Abstract
Richard Feynman kept a handful of favourite problems in his head all the time. Whenever he came across a new trick or result, he tried it on each of them, and every so often one of the problems gave way. People who only saw the result thought it was genius. The mathematician Gian-Carlo Rota passed the advice on: keep about a dozen problems in view.
The list works as a filter. With twelve open questions, the things you read and hear have something to stick to, so ideas pile up around them instead of slipping away. After a few months it's usually obvious which problems keep attracting notes, and those are good candidates to work on.
Method
- 01
Write your problems
List up to twelve open questions you care about, each phrased as a question.
- 02
Capture as you go
Jot down ideas and observations when they come up, with a word on where you found them.
- 03
Check each note against all twelve
For every new note, ask whether it helps with any of your problems, and link it to each one it touches.
- 04
Look for the pattern
Notice which problems keep collecting notes and which ones get nothing.
- 05
Retire and replace
Mark problems as solved or dropped, and let a new question take the slot.
When to use it
- You read and listen to a lot, but little of it sticks.
- You want a research or writing direction to emerge over time instead of picking one now.
- You keep starting projects and want to see which interests last.
Common pitfalls
- Writing topics instead of questions. “Cities” gives an idea nothing to answer; “how do cities stay walkable?” does.
- Holding on to problems that never get any notes. Dropping one makes room for a better one.
- Capturing notes without linking them. Checking against all twelve is the whole method.
- Making every problem enormous. Include a few you could make progress on this year.
Origin and references
Attributed to Richard Feynman, as told by Gian-Carlo Rota (1997).
- Rota, G.-C. (1997). Ten lessons I wish I had been taught. Notices of the American Mathematical Society, 44(1), 22 to 25.
- Forte, T. (2022). Building a Second Brain. Atria Books.