Be a problem solver You automate the menial, complex, and repetitive tasks of the real world to drive efficiency via experience, algorithm, and architecture. To do so successfully you must be (and be seen as) an expert problem solver. How do you become an expert problem solver? This framework might help. Get Context Often you are given specific tasks or problems to solve with little context of why. Your first job is to understand the why.

Be a skeptic You live in a society that worships speed. Your smartphone optimizes your driving route. Your news feed pushes crash diets or quick meal ideas. You manage a myriad of deadlines at work and in your personal life. You are conditioned to live as fast and efficiently as possible. The universal obsession with speed incentivizes individuals and organizations to sell you a quick fix, a shortcut, that one weird secret.