While we’re on hiatus preparing for a new season of Rethink the Way You Sell, we wanted to bring you some content from Jeff you probably haven’t heard before. Jeff produced a premium podcast called Deeper Thought from 2020-2022 and you’re about to hear one of those episodes. Enjoy!

This is an enhanced audio version of Andy Racic's Deeper Thought article Can You Capture Lightning In a Bottle. It includes an interview with Jeff Bajorek on the origins and implications of Andy's problem solving process.

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Can you capture lightning in a bottle?

This is Richard Feynman. For uninitiated, Feynman is responsible for many important advancements in physics. He had a hand in the development of the atomic bomb, and received the Nobel Prize in physics for developing the field of quantum electrodynamics. He was by all accounts one of the greatest minds of his generation.

I’m not here to gush about him, though. But rather to expand upon a joke one of his colleagues, Murray Gell-Mann once told. Gell-Mann made up The Feynman Algorithm for solving problems, which he stated as:

1) Write down the problem.

2) Think real hard.

3) Write down the solution.

The algorithm is a joke - until you actually give it a second to breathe.

Problem solving, whether in sales or theoretical physics, is fundamentally a form of creativity. You need to understand very clearly where you’re at, where you want to be, the constraints of the system you’re working in that are preventing you from simply getting from A to B. That’s step 1 – not just stating the problem but stating it as simply as possible, but no simpler.

Step 2, at least for me, is deliberately putting my mind on something else. My conscious brain is OK at solving things, my subconscious brain actually does most of the heavy lifting. After clearly understanding a problem, I deliberately put it out of mind. I do things like taking a walk, going for a bike ride, hanging out with friends, getting some sleep – that’s how I “think real hard.” Some sort of non-focused activity, something that definitely doesn’t look like actually working, is what does the trick. It lets the mind work over problems in the background and then “ta-da!” at seemingly the most random times, almost by divine providence, out of my subconscious an idea pops out (and sometimes it’s not actually terrible.)

Then, step 3, just write the damn thing down.

If you haven’t tried this type of problem solving before, I may sound a bit insane. Trust me just a bit and give it a shot. You might be surprised at the results. I don’t think my mind is special in this way - this type of problem solving works for many people.

Creativity and creative problem solving isn’t something you can necessarily force - but if you create the right environment, you’ll find that you’ll start bottling that particular type lightning far more often.

(Bonus points for the first person to identify the Einstein quote I snuck in above.)

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