Yesterday I wrote: “Make the time to be more than a Hedgehog“. Among the thoughts within that piece is the concept of the value of being a generalist. David Epstein is the author of “The Talent Gene”. Put concisely, it aims to debunk Malcolm Gladwell’s “Ten Thousand Hours” theory of attaining excellence. As for me, I see the merits in both arguments. Anyway, that book led me to David, who then went on to write: “Range – Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World“.
David also has a podcast called “Range Widely” (love the title, David!), and the latest episode features the write Adam Alter and is entitled: “The Science of Getting “Unstuck“”. My mind was immediately drawn to this concise piece from Adam:
“The most important principle is to take action even if you’re moving sideways. Action is the great unsticker because it necessarily replaces inertia with movement.”
Action is the great unsticker. Love it!
This phrase immediately brought me back to the latin phrase Solvitur Ambulando, or “it is solved by walking”. I’ve written around this topic several times, including “Saunter, don’t hike“. Some of my best solo thinking is done when walking. It is also a great way to “unstick problems”.
Another way I “unstick” things is simply to meet people and have conversations that have nothing to do with the problem to be solved. Any kind of stimulating conversation gets the neurons firing and “unsticks” the mind.
How do you prefer to take action to unstick things?