Category / curiosity

by Nathan Coumbe

The “Slip Box” method for career planning

Modern science texts tell high school students that they must first formulate a hypothesis and then conduct experiments to determine whether or not that hypothesis is true.

But that’s the opposite of what Charles Darwin did. He didn’t start out with a developed idea for the theory of natural selection. When he set out aboard the S.S. Beagle and traveled to the Galapagos Islands, he had no hypothesis.

Instead, Darwin set out to observe and collect notes and ideas.

The accumulation of these observations, learnings, ideas, and notes led to the formulation of a hypothesis and the subsequent development of the theory. He worked from the ground up, not from a hypothesis backward, like the “slip box” note-taking approach explained by Sönke Ahrens in How to Take Smart Notes.*

Cal Newport’s advice in So Good They Can’t Ignore You seems similar in this regard. Common career advice is to find something you’re “passionate” about and find a way to make that passion fit a job or career. But he argues the opposite—passion comes after someone develops experience in a job, skill, or career path. It’s not the catalyst (at least not in most cases).

One could argue that the “Slip Box” approach taken by researchers and scientists—gathering lots of ideas first, then developing an argument—would similarly benefit career planning.

Don’t start with a predetermined passion or career path. Instead, begin with exploration, discovery, and experimentation.

The result will be a fully fleshed-out and rewarding career with passion as the byproduct.

*Ahrens’s book is one of my favorites and directly responsible for my ability to write as much as I do.

The premise is simple to understand: collect ideas and write notes to yourself about your thoughts when reading, studying, or observing without worrying about “what it’s for. Over time, you’ll have collected so many ideas and come up with so many original ideas that different arguments and hypotheses will form almost of their own accord.

by Nathan Coumbe

Fashionably late

It makes no sense to show up at an event a half hour late.

Why do it? Seemingly, you want to avoid being “first” and miss out on the awkwardness that comes from breaking the ice.

So what happens? Dinner is set for 7:00, but everyone shows up at 7:30—ironically, at the same time.

Why wait? If you all show up at the same time, why be late?

Why not show up together… on time?

by Nathan Coumbe

Kramer is a genius

Okay. He’s an idiot, but I’m trying to make a point here. 

If you’re familiar at all with the TV show “Seinfeld”, you know all about Cosmo Kramer—the wacky neighbor who lives next door to Jerry. 

One of his quirks is his constant ideation around new inventions and business ideas. 

  • A giant rubber bladder on ships to contain oil spills
  • A periscope on the top of a car to see upcoming traffic
  • A tiny studio apartment full of “levels”
  • A pizza place where you make your own pizza

Okay, that last one is actually a brilliant idea, if you ask me. Who wouldn’t pay for that?

The problem with Kramer is that 1) he never executes on any of his ideas, and 2) most of them are completely unfeasible. 

But how is that any different from you or me? 

How many ideas have you come up with this week? This month? This year? 

Probably quite a few. And most of them are (forgive me) completely stupid. I know many of mine are. 

But a handful of them were (and are) not only feasible, but outright genius! 

This is the creative process at work. You have to come up with tons of bad ideas to make room for the few good ones. 

Volume is your friend here. Spending a little time each day asking yourself, “What about this? What if I tried this? What could I do with this? What if someone did this?”

Most of your ideas (like Kramer’s) will be completely useless. Throw them out—don’t give them a second thought. 

But when you find one (or two or three) that could actually be useful to the rest of the world, write them down. Better yet, do something with them!

I think it was Jim Rohn (but I might be wrong) who said something like, “Most people have 3 or 4 ideas every year that, if acted upon, would make them millionaires.”

So your obstacles here are two-fold: 

  1. You need to come up with LOTS of ideas (which means spending time getting bored and walking while thinking and not drowning out your thoughts with music, TV, podcasts, or books)
  2. AND you need to take a little action on the ideas that you think are winners

Keep a notebook nearby, or a note open on your computer. And just throw stuff into it. 

Later, go back and separate the chaff from the wheat. 

Who knows? You might have your million-dollar idea sitting on a sticky note on your desk. 

by Nathan Coumbe

What do I need to hear today?

You may have noticed by now, but…

Many of my blog posts probably seem like they’re written for me. 

That’s by design—this blog, more than anything, is a way to get my thoughts out of my head and into the world. And often, these thoughts are ones I wish someone had told me years ago. Or perhaps reminders of what’s important. Or what I need to pay attention to.

This isn’t uncommon. One of the greatest books of philosophy was never meant for publication. 

It was a journal that Marcus Aurelius wrote in every day to remind himself how to live. To practice what he was learning. To gird himself against the trials and tribulations of his time (and there were many). That book became Meditations.

St. Augustine also had a journal that became a book of wisdom. As did Ralph Waldo Emerson. Their musings became widespread, even though that wasn’t the goal. 

So maybe you should start a daily blog. Or a daily YouTube video. 

Not because you’ll get famous. Or because you’ll make a lot of money. (You probably won’t do either.) 

Do it to stretch that muscle of putting your ideas into the world. And maybe also to tell yourself what you need to hear.

Who knows? Maybe someone else will benefit from it too.

by Nathan Coumbe

A childish sense of wonder

We have completely lost our sense of wonder. Everyone’s in such a hurry that we can’t take the time to appreciate the little things that surround us.

I was out for my daily Artist’s walk and passed a mom and her child. The child was taking tiny steps left and right into the grass, off the path, fascinated by every little thing that he saw. 

Meanwhile the dad was snapping impatiently at the son and the wife: “Hurry up, move faster! Come on, let’s go, let’s get out of here!” 

I was so pleased to see mom stand up for her little boy. She said, “But Daddy, there’s so much to see!“ There was, and he was adamant about exploring every bit of it.

  • What if we could once again find fulfillment from the grass between our toes?
  • How much nicer would life be if a special pinecone fascinated us?
  • Remember that feeling of finding an unusual leaf and wanting nothing more than to stick it in your pocket and take it home?

We could all use a little bit more of that childish wonder in our lives.

by Nathan Coumbe

Are We Really “Born to Do” Anything?

It’s a question asked by lots of career counselors, coaches, and well-meaning advisors.

“What do you feel you were ‘born to do?'”

What if the honest answer is we aren’t born to do anything specific?

There is an entire area of philosophy dedicated to this idea that was first theorized by John Locke. (You can check out the basics here.) But I’m focusing on talents and passions today.

Was Van Gogh born to paint? Was Steve Jobs born to create the iPhone? Seth Godin would argue no. His answer to this question is simple. Here’s how I understand it:

No one is predetermined to use a certain medium for his or her art. We simply adopt the means and medium of whatever is available to us in our time.

In one of his podcast episodes, Seth says he doesn’t believe that Van Gogh would have painted with oils had he been born in the 20th century. Nor would Steve Jobs have created the iPhone had he been born in the 1700s (the resources and advancements in science were not available for that to have been possible).

And yet, each of us is genetically unique. You have never occurred before and will never occur again in this universe. Surely that means that we are born with innate talents and leanings.

Part of me thinks that’s true. And yet part of me also believes, as career coach Dan Miller says, “Passion is more developed than discovered.”

By this, he means we become passionate about things we engage with over and over again.

I find this idea incredibly liberating. Why? It means if we aren’t satisfied with what we are doing—if our passions are no longer feeding or fueling us—we can choose a new passion. We can develop it to something that feels like we were born to do it.

Maybe, in the end, it all comes down to choice and what’s available to us in our time.

What do you think? Were you born to do something? Leave a comment today!

by Nathan Coumbe

Why Do We Say “You’re Welcome”?

When you think about it for any length of time at all, it’s utter nonsense.

“Thank you,” says your customer.

“You’re welcome,” you reply.

You’re welcome….to what? You’re welcome to ask for help again in the future? You’re welcome to more of the same?

Why aren’t people shouting, “What am I welcome to?!”

There are so many options available to us other than an automatic “You’re welcome.” The phrase is automatic and useless. I’ve always wondered why we use it.

We can say, “It was my pleasure,” implying that you genuinely enjoyed helping them. Chick-fil-A’s employees are getting it right. (And yes, I realize it’s engrained in them and automatic, much like “You’re welcome.” It may not actually be their pleasure to help me. That’s a subject for a different post.)

Or my favorite: “I’m happy to help.” When I say it, I genuinely mean it. And by saying it, I actually feel happy that I helped that person.

It’s time to do away with this nonsensical phrase and replace it with something genuine and meaningful.

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by Nathan Coumbe

Empathic Learning

The 5th habit Dr. Covey writes about in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is all about empathic listening: “seek first to understand, then to be understood.” Empathic listening is putting aside our own narratives, judgements, assumptions, and listening from the other person’s point of reference. When we do this, we become students learning something new from another point of view.

For some reason this morning, I was thinking about my time in college studying my favorite subjects in history, subjects I had been studying since I was a small child. Sad to say, I remember listening to lectures and discussions with my professors from my own frame of reference: “I already learned all about that. Let me tell you what I already know about this subject to impress you.” 

I was the guy who would ask “deep, insightful questions,” when in reality, I was simply asking questions that showed my knowledge of the subject.

How vain, immature, and dumb I was! Had I only been listening––not from my own frame of reference, from the mindset of what I already knew––and instead adopted that wide-eyed curiosity of a child, I could have learned and retained so much more than I did. I would have been able to see the same ideas and subjects in a new light or with new perspectives. 

Instead, I listened to validate what I already thought I knew.

Empathic listening doesn’t just apply to difficult or emotional conversations with relationships in your life. It also must be employed in any learning environment to get as much out of it as possible.

by Nathan Coumbe

Creating Football Fans

There are two components to learning a subject:

  1. You must want to learn whatever the subject is.
  2. You must constantly engage with the subject until it becomes a part of you.

This is how die-hard football fans (and players) are made. We don’t give them a textbook and test them on all the information it contains – we create an environment where a person wants to learn about the sport, and then we expose them over and over again until it becomes a part of his or her identity.

How do we replicate this in a classroom? How can we create people, children and adults, obsessed with learning something other than sports?

We’ve gotten really good at creating a culture obsessed with football; we’ve done a poor job of creating a culture obsessed with history, literature, or science.

by Nathan Coumbe

Artist-of-All-Arts

I don’t think I’ve ever met a single artist who was not a jack-of-all-trades in the arts and humanities–an “artist-of-all-arts” if you will.

It seems every artist is not only attracted to multiple forms of art but develops skill in multiple areas as well.

My late friend Michael McNally was a brilliant cellist and a gifted, passionate actor. My friend Lindsey is a skilled artist, photographer, designer, and also a singer with a beautiful voice. (You can see some of her work here and here.) Another friend of mine, Alden, is one of the best photographers I know as well as a talented artist and connoisseur of music.

It seems to me that anyone attracted to the arts and humanities is attracted to all of them. It’s as if once the right brain is fully engaged, it looks for beauty everywhere. 

Such is the life of an artist, and why, I suppose we can seem to others to be so scattered in our work and interests–and perhaps feel that way about ourselves. 

An artist is a lover of beauty no matter its form, so we chase it everywhere.

What about you? What forms of art are you attracted to or skilled in? Let me know in comments below!

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