I love the concept of having favourite problems to work on. I did an exercise to start my 2023 with my 12 favourite problems. There were a few that I worked on meticulously and a few that I lost interest in. I reviewed the progress I made with my last years’ questions.
My approach to problem-solving is to carry around a dozen interesting problems, and a dozen interesting solutions to unrelated problems, and eventually, I’ll be able to make connections. […]. Every time you hear a new trick or a new result, test it against each of your twelve problems to see whether it helps. Every once in a while there will be a hit, and people will say, ‘How did he do it? He must be a genius!’
Richard Feynman
In setting my intentions for 2024. Here are my new favourite problems.
- How do I go from cooking edible food to cooking tasty food while maintaining a healthy diet?
- How do I incorporate strength training, core training, and swimming in my daily routine?
- With the location and type of work that I have, how can I enjoy more sunlight this year?
- What writing routine will I need to publish 100 posts about my curiosities?
- How do I find that line between publishing shitty essays for the sake of consistency and improving my writing by publishing essays?
- How do I spend more time with friends and family?
- How do I consume better content? How do I create more than I consume?
- How do I replace doom scrolling time with reading time?
- What field/s can I choose and learn about to reach it’s frontiers?
There are two more on the list, but I will keep those to myself for now.
These problems are signposts to satiate my curiosity and give me a direction for the year ahead. I’m excited to use these as a compass to direct my attention and curiosity.
Shubham Khoje 