How to Live A Simple Life
Practical ways to focus on what matters most.
There is an engineering problem, that when asked to solve, top teams of lawyers, doctors, and business leaders perform poorly. However, there’s one demographic that when asked consistently performs well: kindergartners
The problem involves masking tape, spaghetti sticks, and a 30-minute time constraint. Lastly, like all good complex engineering problems, it includes marshmallows.
It’s called the Marshmallow Design Challenge. And it’s brilliant.
Put into motion by Peter Skillman, this challenge has been applied to thousands of teams all over the world. And yet, the kindergarten students remain as the team to beat.
They aren’t the smartest or the most skilled. They aren’t the best-equipped. In fact, most kindergartners have trouble counting past 20 or reading words longer than 5 letters.
But these kids do have something at their disposal that almost every other team of older, wiser, more talented people fail to capitalize on: they have simplicity.
In his Ted Talk introducing this challenge, Skillman laid out two trends that he saw within the kindergarten groups that helped increase their effectiveness and simplicity.
