Earned Secrets V2 = 1. Find problem + 2. Do the work to build / level up a solution (AKA earn a secret)

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By Duncan Anderson. To see all blogs click here.

Reading time: 4 mins

Summary:

  • Idea = 1. Have problem + 2. Solution at the same time 

  • Earned Secret = 1. Encounter problem + 2. Then do the work to build a solution (this normally takes a while)

  • I don’t believe there are ‘ideas’, I do think one can do the work to ‘Earn a Secret’. 

For reference here is the blog on ‘Earned Secrets V1’. FYI it’s materially different from this blog. 

I don't have ideas. I find problems and then I work to build solutions (AKA earn a secret).

  • If you are new to problem space (Job To Be Done), then you almost always start off at Level 0. 

  • How much work is needed to level up to Level 1? 

    • 10 years ago it took me on average 100 hours to level up. 

    • 5 years ago 50 hours. 

    • Now it can be as short as 10 hours to level up. 

  • Sometimes you have already done a bunch of work in a problem space and have an existing L5 solution. But you think it’s worthwhile trying to improve this, so you do the work to go from L5=>L6. Other times you are starting at L0. 

The biggest problem is figuring out what the problem is. 

  • Sometimes figuring out the problem isn’t that hard. Eg we want to build a better Australian Year 7 Maths resource. So you do the process of figuring out a solution to the problem. In the case of Edrolo recently it took 1.5 years to build a ‘solution’ for Year 7 Maths. 

  • Other times figuring out the problem is much more difficult, eg what is the best way to start with helping the US education system? We can help any part of America, any year level and any product. It’s been ~6 months of looking at the US and I’d say we are on the 4th version of the problem. One strategy is to try to identify the biggest problem students and / or teachers have. 

  • I used to go around hoping for ideas AKA instant simultaneous problem identification and solution generation. I used to think ‘I’m not an ideas person’ because I don’t believe this has ever happened to me. 

  • Now I go around trying to find problems that I think are worth solving, then I wrestle with the problem space for an extended period of time to level up solution sets. This is doing the work to ‘Earn a Secret’. This is how I believe I’ve had all my ‘ideas’. 

Can one be systematic about doing the work to level up on a solution AKA Earn a Secret? I think so. 

  • This blog covers one of my approaches: Learning Modalities: Reading, thinking, talking, writing, building and user testing.

  • Effectively I cycle through ‘reading, thinking, talking, using existing product, building and user testing’ as quickly as possible. Each cycle normally equates to a unit of learning. 

  • Done well I'll be able to get 1-3 cycles / units of learning a week. 

  • Sometimes I can level up in one cycle, other times it takes 10+ cycles. However if you are persistent and systematic I find that levelling up is inevitable. 

Dunning Kruger - The more I know the less I know

  • I’ve found there are almost always solutions in a problem space I'm looking at… but I may not know that initially. It’s possible to be so green that you aren't aware of any solutions to the problem space you have identified, then you start doing cycles of learning by eg going through the learning modalities and you realise ‘ok wow, there are heaps of existing solutions out there!’ 

  • Sometimes I'll go from L0 to L1 and think I've done something new haha. When in actual fact I’ve just done enough work to realise what solutions are actually out there. 

  • Where is the existing high water mark? Some times at L1. But normally not. It could be L10 or more.

  • Sometimes it takes 3 months to get to be the new high water mark, sometimes it takes 1.5 years (AU Year 7 maths), other times longer. 

  • Sometimes it takes me going from L0=>L5 to even know where the existing high water mark is, eg L10. I find it's almost always possible to do the work needed to build a product to be the new high water mark. The bigger question is whether or not you should do the work… Or find a new problem to work on… Or normally to modify the problem space (job to be done) to allow becoming the new high water mark a lot easier. I often find that the secret to problem solving is changing the problem to make it easier to solve! But this is a topic for another day. 

  • You have to start somewhere. 

I almost never skip levels. I don't come new to a problem (Job To Be Done) and off the bat have a Level 10 solution. 

  • I start off at Level 0. Then slowly level up. 

  • I think I’m wildly more systematic at levelling up today than I was 5 years ago. So progress from one level to the next is much faster… but there still isn’t skipping levels! 

If you only take away one thing

  • I think the media can propagate a story that there are ‘creative people and not creative people’. There are product oracles like Steve Jobs and then normal people. 

  • Jingle: I have an idea for you, there is such thing as ideas (instant simultaneous problem identification and solution generation). 

  • I do strongly believe you can do the work to earn a secret. I’ve read a bunch about how people create products at companies like Apple, Google, Tesla, etc etc. IMO the iPhone wasn’t Job’s sering product idea, but the slow cumulative building of many earned secrets put together into a cohesive whole. 

  • Learning how to earn secrest is a key to success! 

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Addendum - Some industries / companies are constantly levelling up, others not so much

  • iPhone

    • It took building the iPod and many earned secrets to build the iPhone. It took building the iPhone to build the Apple watch. 

    • The iPhone was L1 at the start. Mainly a touch screen, no app store even! 

    • Now the iPhone is likely L100. 

    • It might be possible to catch up and overtake but likely cost billions of dollars? 

  • Tesla self driving

    • I believe for the last seven years in a row Elon has said ‘Tesla will have self driving finished this year’. 

    • Elon thought the line of sufficiency was L10, then L50, then L100, etc. 

    • I think that Tesla are levelling up faster in self driving than ever before. Maybe 5 years ago they levelled up 10 levels in that year. This year Tesla might level up 100 levels. 

    • If someone started today you might never catch up. 

    • Listen to this podcast if you want to understand what levelling up for Tesla self driving looks like. 

  • Google search

    • In ~1998 Larry Page and Sergey Brin created one signal ‘PageRank’ and were able to become the new high water mark for search. Somewhat amazingly their L1 solution was the new high water mark! 

    • When I was at Google in 2011 I think Google had ~400 signals they were munging together for search and I’m assuming it is way more now. 

    • Google search is probably at L1000 now. Catching up with them likely requires herculean effort or some big insight. 

  • Secondary education resources

    • I think the high water mark is normally L5-L10. IE not nearly as high as Google Search. 

    • A good maths textbook 20 years ago is likely a good maths textbook today. Try using Google search from 2002. 

    • One of the reasons for this is that I think it’s relatively easier to cumulatively stack learnings (earned secrets) in code than it is in humans. Effectively Google Search or a Tesla factory has most of the work in upgrading the process, not much work in execution. You just let the machines run for the execution. 

    • But in something like writing a secondary textbook there is much writing aka executing that cannot be done by machines. I hope Edrolo can massively level up in accumulating and systematising learning AKA earned secrets.