When you’re working on an intractable problem, there are often times when making progress feels impossible.
There are far more unknowns than knowns and the elements you can’t control tend to far outnumber those you can.
When you’re confronted with a seemingly insurmountable challenge, don’t start by dwelling on the vastness of the unknowns and the things that are out of your control. There’s not much you can do about them at this point.
Instead, start small from where you are with what you’ve got.
Begin tackling an intractable problem within the sphere of what you do know and have control over. From there, move outwards by expanding your sphere to include the things you can most easily discover and influence. When you’ve got a handle of those, move outwards and expand again.
That outward expansion is progress. It’s headway towards tilting the scales of unknowns and knowns and of out of control and in control in your favour. It’s making strides on the path to transforming an intractable problem into a manageable one.
