The signal-and-noise problem

JUNE 2021

Here’s the wisest advice I've ever heard:

”Find an interesting problem and come up with a solution that makes the world a better place."

That two-step formula for a good life comes from Marc Tarpenning, one of Tesla's first two co-founders.

If that was your first time seeing Marc’s name, you're not alone—he’s a builder, not a spotlight-seeker. True to his words, when he found the problem of gas-powered cars interesting, Marc came up with a solution that’s now making the world a better place.

This brings me to the problem that’s been bugging me: the pervasive signal-and-noise problem. As more people send more messages all around the world, how can we do justice to the most meaningful ones?

This question preoccupies me because meaningful messages—like Marc's—seem to get drowned out an awful lot.

I’ve thought about this problem so much that I’ve developed weird opinions about it. For example, I believe Shakespeare was an intrepid entrepreneur who solved an earlier incarnation of the signal-and-noise problem at the dawn of the 17th century. I believe poetry was part of the solution then, and remains part of the solution now. And I believe my close friend Pavel Brodsky has a strong  technical perspective on the broken systems that drive this problem today.

So I think I’ve taken the first step of Marc's two-step path: I’ve found an interesting problem.

Next, I’m supposed to come up with a solution that’ll make the world a better place. I'm not there yet. But I’m working on it, with collaborators I respect and trust.

If you also find this problem interesting, don’t be a stranger.

- Ellen (ellen@writing.coach)