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Learning by Research

Updated: Jan 5, 2022

You will undoubtedly come across things that need to be done that you have never done before and have no idea how to do. This is a fact of life. Luckily, we live in the day and age of the internet! This is a great free resource for learning. Just think, everything that has ever been thought of was thought of by a person like you! So that means, you could build or manufacture or fix anything that has been created! You just have to be creative and willing to spend the extra time to learn how to do it. That may not be 100% true (like for smartphones, rockets, etc), but you don't have to worry about that because you won't be working on anything quite that complex. :)


First, break down the problem into the parts you think you know how to do. Then research what you don't know how to do. Sometimes, it can also be effective to just search for a solution to the general problem you are working on, because someone has likely done what you are doing and has posted something online about how they did it. Once you know the difference between where you are and where you want to go, form a question and ask Google.


Videos are great, but blogs work super well too, because you don't have to constantly rewind and rewatch or pause and play, you can follow the blog at your own pace.


For example: An item says, 'install a shelf for the printer'. Let's say you don't know how to do that, or the best way to do that. You could build a shelf from scratch, or would it be easier to purchase some hardware to install? GOOGLE! Put into the googler, "best way to install a shelf for a printer". This search isn't quite right because it gives us too specific of resources about whole office setups, more complicated than what we want. So how can we simplify the search? Since our shelf doesn't need to be anything special, just a normal shelf big enough for the printer will work, let's try searching, "easy shelf install". Voila! That gets us closer to what we're looking for. Now we can see some simple shelf installs with very cheap hardware you can find anywhere.


Other Ways to Research

If you know someone that could know a bit more about how to do something, then you can ask them. If they are another employee, they may want to help or take the task altogether. If this is the case, be sure you understand what they are going to do, how they are going to do it, and learn as they go so you are in the know on how to get that accomplished in the future, or improve how it was done.


Another way to research is to go to a hardware store (Home Depot). Just wandering around and seeing what they have there is helpful. The best thing to do though is to ask an associate to help you select what you'd need for a certain project. This works great for nearly all physical fixes. If you tell them, "I'm working on some escape rooms and need some help," they'd probably perk up and really get into helping you solve your problem (assuming they know what an escape room is). People generally like to help other people when they can, so don't be afraid to ask! Think about it; when was the last time you didn't offer advice when someone asked for it. Usually, people tend to offer too much assistance (especially when it's just in words).

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