Bob Goodson was studying medieval literature and philosophy at Oxford University. But something was gnawing at him.
Goodson was researching the printing press and how it transformed society. Before the printing press, just 5% of the population was literate. After the printing press came the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the scientific revolution.
As Goodson thought about the impact of the printing press, his mind kept coming back to a simple question, one he had been asking himself for years, one that he hadn’t been able to answer to his satisfaction.
“What is the most important problem in my field, and am I working on it?”
It was 2004, and Goodson was thinking in particular about the Internet, the biggest leap in information technology since the invention of the printing press. It was the dawn of social media, user-generated content, and Web 2.0. The world was changing. But he was in a master’s program in the U.K. and the innovation was happening at companies in Silicon Valley.
Still, the simple question kept replaying in his head.
After a dinner with Max Levchin, a founder of PayPal and more recently, founder and CEO of Affirm, Goodson made up his mind. He took a sabbatical and moved to San Francisco. He joined a startup incubator, learned how to code, became the first employee at Yelp, and even helped create the “like” button that is now ubiquitous in tech.
All of this is of interest to me because, as a business professor at the University of Kansas, I ask students each semester what their professional goals are. They talk about purpose, meaning and money. They talk about starting businesses and retiring early. I talk to them about our fundamental motives as humans: agency (to excel at things) and communion (to connect with others).
But after interviewing Goodson on my podcast and learning about the question he asked himself, I’m going to encourage my students to do the same.
If we’re working on the most important problem in our field, we’ll likely find purpose and meaning. We’ll likely make money. And we’ll likely improve our skills (agency), connect with others (communion), and contribute positively to society.
But Goodson’s question (which he got from the late mathematician Richard Hamming) isn’t just great for college students thinking about their careers. I think the question is great whether we’re 14 or 40. Whether we’re launching our career or retiring, we can ask ourselves this question, or some version of it, to make sure we’re working on things that matter.
But practically speaking, how can each of us answer this question given our unique circumstances? Do we all have to pack our bags and move to Silicon Valley? Or can we make big contributions from the outside looking in? I loved Goodson’s philosophical view:
“I call it putting yourself in the furnace. You have to put yourself in the place where you are contributing. It’s uncomfortable. It’s hot. It’s intense. And yet that’s where you’ll do your most important work. It’s messy, It’s difficult. But unless you’re in the furnace, it’s nearly impossible to move things forward.”
We all have different skills, abilities and opportunities, as well as unique circumstances. But as Goodson said, “There’s loads of important things happening today. We live in probably the most interesting time in history. There’s so much important stuff happening. You can look at any field from healthcare and education to politics and academia. I’m a fan of trying to put yourself on the forefront of some emerging new field and jumping in early, trying to have any role you can in that, because I think it’s fun and interesting, but you’re also skating to where the puck is going … to use the ice hockey analogy.”
Even if you’re an accountant, he said, “the question is where are you going to apply those skills? Are you going to apply them in a 100-year-old business that’s growing at 5% and churning out an industry that was hot 60 years ago? Or are you going to be an accountant at Open AI? Because you’ve got a choice about where to apply your skills.”
Goodson kept asking himself this simple question and one day realized that AI would change the world. So in 2010, he founded Quid, an AI company used by one third of the Fortune 50. He also just wrote a book called, “Like: The Button That Changed the World” to describe how things really get built — in the furnace.
What is the most important problem in your field, and are you working on it?
It’s such a simple, practical and underappreciated question. And it’s the best career advice I’ve ever heard.
Nate Meikle, a former football player and sideline reporter for BYU, is a professor at the University of Kansas where he teaches leadership and ethics. He is also the host of the podcast "Meikles & Dimes." His full interview with Bob Goodson is available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.