I like “Polaroids” as a way to quickly get across the idea of rapid prototyping. Go through a ton of stuff and give it all a quick shot. Then see what sticks and devote more resources to that. That way, failure is cheap. You’re actually expecting failure and embracing the idea that only a small percentage of your ideas are truly good enough to earn a big chunk of your attention.
Recently read this at the Signal vs. Noise blog from the 37signals. As I read this I realized how I have been using this in all my learning experience and in my day to day work.
In my last project at work, the client has some requirements but they didn’t have any plan of implementing it, when they conveyed their requirement and the task came to me, I had no idea how to go about it.
It was the task that we were doing for the first time and I had no precedence and person to turn to. The internet was the only option but that brought contradictory and fractured information. So I soaked up all the info that I felt was relevant and gave each and every technique a quick try, sometimes the thing gave some more insight, sometimes it was a complete waste but I tried on and on.
Sometimes I felt of not trying something because it felt it will not work, but I kept at it and was surprised many times that those tricks that I doubted provided me the much needed help. So finally with all the techniques that I tried few stuck and that formed the basis of delivered product.
The main trick is try everything without any bias. Keep at it. Just try things don’t judge until you have tried everything. This simple but a little time consuming experience will open doors to more creative and useful solutions.
You can apply this similar techniques in learning any software tool, be it catia, solidworks or nastran or ansys. Just try on as many tutorials as you can lay hands on it. Try different combinations of the tutorials as suggested in this previous post.
So what are you waiting for. Next time faced with any learning or challenging assignment you need creative ideas in, Go through a ton of stuff and give it all a quick shot. Somewhere down the line you will get what you want.
