In high school, one of my professors gave me a riddle that only one other student had solved in his tenure.
The setup is simple: you have 12 steel balls. They all look the same and feel the same yet one is either heavier or lighter than the rest. Using a balance, how do you use least number of weighings you can do to determine which ball has a different weight and whether it’s lighter or heavier?
On an empty Sunday afternoon, I set out for a walk to unlock the insight behind this problem. I walked, grabbed stones on the side of the road, and iterated.
I tested several different methods. I created principles to guide me in the right direction. I kept trying and failing.
After a couple of hours, I’d come to the solution. While it’d be nice to look at this problem and think that my determination proved I could solve anything, it’s not that simple.
Because while I received immediate feedback and quickly iterated on a solution, nothing in the world is this simple. Well, nothing worth spending your life on.
The Feedback Gap
This past year, I created a product that I thought would revolutionize the creator economy. A service that connected creators to their audience through paid Q&A, I thought I hit the jackpot. After reaching out to many creators, I…
