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What’s the story:
In 2019 I was a first-year engineering student in a research lab.
It was my first engineering job. My first project was to improve medical intubation —- sticking a breathing tube down someone’s throat so they can breathe — using smart magnetic materials by the end of the month. The problem was I had no idea what medical intubation or smart magnetic materials were. And the professor who hired me left for the month.
I was alone on this project with no guidance.
Fast forward past 4 weeks of panic, failure, and research, I had built an MVP by the end of the month.
The Insight:
I was successful by doing 1 thing: Creating a “Don’t Know” Database
A few pages from my “Don’t Know” database
As I learned about intubation & smart materials, I collected any term, name, or concept I didn’t recognize. Find the answer for each of those. After a week, I’d have foundational knowledge for the topic.
It was a quick way to find gaps in my knowledge, fill them in, and apply them.
How can you apply it:
After his 2nd year of grad school at Princeton, Richard Feynman faced his exams.
James Glick writes in his biography, Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman, Feynman would return to MIT—-where he spent his undergraduate years—-to study for his exams.
[He] opened a fresh notebook. On the title page he wrote: NOTEBOOK OF THINGS I DON’T KNOW ABOUT. For the first but not last time he reorganized his knowledge. He worked for weeks at disassembling each branch of physics, oiling the parts, and putting them back together, looking all the while for the raw edges and inconsistencies. He tried to find the essential kernels of each subject.
Not everyone can be Feynman, but everyone can dissect knowledge.
Here’s how you can use it:
Pick a topic.
Use perplexity.ai & ask it “Give me foundational knowledge for [topic]” Here’s an example I did
Take notes on what you read & collect every item you don’t know.
Prompt perplexity.ai for info on those terms.
Repeat steps 3 & 4.
Pro tip: Set a deadline. That way you don’t research forever.
When I was making an MVP, I gave myself 1-week deadlines for research.
If you have a specific goal in mind, use that as a deadline.
Find enough info that allows you to take the next step forward.
The “Don’t Know” database is a great skill that works in any field.
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