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.