard to feel smart okay so whether
that’s true or not it’s a it’s a nice
nice thing so we are here now and the
question is you okay you most of you
address properly you found this room you
kind of got into Stanford you know you
have a lot of accomplishments so why is
it you and I lose sleep about something
okay and I have a theory what that is
and I say that most of the time it’s
because we’re trying to solve the wrong
problem so my statement to you is if you
have a problem that you are really
losing sleep over and that you cannot
solve it’s because you’re working on the
wrong problem so simple as that and I
have seen that in my PhD week you know I
I used to be an expert on robotics
kinematics and stuff like that and I
would have PhD students come in and I
knew the field very well I’ve been
researching for many years
give me problem and we’ve worked for a
couple years and then suddenly we
realized oh it wasn’t really the real
question is this it wasn’t the big
change but we realized suddenly what the
gem was and we did that the student
could finish up in a couple of months
write up and go on with their lives and
it was a really great example where here
we had a lot of expertise and yet we
didn’t know what the real question was
and I’ve seen that when companies come
in and they or consulting things they
ask you to do something and it’s the
wrong question and it appears over and
over again and it certainly appears in
my everyday life so what I want you to
understand is it’s really easy it’s what
we call in the Design Thinking reframing
the problem and the secret is to reframe
it and the question is how do I do that
and the answer is really really simple
and the way I suggest you do it if you
ask yourself what it would do for you if
you solve the problem
you ask yourself what it would do for
and that is the question you want to ask
you something so I’ll give you an
example where I totally failed so I
rented a car and I drove up to the wine
country and eventually the car ran out
of gas
and I pulled into the gas station and I
started to look for the release for the
cover to the gas tank and I must have
looked for ten minutes in the glove
compartment everywhere every place
normal designers would put it and I
couldn’t find it I was kind of
frustrated and then I noticed a similar
car drove up for guests so I went up for
the lady and I said I know it’s a stupid
question but where is the release she
said there is nothing okay and so at
that point I realized what I was doing I
I had made I had framed the question to
where the releases and why would I will
if I played my gang which I did of
course but if I played my game I would
say what would I do for me if I could
find the release I’d be able to get the
cover open so now the question is how do
we get the cover open if you get the
cover open easiest way to look over and
open it up okay so it’s a silly silly
silly trivial question but it in fact
embodies the whole idea okay so what I’d
like you to do is not take my word for
it that it works and I can assure you
it’s worked for thousands of people
around the world and it will work for
you so I would like you to play that
game right now in your own head I’d like
you to and don’t take something like
peace in the world forever you know
that’s not gonna work but take something
literally I do lose sleep over like you
know should you go on the date with
so-and-so which would you do this or
should you go for graduate work
you know something normal and common
though should we tell you roommate she’s
making too much noise at night anything
that bothers you really and that we’re
currently you haven’t been able to solve
even though you’re so smart so take that
problem and ask yourself what it would
do for you if you solve that just I’m
going to be quiet for a few minutes and
ask yourself what do we do if it solve
that and like in my case I would get to
the gas tank cover open and and I change
it to how do I get the gas tank cover
open so in your case you can ask what it
would do for you and you’re going to
change you to a problem okay so go ahead
okay enough of you look alert so I’m
gonna assume most of you gotten there so
does anyone have any troubles doing that
exercise nor is going to figure out what
the new question is so did you have you
figure out what the new question is not
sure you want to want me to interact
with you and enlighten you and save your
life okay could someone have something
okay so so okay great
so so your problem what would happen
what would happen to you if you get to
promise how to get out of bed right not
waking up you wake up you’re awake okay
I’m trying to figure out myself but he
said he has a problem when waking up in
the morning and getting out of bed and
I’m trying to figure out if the waking
up is the problem with the getting out
of bed is the problem the waking up is
fine but getting Vettes the question is
once he’s woken how does he get out of
bed okay so the question you have to ask
yourself is what would it do for you if
okay so now the question is how how do I
get out of bed in the morning okay
so give me some ideas we can can your
brain still can you think of any ways of
getting out of bed in the morning okay
that’s one way okay what else well what
would it do why do you want to get out
of bed in the morning that’s what would
it do for you if you got out of bed in
the morning see you’re not letting go
the original question that’s the issue
so what we do for you so let’s say get
more work done so the question is how do
you get more work done it has nothing to
do with getting out of bed if you’re
real if that’s really you know we’re
just playing a game here but this is the
insight so pay attention this is you
sitting here okay it’s a gift to you
he thinks it’s getting out of bed it’s
not getting out of bed it’s getting more
work done if that’s true so are there
ways to get more work done I could
figure out and stay in bed and get more
work done as an example okay and there
are lots of ways of getting I don’t know
what your life is like but probably you
could think of a hundred ways to get
more work done and if you can’t the
people in this room who know how to do
it they’ll tell you so if you really was
that was the problem
you got you’ve opened up your solution
space so we’ve opened up the solution
space where we no longer hung up on
getting out of bed now it sounds trivial
knows how to get about bed and he does
too so it’s not a great example and it
is a great example you understand what
I’m saying it’s a great example because
the structure is exactly what you’re
doing with your problem it’s exactly
what you’re doing your problem and the
silliest pardon me as silly as this
sounds yours is a silly also okay it’s
as simple as that
let’s try some other victim here who
else and I’m gonna give you a wood I’m
not I’m not the kind of guy who takes
advantage of people without Daniel this
will have more meaning to you later on
okay and I’m gonna give you a reward
even though you didn’t participate so I
give her a ward see there’s
psychological training done the same yes
yes maybe I have to translate all this
so make it very succinctly problem that
you don’t know how to go about changing
social behavior that’s her problem
what would it do for you if you knew how
to go about South changing social
behavior so I want to know how to
generate more donations can you generate
more donations without changing social
behavior see that’s the whole thing is
there any way to generate more donations
without changing social behavior yes
there are there are lots of ways ok I
have a way you take out a gun and you
ask people for money it’s one way right
that’s the way generate more money ok
another way is scamming and swindling
and anyone else anyone know you in bed
you must be thinking of some way to
change me he’s got no seriously see
that’s the point you know she’s locked
into one thing and won’t let go of that
one thing if that’s really the problem
and if you’ve been trying it for 4
months you gotta let go you know I read
somewhere that we have between 50,000
60,000 thoughts a day I don’t know if
that’s true but we do think a lot
however the tricky thing is that 95% of
those are repeated thoughts and 80% of
those are things that are fear and can’t
do kind of thoughts so just sitting and
thinking for 3 months you’re not going
to get another thought about social
behavior I guarantee you so you have to
reframe the problem and the way the
refits like though so you’re not
listening to me you don’t want to do it
but I’m telling you that’s where it is
and it’s really hard to let go of
problems it really is really interesting
people just won’t let go their problem
so if you tell them they say well what
if but cause I don’t let just let go of
it forget about it it’s not working for you
habit chapter 10 hardening of the
categories leads to art disease Kenneth
I took the view that life is basically a
problem-solving activity and you can
learn to make both a process and the
result better my goal with this book has
been to give you tools and concepts that
you can use to achieve a fuller more
fruitful more satisfying life problems
are good for you the word problem has
negative connotations it implies there
is something wrong that needs fixing
however if a problem is reframed as an
opportunity to make things in our life
better then it becomes a positive and
problem-solving can be recognized as one
of our basic life forces some
enlightened individuals think of all
problems as opportunities still you
don’t have to wait for enlightenment to
realize the positive influence problems
can have in your life you can just look
at your own experience when I’m working
on a problem it can take over my life I
find it hard to go to sleep and I wake
up early excited to deal with it in his
classic 19th century Russian novel Ivan
goncharov creates the antihero ilya
ilyich Oblomov the ultimate embodiment
of a superfluous person Bob lamothe is
incapable of making a decision or
undertaking any significant action he
has no real problem so he rarely leaves
his bed in fact he fails to leave his
bed for the first 150 pages of the novel
this is a fictitious story that in its
time was meant to parody the life of
idealistic rats it represents for me a
portrait of what happens in life without
problems it reaffirms my experience that
problems like satisfying work are gifts
that provide vehicles for the natural
development of our life-giving forces so
what are
I use the word problem to describe any
situation that we want to change usually
problems are stated as questions how do
I get a job or statements I cannot
afford college generally we want to deal
with problems in order to effect a
positive change in some situation life
consists of solving a series of problems
we are nearly all very good at it
we learn by repetition and to a great
extent are not consciously aware of our
abilities most people dress themselves
suitably on a daily basis make their way
to their destinations and accomplish
basic tasks such as feeding themselves
furthermore they manage all this within
their environmental cultural and
economic constraints in addition to this
daily onslaught of success we also find
frustrations and failures we all have
unsolved issues in our lives there are
situations and people that bug us and
there are vexing personal and
professional problems it’s often easy to
resolve these issues by applying the
simple techniques described in Chapter
three I’ve employed these techniques in
my own life and share them with many
groups throughout the world
if you reframe your problem many
possible options become apparent and a
path to a solution often becomes obvious
once you have a clear view of what you
want to accomplish there are various
prototype your way to success a
prototype is a sample or model created a
show or test a concept something to be
learned from in solving problems an
excellent way to move forward is to
incorporate prototyping into your
process early in the problem-solving
process it’s best to think of prototypes
as simply trial balloons ideas or
statements sent out to gauge people’s
reactions to your ideas prototypes don’t
necessarily have to resemble a physical
object they can take any form they could
be conversations written drafts short
movies skits physical embodiments of
social or personal problems or actual
physical models of objects prototypes
can be in any form that gives
information they don’t need to look like
or work like the final solution and they
certainly do not need to do both in a
culture of prototyping things are always
being tried out the road to a final
solution is strewn with ideas that have
been prototype dis ways to get
information directions to take ideas to
modify and ideas to abandon prototyping
is a great way to show people what you
have in mind so you can elicit their
feedback when the result of prototyping
is a physical object it is usually best
that it not be too precious
the term mock-up is sometimes used to
denote an early stage non-precious
prototype I think the term crap up would
be a better way to describe the ideal
early prototype
[Music]
you’re eternal the next time you’re
asked to do something don’t spend too
much time thinking simply charge ahead
do this by taking the first idea that
comes into your head and making a quick
prototype of the crap up variety then
think about what you have learned from
this if you’re brave enough try it out
on some people and get their thoughts in
the d.school and our design programs at
Stanford prototyping is a way of life
the same is true for our neighbors the
design consultancy I do between Stanford
and I do I have seen thousands of
prototyping examples most have been very
useful and some have become iconic in my
transformative design class a three
student team was interested in improving
the patient experience in Stanford
Hospital’s emergency room they were
particularly interested in how patients
in the waiting room were managed they
arranged to visit the emergency room to
do patient observations and interviews
unfortunately a day before their visit
permission for their visit was revoked
due to issues of patient privacy
undeterred the students thought up a
prototype that worked like the emergency
room system they based their prototype
on making the need to urinate analogous
to the need for emergency medical
treatment they invited a group of
friends and asked them to be sure not to
have urinated for several hours when
their friends arrived they offered them
drinks and also denied them access to
the bathroom
eventually the bathroom was open however
people wanted to use it had to sit in a
special waiting area until they were
called the order of the call was not
according to arrival time in the waiting
area it was according to how much a
person had drunk in the students analogy
the more people drank the greater their
need for priority medical treatment and
thus those who had drunk the most were
given earlier access to the bathroom
this prototype yielded important
insights as to how to better inform
patients and gain their understanding
when they see others taken out of turn
while waiting for service in a hospital
emergency room prototyping like this
gets you past the cerebral what it might
be like stage and into the reality of
problem simply in another case designers
made a film to show how a proposed
children’s smartphone application would
work using the app kids would touch or
flick the screen to animate creatures
the film demonstrated this by using a
man in place of the teachers was the
film made by recording the actual app on
a smartphone no the prototype was simply
a piece of cardboard in the shape of a
phone screen and there was a real person
on the other side the person would move
in response to the users hand as he
pretended to touch the imitation phone
screen in this way the designers could
test and demonstrate various different
ideas without the need to actually
create the animated figure and the
program’s to control it this led to
Sesame Street’s Elmo’s monster maker a
very successful smartphone app for
children what is being prototyped in
these examples is the basic idea that is
the concept behind the eventual
solutions they fall under the broad
heading of conceptual prototypes as
opposed to functional prototypes which
are made to test the actual functioning
of the solution because prototypes can
be physical objects sketches videos
conversations or any trial balloon the
bottom line with prototyping is to
choose the type that would let you learn
the most in the fastest way prototyping
has different purposes depending on
where we are in the solution process
let’s divide this process into three
stages in the first stage we use
prototyping to inspire a good concept
this is often called a concept prototype
the second stage is to concretely evolve
the solution this is a feasibility
prototype the final stage is to validate
that the solution is actually going to
work as expected this is a functional
prototype when I’ve been talking about
is mainly the first stage as the
solution process proceeds the
approximations to the final solution get
more exact and the prototypes tend to
become more like dress rehearsals for
the real thing even though we rarely
think in these formal terms when dealing
with personal issues these same concepts
about prototyping apply to most problems
for every issue you deal with you need
to be inspired to find a solution idea
if all the details of a solution and
validate that the solution works in
everyday life you may show a draft of a
letter to someone or simply ask for
advice about something you were thinking
of doing by doing this you two are
prototyping it may be helpful to keep
this in mind when you’re facing a
project you keep putting off if you’ve
long had an idea for a screenplay at the
back of your mind or if you want to
design a dress don’t get caught up in
how you’re going to get it just right
that’s what causes many people to shut
down and never get started
avoid the desire for perfection right
out of the game instead tell yourself
that you’re prototyping your screenplay
or your dress the final version can come
keep your focus in problem-solving as in
all facets of life sometimes things go
very wrong when they do go wrong we tend
not to take responsibility for our part
in the malfunction one common way of
avoiding responsibility is to label the
missteps as accidents my main athletic
activity is biking
I am extremely fortunate in being able
to bike to work every day I also have a
group of friends that I ride with on
Sundays and several times a year we go
on extended bike trips this ritual has
gone on for over 30 years
and in that time I have witnessed many
bike accidents
unfortunately I too have had my share of
spills looking back over all the
accidents I see that almost all of them
have a single root cause loss of focus I
or someone wasn’t paying attention my
two worst bicycle accidents are classic
examples in the first we had cycled over
30 miles from Stanford University to San
Francisco the plan was to take the train
back home when we got within sight of
the train station
I felt the ride was over and I started
thinking about a presentation I was
scheduled to make that evening I was not
paying attention to riding suddenly my
tires got trapped in a trolley track
roof and I fell sprawling into the
middle of a busy intersection
luckily I did not get hit by any
vehicles although I did get badly
bruised and bloodied if I had been
paying attention I could easily have
steered to cross the rail groove at an
angle as the rest of my group
after this incident I resolved to always
keep my focus in the road when I am
biking fast forward a few years to my
usual Sunday ride one of the other
riders was talking to me about his
upcoming trip to India and we were
falling behind the rest of the group as
we ended the conversation I wanted to
recommend a change in his itinerary
momentarily I was unable to recall the
name of that nice city south of
Bangalore I started pedaling faster to
catch up to the group thinking of India
and searching my brain for the name I
was forgetting suddenly I hid what
seemed like a 3-foot high wall my bike
flipped 180 degrees and I landed on my
head and shoulders in the middle of the
road the rider I had been talking to
immediately stopped the traffic and
eventually I was taken to the side of
the road with a trashed helmet a
dislocated shoulder and a bleeding head
and face oh yes the name of the city was
my sword sort of poetic justice don’t
you think the 3-foot wall I thought I’d
crashed into was in reality a three inch
high triangular island to split the
traffic at a three-way intersection
I had cycled around that Island without
incident almost every Sunday for over 30
years
yep I had broken my vow not to lose
focus keeping focus is important in many
parts of your life even if you don’t
bicycle it’ll keep you safe I am NOT
just talking about driving cars
skateboarding rollerblading piloting an
airplane running walking or other forms
of physical activity this holds for all
aspects of life just as you give life
its meaning you give all your activities
their meaning in addition to your
physical activities your emotional and
intellectual activities also require
your focus if you don’t focus on these
you may also hit a three foot high wall
even if you have gone past it safely
many times before
I cannot call such malfunctions
accidents it’s not about you we tend to
inflate our own importance in other
people’s lives and actions and this is
another cause of things going wrong in
problem-solving and other aspects of our
lives we need to realize that other
people are not concerned about our
hairstyle or what we are wearing they
are too busy worrying about themselves
to take much notice of us people are
mainly preoccupied with their own
careers and problems not yours
in spite of this many of us believe we
are the principal cause of other
people’s actions a more realistic model
is implied by the phrase it’s not about
me
I often found that when I thought I was
the cause of another person’s behavior
or mood it turned out later that their
actions had nothing to do with me even
recently I needed a reminder of this
when I took a trip overseas I had signed
up to give a series of lectures in
Santiago and then to co-lead a five-day
workshop on a ship off the southern
coast of Chile my wife was not happy to
be left alone for two weeks although I
left feeling a bit uneasy and our
parting was framed
I was not overly concerned as soon as I
got to Chile I sent her a series of
emails after three days with no response
I figured she was probably not at me so
I phoned thinking that speaking directly
would be the best way to clear things up
she did not answer the phone I left a
voice message asking her to phone me I
repeated this four times she did not
return my calls I felt sure she was mad
at me I phoned our son Elliot and asked
him to call her she always picks up his
calls when he reported that he too could
not reach her I started to get very
concerned
I asked Elliot to contact Ruth’s friends
those he could reach did not know where
she was from a neighbor he found out
that her car was still in the carport
the neighbor went into our house and
everything looked normal
however there was no sign of Ruth it was
now a few hours before I was scheduled
to fly south from Santiago to meet the
ship I had to decide whether to cancel
the trip and fly home finally at the
last minute Elliot found her she was ill
and had been taken to the hospital by a
friend Ruth had been sending us emails
the whole time and wondering why no one
was responding she found out later that
she hadn’t been sending or receiving
emails because she had not properly
connected to the hospital’s Wi-Fi system
with her new smartphone by the time I
came back home Ruth had returned to good
health she had not been mad at me
if I had remembered the mantra it’s not
about me I could have avoided
your turn the next few times something
happens where you think people’s actions
are related to what you did or did not
do tell yourself it’s not about me and
then note how you feel and if possible
check how they feel motivation
motivation is at the heart of
problem-solving I once returned to
Stanford after spending about a month
lecturing in China I was standing in
front of a classroom on the first day of
the term looking at a group of graduate
students who were there shopping for
which classes to take it was my job to
motivate them to sit through ten weeks
of lectures in my class what went
through my mind was an item on the
questionnaire they would be asked to
fill out at the end of the last class
which was on a scale of 1 to 5 does the
teacher motivate me to do my best work
in our system it’s up to the teacher to
motivate the students if I don’t
motivate them I am not doing a good job
for the first time it seemed absurd to
me that I was supposed to motivate
graduate students during my trip to
China I had experienced people who were
highly self-motivated to learn there was
a stark contrast between that experience
and what I was seeing in my classroom my
China trip occurred shortly after the
normalization of diplomatic relations
between the People’s Republic of China
and the United States and there was a
great societal thrust in China to learn
English no matter what city I was in
every time I left my hotel there would
be people waiting outside
wanting to practice English I was
enthralled by their eagerness to learn
and at times ended up sitting in the
street correcting pronunciation while
several people read aloud to me some
years later when I started participating
in the Burning Man festival
I was again struck by the power of self
motivation I witnessed thousands of
people who put in analyst hours of labor
and in some cases lots of money to
create things that had no commercial
value they were doing it for self
satisfaction and the entertainment of
their friends they thought what they
were making was cool and they were proud
to show it off again I thought about
this in contrast to my experience as a
teacher education systems tend to use
rewards as motivators the most immediate
reward is a grade once you get a certain
number of those you earn the system’s
ultimate reward
a degree the problem with this is that
the rewards are basically extrinsic not
intrinsic getting a degree for many
students is highly instrumental it is
for them the same as if they were
working all week at an odious job just
to earn enough money to have fun on the
weekend the system does not give them
the tools to be self-motivated it may
provide heroic role models but
unfortunately for most students these
models represent an unattainable
lifestyle that they can only worship
from afar no matter how high their
grades their education can leave them
with a lack of focus a lack of direction
and a lack of confidence many people who
graduate are not sure they can do
anything the system is not geared toward
fostering their growth to a point where
they can develop intrinsic motivation it
often does not give them an opportunity
to do something that matters to them and
that they feel is actually important I
have found that project-based learning
greatly increases intrinsic motivation
my experience with student motivation
comes mainly from my experience at an
elite University in the years when we
used to do the two-week creativity
workshops we would often hear well you
can do that at Stanford but you don’t
know how impossible that would be back
at my school after the first year we
found a way to answer that concern
toward the end of the first week we
screamed a movie called Stand and
Deliver based on the true story of a
high school math teacher Jaime Escalante
it shows how he succeeded in getting
remarkable results by motivating
underperforming economically challenged
students at Garfield High High School in
the predominantly Hispanic ghetto of
East Los Angeles everything was against
Escalante initially the school
administration opposed him the students
had little family support there were no
positive role models and the school had
very limited resources the main thing he
had was his own motivation for his
student success
determined to change the status quo
Escalante had to persuade the first few
students who would listen to him but
they could control their futures with
the right education and he enrolled him
in a newly created calculus class
ultimately he was able to create a math
program that every year turned out
classes in which almost all the students
passed the challenging Advanced
Placement calculus examination the film
is a tear jerker and worth seeing it
served our purpose of inspiring and
motivating attendees in our workshop and
it will do the same for you
the message the workshop participants
always came away with was if Escalante
could accomplish what he did in
circumstances that were many times more
difficult than anything I will ever face
then I cannot hide behind the excuse
that my environment does not support
what I want to accomplish be the cause
in the matter the Escalante story is not
only about education just as my
experiences in China and its Stanford or
not only about teaching all these
stories are about the human experience
they are relevant to all human
interactions and all walks of life they
are relevant to your and my family
situations to mom and pop business to a
startup into a large corporation
it does not matter what you do for a
living or what your job title is or is
not we all face these same issues of how
to get the job done and live a
satisfying life being the cause in the
matter means taking full responsibility
for whatever you’re dealing with and
whatever happens in your life even when
it seems that things are not totally in
your control it’s a declaration of
choice instead of playing the role of
passive protagonist in your life choose
to take charge of your future resolve to
get things done whatever it takes and no
matter how many valid reasons pop up on
a long train ride in China I noticed
that the windows were dirty
I could have complained or sulked about
it instead I got out during a stop got a
bucket of water and washed the windows I
decided to be the cause in the matter of
my trip if you’re missing opportunities
because you’re waiting for someone else
to act consider how empowering it is to
take responsibility for your own
experiences even if we have never met
this book has been about you by telling
you my stories I hope I am motivating
you to look at your life in an honest
and open way underpinning everything is
my assumption that you are willing to
examine your own experiences and make
desired corrections to your future story
this book has offered many tools and
concepts they can only be a value to you
if you are willing to give them a chance
do not prejudge them it doesn’t matter
if you think they are great or not what
matters is whether they prove to be
valuable in your life adopt an attitude
of willingness to give things a chance
allow yourself to test things out and
see what happens without thinking you
know they outcome to test things you
need to give them your attention
attention begins with noticing your
behaviors and interactions notice both
yourself and the people you interact
with what works and what doesn’t luck
had worked better and then test the
various tools and exercises in this book
by inserting them into your everyday
interactions you can do one of them to
start and then at another for example
notice how you and your friends use
reasons then cut back on your use of
reasons just say what you have to say
without justifying it modify your way of
speaking until you are practically
Reason free next notice how much of what
you think and say is clearly a
projection check yourself on projections
you do this by reversing subject and
object in your thoughts or speech be
aware of which version feels closer to
the truth the projection exercise will
not work if you are not honest with
yourself and one of my students told me
that the projection exercises did not
work for me I asked him for an example
he told me that reversing the following
sentence did not work I am listening to
this boring speaker he goes on and on
and does not say anything I asked him to
change the subject in on Jenna he came
up with he is listening to my boring
talk I go on and on and do not say
anything I asked the student if the
reversal felt like it had some truth him
he said no there was an almost audible
sound from the restrained smirks in the
class the other students could not have
imagined he would say no the projection
seemed 100% accurate to all of us this
student regularly came to class
ill-prepared and to fake it he would
ramble on and on repeating the same
inane comments until I found a way to
finally interrupt me clearly he was not
willing to tell himself the truth when
he looked at the sentence reversal it
described his behavior perfectly after I
worked with him for a while he smiled
and admitted there might be something
for him to think about in the projection
exercise unfortunately I will not be
with you to assist you in being honest
with yourself you will need to do it for
yourself
believe me the projection exercise works
if it doesn’t work for you chances are
you are not willing to look at your
truth attempt various slight variations
in the wording
if it still doesn’t work imagine me
standing behind you saying tell yourself
the truth if that still doesn’t work
imagine me standing behind you shouting
bullshit’s after you get the hang of
noticing your use of reasons and
projections move on to reducing the
number of times you say but and start
using and instead then move to some of
the other exercises in this book
informed by your insights and clear
intentions you can use the tools in this
book to modify your behavior eventually
you will think you are getting perfect
that’s when you need to start looking at
the exercises all over again go back to
square one and keep fixing yourself it
will keep you busy until you die it’s
best to think of the material in this
book as a tonic that you need to keep
taking or at least as a seasonal dose
much like an annual flu shot one shot
will not inoculate you for life I speak
from personal experience
I was on sabbatical leave in Sweden
during the day I was leading workshops
on creativity and problem-solving using
many of the techniques described in this
book at night I was losing sleep
wondering about whether I should retire
because I was about to reach what was
then the normal retirement age in the
middle of one of the sessions I realised
I had not applied what I was teaching to
my own problem
that evening I asked myself what would
it do for me if I were tired the answer
was I could stop worrying about whether
I should retire in a flash I realized I
had spent six months thinking about the
wrong problem I now have the real
question how do I stop worrying about
whether to retire the answer was obvious
stop thinking about it now over 15 years
later I can tell you that since that
evening I have never once thought about
retirement I feel really stupid that I
wasted six months on something I didn’t
really care about and then I was doing
it while I was teaching others how to
deal with the right question be smarter
than I was realized that your mind is
trickier than you think and is always
working with your ego to make you
believe you are doing better than you
really are that’s the human condition
what you have going for yourself is that
if you choose to you can be mindful
about controlling both your intentions
and your attention to make your life
better for yourself
and for those around you you can choose
to be the cause in the matter of the
circumstances of your life and you can
instill in yourself the habit of
achievement for a more functional and
satisfying life I hope this book
contributes to those worthy goals the
achievement habit stop wishing start
doing and take command of your life by
bernard roth
[Music]
it’s about my life and it’s about your
life so as Tina says I actually started
as a pretty straight mechanical engineer
out of New York City I still have the
accent and only been off the boat 50
some odd years so takes a while and I
have three degrees in mechanical
engineering that I actually earned and
after my PhD I actually was supposed to
stay at Columbia but I got a free
vacation to California and since my wife
hated New York we ended up staying at
Stanford and I’ve been here since 1962
which is before a lot of you have been
boy so I’ve been here a long time and
the thing to understand is the Stanford
and the Silicon Valley I came to is very
very different but was very different
than it is today and one of the things
that struck me when I was here is a
there was the human potential movement
and all that so I learned there were
other things that machines and robots do
to people and I got interested in that
in creativity but and I started to think
about teaching in addition to the things
I knew something about the things I wish
I had learned in school myself and one
of the things I noticed was that people
talked a lot about starting your own
companies and most of them didn’t in the
design program where I was in me most of
students ended up working for youlet
Packard wellmaybe Ampex which doesn’t
exist anymore ray Kevin which doesn’t
exist but they went to these large
companies and they all had this kind of
pipe dream this fantasy of starting
their own company and that kind of I
didn’t really care but it actually
reminded me of a play called The Iceman
Cometh in a Neil play and in that play
these people are in the bar and the
whole play takes place in the bar and
they talk about leaving the bar and the
whole play nobody leaves the bar and
somehow this whole idea of starting a
company reminded me of that that
bothered me a lot so I decided to start
a course which had in a tube you could
do a project and the project involved
one of two topics one was
do something you’ve never done before in
your life when the other was get rid of
a problem in your life and then we had
all sorts of processes some of the
things I wrote about in the book are
from that class and it kind of was
really interesting because what I hit
upon was this whole idea that if you do
something you’re never the same it’s
kind of really interesting and so people
did projects which you know they weren’t
kind of academic projects they were
jumping out of airplanes and riding
motorcycles and the building stuff and
all that and I noticed the people it
changed people it gave them a kind of
impetus and this whole idea of doing
became a very important part of my life
and my teaching and it’s rather than
talk about it let’s do it and the whole
pragmatic thing is if it works in your
life fine it’ll incorporate it and
change you if you want to if it doesn’t
work forget about it and do something
else so I kind of developed this class
which is cool designers society based on
these principles and my life was pretty
okay and I developed something called
the creativity workshop which we get
around the world and for professors and
that was kind of great and then about 12
years ago or so this thing called the
d.school appeared in my life and it was
sort of a sidelight for me
and then David Kelly who was sort of the
principal of the people who founded it
I’ve got cancer and I was at home
minding my own business Friday night at
about 11 o’clock at night and I got a
call from Jim Plummer who was the Dean
of engineering those days and he said
I’m really uncomfortable with David
being out for his treatments not having
a faculty person in charge there and
would you do that till he comes back so
I said sure I didn’t negotiate or
anything to sit by Monday morning I
walked into the d.school and I never
left
and it totally changed my life and what
it did is it kind of took the things we
have been talking about always we in
those days we called the lead finding
and we change it to new me center design
and it kind of was a way to express all
these things which were kind of they
were kind of part of my life but healing
there was too many other pieces to make
it all come together and when I got to
the desk or it kind of crystallized this
thing we call Design Thinking is really
what we’ve been talking about all along
and we really can use it for the things
rather than designing stuff so let me
just make that clear this this thing
called design thinking the world which
you’ve probably heard about and the way
the name came about its uses methods
that traditionally we use by design as
the design stuff uses some of those
ideas and but now it applies it to
almost everything so it’s it’s very
widespread in business now it’s in
health I cannot tell you how many
different groups want me to talk about
design thinking nurses and trainers and
all this guy you know you name it a
groups of people working with one one so
some I use design thinking in the world
and people come into the d.school and
think we can cure a cancer and all that
so it’s kind of you know kind of gets a
little inflated but really it’s the kind
of useful tool and problem-solving and
all that and what I decided to do is to
apply it to ourselves
and I thought my colleagues would kill
me because one of the things in design
thinking is don’t design for yourself
design for someone else okay and that’s
a really good thing because others can
see things you can’t see but to me it
doesn’t mean you can’t also use it until
something better comes along use it on
yourself and so I try to use the
principles as design thinking and my
ideas and creativity and my teaching
from designer society to make a kind of
holistic thing for you
or me to go forward in the world and
these are things I’ve used with students
for you know forty some odd years so I
know they work and I’ve used them in my
life so I know that they work also so
what I want to do today is share some of
these things with you and the first
thing is this whole idea of problem
solving so first of all problems have a
bad rap not around here because Tina’s
brainwashed everyone that they’re
opportunities but basically in the real
world problems have a bad rap because
people think oh it’s a problem it’s oh
it’s terrible and all that stuff but in
fact it’s important to understand that
that’s that’s where my life force comes
from and I’m sure there are others in
the room whose life force comes for that
also so when I have a problem I’m
excited I can’t sleep I get up I’m
always activated to do that and in fact
that’s kind of what it’s about and one
of my favorite stories is a book that
was written in the 1800s in the Russian
Imperial Russia about a character called
Oblomov and for the first 250 pages of
the book he doesn’t get out of bed and
the whole it-it’s a fantasy but the
whole idea was to be critical this
aristocracy that has no reason to get
out of bed and everything is taken care
of for why would you get out of bed if
everything is taken care of for you
so that’s the kind of idea to understand
about problems it’s a good reason to get
out of bed okay and if people get
depressed they don’t get out of bed you
know so it’s a good song you want to get
out of bed so you get out of bed and
that’s great you got these things which
are energizing and you want to work on
them and we have them in our lives and
most of people in this room are great
problem solvers and I think of myself as
a great problem solver so the question
is why do people like you and me have
things in our lives which are troubling
which we cannot handle how come we’re so
smart you a very smart guy I can tell
right off the bat you’re a smart guy too
and yours
woman right sure we all know that I must
say this is in the side but I went to a
Moorhead memorial service for Sandy dawn
was she was a colleague I knew for many
years from sociology and I heard he
would tell his students don’t worry that
you don’t feel smart when you go home
for Christmas break you’ll feel smart
again so the point this point was
everyone is so smart around here it’s
hard to feel smart okay so whether
that’s true or not it’s a it’s a nice
nice thing so we are here now and the
question is you okay you most of you
address properly you found this room you
kind of got into Stanford you know you
have a lot of accomplishments so why is
it you and I lose sleep about something
okay and I have a theory what that is
and I say that most of the time it’s
because we’re trying to solve the wrong
problem so my statement to you is if you
have a problem that you are really
losing sleep over and that you cannot
solve it’s because you’re working on the
wrong problem so simple as that and I
have seen that in my PhD week you know I
I used to be an expert on robotics
kinematics and stuff like that and I
would have PhD students come in and I
knew the field very well I’ve been
researching for many years
give me problem and we’ve worked for a
couple years and then suddenly we
realized oh it wasn’t really the real
question is this it wasn’t the big
change but we realized suddenly what the
gem was and we did that the student
could finish up in a couple of months
write up and go on with their lives and
it was a really great example where here
we had a lot of expertise and yet we
didn’t know what the real question was
and I’ve seen that when companies come
in and they or consulting things they
ask you to do something and it’s the
wrong question and it appears over and
over again and it certainly appears in
my everyday life so what I want you to
understand is it’s really easy it’s what
we call in the Design Thinking reframing
the problem and the secret is to reframe
it and the question is how do I do that
and the answer is really really simple
and the way I suggest you do it if you
ask yourself what it would do for you if
you solve the problem
you ask yourself what it would do for
and that is the question you want to ask
you something so I’ll give you an
example where I totally failed so I
rented a car and I drove up to the wine
country and eventually the car ran out
of gas
and I pulled into the gas station and I
started to look for the release for the
cover to the gas tank and I must have
looked for ten minutes in the glove
compartment everywhere every place
normal designers would put it and I
couldn’t find it I was kind of
frustrated and then I noticed a similar
car drove up for guests so I went up for
the lady and I said I know it’s a stupid
question but where is the release she
said there is nothing okay and so at
that point I realized what I was doing I
I had made I had framed the question to
where the releases and why would I will
if I played my gang which I did of
course but if I played my game I would
say what would I do for me if I could
find the release I’d be able to get the
cover open so now the question is how do
we get the cover open if you get the
cover open easiest way to look over and
open it up okay so it’s a silly silly
silly trivial question but it in fact
embodies the whole idea okay so what I’d
like you to do is not take my word for
it that it works and I can assure you
it’s worked for thousands of people
around the world and it will work for
you so I would like you to play that
game right now in your own head I’d like
you to and don’t take something like
peace in the world forever you know
that’s not gonna work but take something
literally I do lose sleep over like you
know should you go on the date with
so-and-so which would you do this or
should you go for graduate work
you know something normal and common
though should we tell you roommate she’s
making too much noise at night anything
that bothers you really and that we’re
currently you haven’t been able to solve
even though you’re so smart so take that
problem and ask yourself what it would
do for you if you solve that just I’m
going to be quiet for a few minutes and
ask yourself what do we do if it solve
that and like in my case I would get to
the gas tank cover open and and I change
it to how do I get the gas tank cover
open so in your case you can ask what it
would do for you and you’re going to
change you to a problem okay so go ahead
okay enough of you look alert so I’m
gonna assume most of you gotten there so
does anyone have any troubles doing that
exercise nor is going to figure out what
the new question is so did you have you
figure out what the new question is not
sure you want to want me to interact
with you and enlighten you and save your
life okay could someone have something
okay so so okay great
so so your problem what would happen
what would happen to you if you get to
promise how to get out of bed right not
waking up you wake up you’re awake okay
I’m trying to figure out myself but he
said he has a problem when waking up in
the morning and getting out of bed and
I’m trying to figure out if the waking
up is the problem with the getting out
of bed is the problem the waking up is
fine but getting Vettes the question is
once he’s woken how does he get out of
bed okay so the question you have to ask
yourself is what would it do for you if
okay so now the question is how how do I
get out of bed in the morning okay
so give me some ideas we can can your
brain still can you think of any ways of
getting out of bed in the morning okay
that’s one way okay what else well what
would it do why do you want to get out
of bed in the morning that’s what would
it do for you if you got out of bed in
the morning see you’re not letting go
the original question that’s the issue
so what we do for you so let’s say get
more work done so the question is how do
you get more work done it has nothing to
do with getting out of bed if you’re
real if that’s really you know we’re
just playing a game here but this is the
insight so pay attention this is you
sitting here okay it’s a gift to you
he thinks it’s getting out of bed it’s
not getting out of bed it’s getting more
work done if that’s true so are there
ways to get more work done I could
figure out and stay in bed and get more
work done as an example okay and there
are lots of ways of getting I don’t know
what your life is like but probably you
could think of a hundred ways to get
more work done and if you can’t the
people in this room who know how to do
it they’ll tell you so if you really was
that was the problem
you got you’ve opened up your solution
space so we’ve opened up the solution
space where we no longer hung up on
getting out of bed now it sounds trivial
knows how to get about bed and he does
too so it’s not a great example and it
is a great example you understand what
I’m saying it’s a great example because
the structure is exactly what you’re
doing with your problem it’s exactly
what you’re doing your problem and the
silliest pardon me as silly as this
sounds yours is a silly also okay it’s
as simple as that
let’s try some other victim here who
else and I’m gonna give you a wood I’m
not I’m not the kind of guy who takes
advantage of people without Daniel this
will have more meaning to you later on
okay and I’m gonna give you a reward
even though you didn’t participate so I
give her a ward see there’s
psychological training done the same yes
yes maybe I have to translate all this
so make it very succinctly problem that
you don’t know how to go about changing
social behavior that’s her problem
what would it do for you if you knew how
to go about South changing social
behavior so I want to know how to
generate more donations can you generate
more donations without changing social
behavior see that’s the whole thing is
there any way to generate more donations
without changing social behavior yes
there are there are lots of ways ok I
have a way you take out a gun and you
ask people for money it’s one way right
that’s the way generate more money ok
another way is scamming and swindling
and anyone else anyone know you in bed
you must be thinking of some way to
change me he’s got no seriously see
that’s the point you know she’s locked
into one thing and won’t let go of that
one thing if that’s really the problem
and if you’ve been trying it for 4
months you gotta let go you know I read
somewhere that we have between 50,000
60,000 thoughts a day I don’t know if
that’s true but we do think a lot
however the tricky thing is that 95% of
those are repeated thoughts and 80% of
those are things that are fear and can’t
do kind of thoughts so just sitting and
thinking for 3 months you’re not going
to get another thought about social
behavior I guarantee you so you have to
reframe the problem and the way the
refits like though so you’re not
listening to me you don’t want to do it
but I’m telling you that’s where it is
and it’s really hard to let go of
problems it really is really interesting
people just won’t let go their problem
so if you tell them they say well what
if but cause I don’t let just let go of
it forget about it it’s not working for you
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