Use it in your everyday life for better results
How do you start anything new?
Does the optimal route (tutorial, then actual doing) suit you or the hard way (jumping in directly)?
You might want to reconsider if you were thinking of the optimal route.
When you want to begin or learn something new, you might wonder about the best way to do it. This is where things get tricky because you may start looking for answers and stumble upon a few. You sail your ship for the journey only to find out it doesn’t work for you. Been there.
I’ll give you an example for this:
“The lightbulb inventor,” Thomas Edison, made about 1000 unsuccessful attempts at building the lightbulb.
What do we learn from this? *It’s something other than determination*
Nowadays, we have different types of lightbulbs that have evolved based on the original bulb to be more efficient and powerful.
Do you think Thomas Edison would have invented the bulb if he were to try and create an optimal version? The only caveat was that there was no optimal way for him to look, so he would have to figure that out, and if it failed — The cycle would continue.
As we can learn from the above example sometimes we have to try brute force approach in order to get something. It might not be that efficient in giving you the best solution.
However, sometimes its better to give up efficiency rather than never starting because you were busy finding the optimal approach.
“We now know that there are two thousand elements which we cannot use to make a good light bulb.”
— Thomas Edison’s take on unsuccessful attempts
Brute force is widely used when writing code because it’s better to write a working code first than an optimal one. Now that it works, you can look forward to optimizing your work.
How about we use this technique in our personal lives?
Become an inventor and use brute force to solve problems in your life. Then try to optimize the solution to be even better.
Solutions optimized by others might not work that well for you because of your conditions. Even if your favourite creator gives away a strategy that works well for them, it might not suit you. However, take it, give it your touch, and put it to the test.
The “one size fits all” isn’t all that true.
Here are some of the ways you can use the brute-force approach
1) Budgeting
Try every possible budgeting strategy until you find one that works for you. Some people like to be a little geeky while some do it in a traditional way.
It might not be everyone’s cup of tea to open an Excel sheet, calculate expenses, and try to remove the excess ones. Some people might do it using the “elegant way” by using a book.
For e.g. Envelope method, 50/30/20 rule
2) Decision making
Weigh all the possible options and outcomes before making a decision. Sometimes, it’s better to consider all your options if you have the time.
E.g. Career choices, buying a house.
3)Time management
Try different scheduling and prioritization techniques until you find a system that works for you (difficult yet promising). This is where you can really hit home with this technique and find the best way to manage your time.
You might hear people say successful people wake up early in the morning. However, if you wake up early like them but do nothing, then it doesn’t matter. It’s all about what you do for yourself and other important things on a given day.
4) Learning some new skill
*I know this might be a new one for you*
Haven’t you ever felt that the tutorialand isn’t all that beautiful?
I’ll be honest with you. Sometimes it sucks going through all the teeny-tiny details when you have just started learning. It takes away your energy day after day. You might learn new things without enjoying the process (A recipe for disaster).
Wouldn’t it be better to build creative yet daunting projects?
This is where brute force can be used. Take on a project or task that requires you to learn a specific topic to work on the project. This will improve your learning because you sought it out and implemented it.
Final Thoughts
If you enjoy learning something, you will keep doing it longer than others. Try to use brute force and see if you can benefit. It’s better to build a less efficient system that works for you than to pick an optimized one that doesn’t serve your needs. Be open to making mistakes, be persistent and don’t be afraid to try new things. Keep track of your progress and make adjustments as needed.
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