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Artist, Designer and Founder of Design Consulting firm IdeaSutra, George Supreeth talks about a designer's approach to solving problems, Divergent thinking and power of observation.   Questions from the Episode -  Why did you choose to pursue a degree in Art and Design? (02:05) What kind of challenges did you have in finding a job? (05:05) How did you have paid assignments while you were still in college? (06:19) Have you intentional taken breaks to take a step back and reflect on your life and career? (09:42) What kind of dogmatic belief do entrepreneur nurture because of media noise? (13:40) What is design from a lay man's perspective? (17:20) Balancing Form (Visual Representation) and Function (Purpose) while designing (20:19) How does a designer approach a problem? How is it different from analytical way of solving a problem? (30:33) Is Design Thinking the new Buzz Word? What are its limitations? (38:33) How can different kinds of creators, over a period of time, develop an ability to see like designers? (41:42) What is Explorative learning? (48:27) Most parents don't want their kids be artist because they are afraid their kids may not earn enough. Your thoughts on that? (58:48)? 3 Big Take Always (01:03:58) 3 Big Take ways from  the Episode Attention to Detail -  What separates an artist from a non artist is that an artist pays close attention to the details. A stand up comedian may make you laugh for 15 minutes by talking about normal everyday experience. A writer can help you visualize a normal place in rich and vivid detail. A photographer may tell a beautiful story out of a normal everyday picture. If you want to turn what you love into an Art, pay close attention to the details. The beauty and essence lies in the boring details Divergent Thinking -  In schools, we were always told that there is just one correct answer to a problem and our job is to arrive that answer.  As a result, we often believe there is only one or two solution to our problems. That’s not true. It is possible to generate more solutions if you broaden your thinking . For example, let’s say you want to move to the hills but you need to sustainably earn well. Instead of thinking that you could either stay in the city and earn well or move to the hills, you can think of ways in which you can move to the hills and still earn well. May be develop a skill that helps you earn remotely or develop some passive source of income before you move to the hills. May be take a sabbatical and go live in the hills for a few months and see if you really like it. Once you have multiple solutions, you don’t have to choose just one the solution. You can figure out how can you have the best of all of them.  Just Say it - Some times when you have a problem, especially problems where you need more clarity, all you need to do is explain that problem to someone else. It doesn’t have to be real person. You can explain it to a wall. The goal is get your thoughts out loudly, so that you can see the inconsistency or gaps in your understanding. This is why they say teaching is a great way to learn because when you teach something, you see the gaps in your own learning. I did not know this process had name in programming called rubber duck debugging, where programmers try to explain their code to a dummy duck in order to understand where they are going wrong.