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Tilling the soil is an accepted practice in agriculture. If you don’t till your soil, your fellow farmer will think you have lost your mind. You will soon lose your land too, because there will be no harvest.

Prepare your mind in the workplace by learning about topics you would not normally read about. An earlier blog talks about cross training as a way to do this. If you like to spend time with specifics, devote some time to abstract thinking. if you like abstract thinking, take on projects that have specific and tangible deliverables. By doing things you are not comfortable with and thus would not ordinarily do, you will broaden your perspectives and open up your mind.

The analogy is not perfect. I was surprised to learn there are drawbacks to tilling the soil. I was even more surprised to learn that techniques are being evolved to avoid tilling. The implications of this to learning are…

Don’t overdo it, stick to your strengths, the idea is to open up your mind, not to perform deep surgery and distract yourself. This is one of those times when less is more. You will lose focus if you spread yourself too thin.

Also, look for creative ways to open up your mind. You may not have time to go to the theater or a classical music concert. But you can watch a DVD from The Great Courses.

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As you have figured out by now from my blog posts, I like the rule of 3. This rule is validated and adopted by a variety of disciplines, besides, it is easy to understand and it sounds really cool! Here is today’s edition.

When arguing the merits of a solution, I try to shift attention to the problem. Once the problem is clearly understood, (or if people insist on debating solutions before the problem is clear) I compare the candidate solutions using the following criteria:

• Which one will solve the problem most (or least) effectively? Here “effective” solution is defined as one that is scalable, repeatable, has no side effects.
• Which one will cost the least (or the most)? This includes, cash costs, opportunity costs, and intangible costs (such as broken relationships and loss of trust).
• Which one is the fastest (or slowest) to implement?

The fact that I have an emotional preference should take lower priority, but I often use it as a tie breaker.

Here is a bonus criteria:

• Which one will give me flexibility? Meaning, which one will allow me to change my mind with the least penalty?

What are the criteria you use to choose between competing solutions?