What problem do you want to solve?
Shelly Humbach • Apr 21, 2020
As “stay at home” orders continue on for many states, you may find yourself with some extra time on your hands. Have you run out of puzzles, family game night getting old, have you reached the end of the internet? Maybe it’s time to think about some of life's big questions – like “what do you want to be when you grow up?”. But before you start there, consider this advice from Jaime Casap.
Jaime Casap is the Education Evangelist at Google. He promotes the power of technology and the web as tools to transform education. He’s also an author and sought-after speaker and he has some different ideas around choosing a career path. He says the question of “What do you want to be?” is the wrong question. What do you want to be leads you to pick a job that exists now. But things are changing rapidly – that job may not exist in the future. Instead, Jaime says to focus on the three questions below.
1. What problem do you want to solve?
2. How do you want to solve that problem?
3. What do you need to learn to solve that problem (knowledge, skills, and abilities)?
Check out this episode
of his video blog for more detail as he travels to several locations to talk about this idea. Fun tip – watch to the very end to see Jaime encounter a COVID appropriate piece of technology (even though this video was filmed a year ago).
Take Action
What problem do you want to solve? Start small with a problem you could tackle right now. It might not be your future career path but it’s a good exercise nonetheless. Think about the unique perspective you can bring and check out some online resources (YouTube videos, websites, or apps) that could help you build your skills. Maybe the problem right now is your mom’s cooking. If you solve that one – your family will thank you!
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