While introducing my 10yo to Ages of 3 children problem some days ago - I went to down the memory lane. It was one of the lows of my life during the year 1999 - ‘99highs is what I call them now - I was uncertain about my future after not clearing any of the premier engineering colleges entrance exams. This uncertainty led to a complete confidence bankruptcy. So much so that in a coaching class, when one of the teachers asked me the meaning of my name - despite knowing it I could not muster the courage to speak up and then spoke the incorrect one as prompted by a student nearby.
One of the several micro confidence boosters [will talk about those in another post] that ultimately led me to name that phase as ‘99highs - was me solving Ages of 3 children problem while many students gave up citing insufficient information. 21 yrs on, solving this puzzle with my 10yo - I realized managing uncertainty is the learning that this problem imparts [before reading any further, I recommend you try to solve the problem].
Here are my learnings how individuals and teams can deal with uncertainty. I am myself trying to adopt them.
Do not try to eliminate uncertainty: Learn to embrace it instead. You are not alone facing it. Our education system has led us to believe that life is a game with defined scope and specific rules to win else you loose. Life is a different game - there is no defined scope and rules change continuously - just playing the game is winning and there can be multiple winners. Accept it.
Take the First Step: Stop thinking and start doing. Take the first step with whatever information you have. Then take the next step, and next, and next. Do not freeze yourself thinking about the whole rather figure out the things as you go along. "I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward. I haven't failed - I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." – Thomas Edison.
Its a Terrain not a Tunnel: The steps you take to move forward are not always linear. Try out different paths - pickup new skills, try out new things you may never know how they would connect in future. As Steve Jobs said: “You can’t connect the dots looking forward you can only connect them looking backward”. Trust that dots will somehow connect in future and move on.
Systems over Goals: Focus on systems and goals will follow. Netflix would not have reached where it is today had it just focused on a specific goal. Rather they had a system in place which was to have best of the best talent in the organization [they refer to it as Talent Density] - and the results [exceptional Growth, engaging Content, state of the art Engineering] automatically took care of themselves.
I hope you did try to solve the Ages of 3 children problem - if not, go back try it.
Though Math is about being certain, solving the puzzle did help me with lessons on dealing with Uncertainty.
Hope you felt the same!
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