Kyeli Smith is pretty fucking smart. She understands a few things about problem solving—first and foremost, that formidable mythical monsters are excellent multitaskers.

She understands that sometimes the most confusing and difficult problems are best solved with unorthodox solutions.

She understands that the solution you’re searching for is sometimes the one hiding in a rarely-sought (or ridiculous) corner.

And she understands that sometimes the shape of the solution isn’t technically real, but its effect on the problem is. Even if the hydra she decides to hire is actually a very talented (human) assistant, the hydra in her head is the solution, because it allows her to hand off a powerfully overwhelming mindset to a delegate, and thereby move forward through her life less encumbered, freed for challenges ahead.

If the hydra she decides to hire is entirely “imaginary” (who can suppose under such circumstances?), it accomplishes the same results.

Search everywhere for solutions. They don’t exist only where you think to look.

I was making a video where I explained how I’d just taken a very nice nap and had driven two hours from Austin to College Station and how we’d left two hours late and I was pretty freaking tired when we got here but I had some food and juice and slept and felt better and was thinking I should work but mostly just sitting around waiting for dinner when I spilled beet juice on my shirt and gasped, because I didn’t bring any extra clothes for this weekend, so I abandoned my video and washed out my shirt in the sink and then couldn’t figure out how best to dry it until I rung it out rolled up in a towel and then had the simply grand idea to do this perilous thing:

I only got what I had coming—I should have been making a more interesting video!

What I should have done was make my video topless, in order to properly illustrate the post I’m going to make about Aggiecon’s sad, sad 2008 anti-nipple policy. Since my shirt’s all dry now you’ll have to do without the Real Live Nudity (my condolences), but I WILL show you the gorgeous prints I picked up last year (they have excellent nudity) and I’ll tell you the story of how I came to purchase them. It is a brave tale of woe and circumspection, a tale of courageous deeds and fair maidens rescued from the clutches of evil censorship overlords. Promise.

I might also tell you about how I found a vloggification solution for way less than I expected, and while I’m waiting for my JVC (which I should have sometime next week, I think) I will be making a few Aggiecon videos with my handy dandy Flip Ultra. This thing is pretty spiffy, folks. We’ll see how it holds up. ;}

And now, back to work—my master tasklist waits for no one. (Well, sometimes it waits for me…)

Update: Marty came back to the room with news of the art show. We’ll post more later, but for now: “The Boobie Guy.”

In successful Google searches, all you really need to do is find the right search phrase. You can do dozens of searches but until you find just the right phrase, the information you’re looking for can stay buried forever. It can take hours. Days. (Way more than that. Ages!)

But the minute you find the right search phrase, everything turns around. The information is right there. It seems incredibly easy, and you can’t believe it took you so long to find it.

Problem solving is like that, too. All it takes is the right thought, and suddenly you have no problem at all. You’ve found the solution.

The way I find alternate search phrases when I’m doing web research is the same way I find alternate idea patterns in problem solving. I take all the knowledge I have—including possible answers—and turn it over in my head (like a Rubiks Cube). I look at it from all sides. I figure out what it would look like (or sound like, or smell like) if I turned it inside out, or stuck one half on backwards, or liquidified it, or covered it in sequins. Once I name the thing I’ve created, I have a new idea to try—or a new search phrase.

Once you get the hang of doing this very fast, you can come up with dozens or hundreds of ideas or solutions or search phrases for just one problem (or question). The more ideas you generate, the greater the possibility that you’ll plug one in and find an excellent solution sitting right there in front of you. Whistling innocently and twiddling its thumbs. Like it was there the whole time.

Little stinker.

The more focused I am, the more I realize that my job isn’t truly about design or project management. My job is about identifying and solving problems. And that’s the thing I love the most about doing my job.

What’s your job really about?