How to Solve Problems like an Expert

How you become an expert? Many people think that you will become an expert if you study hard and gain a lot of experience. Study and experience may be necessary to become an expert, but in and of themselves, they are not sufficient. People who think otherwise can work for years and years before they nally realize that they were wrong. In all domains experts have more than just a lot of knowledge and experience. Because they think differently, they are able to solve problems that stump everyone else.

How is an expert different from a competent person who is not an expert? Take as an example the distinguished neurologist Norman Geschwind, until his death one of the leading experts in the world. Most competent doctors are products of their professional training. The more highly competent they are, the more meticulously they follow the accepted rules and principles they were taught. On the other hand, an expert like Dr.Geschwind is someone who understood when accepted knowledge applied and when you needed to .nd something different. Experts listen to their instincts even when most other competent people would go along with the crowd.

In the mid twentieth century ,when Geschwind entered medicine, an antilocalization bias dominated neurology. At the time, neurologists did not consider the specic part of the brain damaged to be especially important. This was particularly true in the case of aphasia, a neurological condition that affects people ability to understand and producelanguage.While working in an aphasia unit,Geschwind noticed thatthere were marked differences from one aphasia patient to another. In spite of his lessons from medical school,it was obvious to Geschwind that differences among patients were associated with the location of the brain damage.As a result,he was able to offer precise diagnoses that eluded his more conventional colleagues.

If you observe real experts,you will notice they differ from one another as much as they differ from everyone else.Why is that?Experts tend to develop their own personal working style.Some are systematic and orderly;others wait for the moment of sudden discovery.Some think about design and aesthetic issues right from the start;others prefer to begin working on functional problems and only integrate design later on.Some like to wake up early and .nish early;others do their best work late at night. Can you learn to solve problems like an expert? To become an expert problem solver,you .rst need to know the techniques that the best problem solvers use.But you cannot just rigidly follow other people methods.You also need to think about your own natural problem solving style.You can know the methods that even the most eminent scientists use.But you will not become an expert problem solver until you integrate these techniques into your own natural style. Mind consciousness can help you learn to solve problems like an expert just as it helps to extend your mind in other directions.If you could learn problem solving simply by reading a book,mind conscious ness might be super .uous.The process is different when you need to integrate something new into your existing style of thinking.It makes sense to begin by understanding your own natural problem solving style.