> It’s more productive to ask, “How can I?” than it is to ask, “Can I?” The latter is the question that comes to mind more readily, especially when faced with a new or unique challenge…I have learned how to ask, “How can I?” From there, a path of action inevitably reveals itself.
Also, last week on HN there was a post about how uniqueness bias holds us back by causing us to disregard learnings from the solution of similar problems. (While a problem may be unique to us, it is rarely unique to the world - though perhaps in a different costume.) It’s telling here that the author says he defaults to the less productive “Can I?” mindset when he sees his challenge as unique - and also that he opens the article with the realization that he is not unique.
> It’s more productive to ask, “How can I?” than it is to ask, “Can I?” The latter is the question that comes to mind more readily, especially when faced with a new or unique challenge…I have learned how to ask, “How can I?” From there, a path of action inevitably reveals itself.
Also, last week on HN there was a post about how uniqueness bias holds us back by causing us to disregard learnings from the solution of similar problems. (While a problem may be unique to us, it is rarely unique to the world - though perhaps in a different costume.) It’s telling here that the author says he defaults to the less productive “Can I?” mindset when he sees his challenge as unique - and also that he opens the article with the realization that he is not unique.