My in-laws forwarded me an interesting article from the May 2011 edition of WSJ Magazine that featured Marc Newson, the Australian-born industrial designer and artist who was recently included in Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world. Newson’s work can be found in airliners, cars, restaurants, shoes, bicycles and more and his designs, based on a unique style of “biomorphism,” are present in many major museum collections throughout the world.

Newson explained his approach to the design work he does and I’d like to share it with you as it provides an excellent starting point for consideration of any of the problems you might face in life. Newson notes:

I look at myself as a troubleshooter or a gun for hire. Most of the companies I work with are large corporations, whether it’s Qantas or Ford or Nike. They all have in-house design capabilities; it’s not as if they can’t do this stuff with their own resources. But for one reason or another they choose to go outside their typical way of thinking, because on some level they’re not capable of doing things in a different way. They’re not only looking for answers to questions they’re having trouble with, they’re also having difficulty expressing the questions. That’s where I come in.

And here’s the part that caught my eye:

It’s a matter of demystifying the issues, and trying to give things a handle to grab on to. I look for simple things – the straightforward parameters of a project – and once I’ve digested that and created the framework within which to work, it’s joining the dots, really.

Progress in human understanding is simply a matter of demystifying that which is presently beyond comprehension. No matter where you look or what discipline you consider, there are things that are beyond mankind’s present scope of understanding. You needn’t go very far to prove the point. Take your sense of smell, for instance. There are widely accepted theories about how it works, but at the end of the day, they are nothing more than our best guess, given today’s scientific understanding.

While it is true within a certain context that all men are created equal, each one of us has a different perspective on everything that happens in life. When your vision is limited by lack of knowledge, prejudice, a lack of sufficient perspective or other elements that tend to distort your perception, certain things may appear mysterious to you that are not mysterious to others. When the veil of ignorance is lifted, however, the mystery is revealed.

I love to watch people who are good at demystifying issues work their magic. I’ve noticed several common traits of such people. They are typically:

• Unafraid of the unknown
• Not mesmerized by that which they do not yet understand
• Insatiably curious
• Patient, yet willing to strike when the iron is hot
• Practiced in the art and science of logic
• Motivated by the desire to overcome
• Capable of zooming in and zooming out while examining a problem, without losing situational awareness
• Willing to employ any resource at their command
• Sufficiently humble to admit they are wrong
• Unbound by prejudice
• Open to new ideas that don’t jive with their present worldview
• Agile enough to take another tack when necessary

Every project has certain straightforward parameters that, when properly identified, allow you to resolve any Gordian knot with a simple stroke of what others still in the dark might call “genius.” Remember that and you will be more effective in living, less weighed down by the mysteries in your world and more relaxed and confident in the face of the unknown.