Ep 127 - Problem Solving

Scott Schuette (00:06.469) Hey everybody, welcome back to another crazy scintillating and short episode of your Fabulous Learning Nerds. I'm Scott Schuette, your host and with me, Dan Coonrad. Scott Schuette (00:21.

264) Dan. Daniel (00:22.886) Scott, what's up man, how you doing? Scott Schuette (00:25.

169) I'm doing okay. I got lots of crazy stuff going on. Just crazy things today. It's just been crazy.

Work has been crazy, by the way. Hey everybody, we're all sipping from the fire hose. I know we said that before, but it happened again. And sometimes, sometimes, sometimes you just have to take a little bit of break and come up for air.

And that's what we did. But we decided we needed to get together with you folks and talk. So I've been super crazy, but I got some fun stuff to talk about. Daniel (00:29.

435) Dude. It has been crazy. Yeah? Scott Schuette (00:53.

905) Which is great, how are you sir? Daniel (00:56.442) Fair to Midland. Scott Schuette (00:58.

405) Of you'd say that. Want to the drop ready? Daniel (01:01.029) Ha ha!

Scott Schuette (01:03.673) Okay, all right. I have a question for you. And then after you answer this, we'll bring in Sam.

So do you have like battery powered stuff in your house that you wish was on a cord? Daniel (01:06.319) Yeah, yeah, shoot. Daniel (01:17.

872) Did I wish was on a chord? Scott Schuette (01:19.373) Mm-hmm that you wish you could plug in Maybe I'm the only human being on the face of the planet with this problem Daniel (01:25.2) Man, I don't know, maybe.

I'm trying to think, because I don't want to be like, yes or no. I can't think of anything. To be fair, you're also talking to a guy who, wherever I set, I've got wireless charger pads for where I set my phone down. So those are plug-in.

But wherever I can cut cords. Scott Schuette (01:32.687) Okay, really? Scott Schuette (01:41.

379) Everywhere everywhere right and they're stealing electricity. They're vampires No, I've got little I've got little things like so mrs. Shooty Loves bath and body works. I should have Stock in that company to be honest with you because every time we go there it's hundred bucks like and so they make these cool little pedestals that you put your camera candles on and some of them will light up and they take batteries and they eat through your batteries and Daniel (02:08.

405) Okay Scott Schuette (02:11.441) I would like to be able to turn them on and turn them off when I would like to using wireless outlets. Have you discovered the joys of wireless outlets? Wireless plugins?

Daniel (02:24.134) No, I am, I am, I just, I'm not into like the smart home stuff. Scott Schuette (02:32.269) dude.

Okay. All right. Okay. I found some devices, smart, smart outlets.

This is a little, did you, you plug them into the wall, right? And then they connect to your internet and then you can set timers and stuff on them and everything. So now that it's a really cool time to decorate my house and have those things, on, I had them all over. Like I have at least 10 of them.

They're everywhere in my office. have them on. So things turn on and they turn off all that other groovy stuff. But if you would like to save batteries on things that eat your batteries and you'd like to unplug it in and maybe have them turn on at seven AM in the morning, turn off at nine o'clock so you can enjoy the spooky ambiance that they deliver to your living room while you're getting your ready for work or the gym.

You can get on Amazon, make them, they're little adapters. They look like little batteries and then one has a cord on it and the other two are just dummy batteries and you put them in. AAA, AA, and you take that USB cord, you plug it in, you'll never have to worry about running out of battery power ever again. Daniel (03:40.

14) weird. like, I will say this, I have a lot of battery gadgets and gadgets, but I have a lot of rechargeable batteries and stuff for that. So like I've got a couple different rechargeable stuff. Scott Schuette (03:44.

987) gadgets and gadgets. Scott Schuette (03:49.551) Right. But then you got to recharge it.

Who's got time for that? That's right. So. Daniel (03:55.

332) I mean, you buy two sets of batteries. You buy one set to sit in the charger and one set to sit in your devices. And so when you need them, you just swap. I don't know about that.

Scott Schuette (04:03.538) See, you are way too smart about that. That actually kind of makes sense to me, but it is one more, I mean, it's one more step. anyway, this episode I think is gonna be all about problem solving, which is what I think that we as instructional designers do.

And one of the things that I think really gets me going, gets me excited is solving problems. So in addition to the two of us, we have another person coming in. Daniel (04:21.531) Yeah.

Scott Schuette (04:31.483) who I hope likes this followup problem as well. Give it up for Sam. Scott Schuette (04:44.

805) Sam! Sam (04:46.017) What's up, Scott? Scott Schuette (04:47.

633) I'm doing cool, how are you? Sam (04:50.618) doing alright. Busy.

You know, the cup... the cup overfloweth. Scott Schuette (04:55.387) That's awesome.

That's great. Your cup overflow it. That is great. Sam (04:59.

702) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. busy with, busy with work, busy with ID, and, also in the process of buying a house. So...

Yep. Scott Schuette (05:08.997) You mentioned that. All right, so give us a house update.

Sam (05:15.514) will be moving into my house shortly, probably around a month's time. Very excited. We have a closing date.

Yep, yep, have a closing date. Scott Schuette (05:21.701) Did you close on your house? Scott Schuette (05:26.

907) Really? That's awesome! Yeah! Daniel (05:29.

286) That's pretty awesome. Scott Schuette (05:31.449) Okay, now, did anybody prepare you what to expect at your close? Sam (05:39.

266) Man, several people all have given me different answers. Scott Schuette (05:43.93) name, give me two samples of what you should expect at your close, because I'm interested to hear what answers you got. Sam (05:51.

183) Well, I was given some advice on what to expect in a contract, and it's one of the reasons I steered more towards a VA loan. By the way, if you have any listeners who are veterans, please look into VA loan. It is the best loan that you can get for a house. Scott Schuette (06:06.

929) Yay, Lons, way to go. Scott Schuette (06:16.433) That is awesome. Sam (06:20.

528) But yeah, that was the big thing, looking into the types of loans available to me. And the other advice I've been given is what to look for in a house. big part of it has been make sure the foundation is good, make sure the roof is good. And I consider myself a handyman with all the stuff I've learned over the years.

So anything that's in between the... Scott Schuette (06:32.294) Right. Scott Schuette (06:35.

963) Right. Well, that's good. Sam (06:47.635) the roof and the foundation, I'm pretty good at working on except electricity.

That still scares me a little bit. Scott Schuette (06:53.775) I see. see.

yeah. No, you should be scared of electricity. General, that's a general rule of mine. can, I can, I can swap out an outlet.

I know how to do that. I've learned the hard way to check things, but yeah, that's about it. Yeah. That's a good thing.

So I, Dan, what would you, what advice would you give Sam and prep for his closing? I'm waiting to see if you give the same answer. would. Sam (06:57.

316) Ha ha ha! Sam (07:11.394) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

But yeah. Daniel (07:19.11) man, I've already talked to Sam a bunch about it, but I guess if I had to put something down on the air with witnesses, owning a home is like such a big deal. It's like so, so important.

And, you know, I always tell people like, don't settle. And Sam, you've shown me pictures. I think your house looks great. I think you've got a winner.

But like, Scott Schuette (07:33.541) It is. Sam (07:45.732) You Scott Schuette (07:48.

112) that's nice. Daniel (07:48.658) Just out to anybody like, like it's better to wait and get the right house than jump and get the wrong house. Sam (08:01.

395) And always, I feel like my advice to anyone listening in who is in the home buying process is to go over the contract of sales. And I went over it very well, and because of that I've saved myself a lot of hassle and money. For example, the house we're getting right now, it's an older house, so I had a termite inspection done. And the house had been properly treated with termites, but had a termite issue in the past.

In my contract, was stated that any sort of termite damage has to be repaired by the seller by the closing date. So all of that has to be taken care of before I move in. And that's something that I made sure of to cover that base. So if anyone's listening in and wants a good learning moment, it would be plan ahead.

Plan proactively. and will save yourself a lot of time and lot of frustration down the road. Scott Schuette (09:03.249) Yep.

I agree, my friend. totally agree. I was going to say. Scott Schuette (09:14.

213) You just gotta be prepared to sign like a worm piece. You'll have like thousand documents to sign. Sam (09:20.406) You're not wrong.

Man, every day it's been like Daniel (09:21.616) Yeah. Scott Schuette (09:23.215) And you've never done that before.

So just get ready, get ready for that. It's a thousand documents that you have to sign. Sam (09:29.132) every day it's been it's been signing three or four things and i am the type of person that will read every word of something i'm signing which i found out a lot of people don't which is a little frightening to me yeah a lot people just like yeah you want my signature here we go yep Daniel (09:43.

534) Cool. Scott Schuette (09:46.438) Well, you're going to be there forever. So yeah, for sure.

For sure. Yeah. So that's cool. Well, listen, I think we can go ahead and talk a little bit about problem solving and then, you know, some other crazy stuff.

without that, without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, let's get into our topic of the week. Scott Schuette (10:12.401) Problem-solving is what we do. So, I mean, I gotta be honest, like that really gets me going.

Like one of the things I got invited to a meeting next week because it's a, we got an innovation team in my new company and they're like, oh, Scott, you need to be on it. I'm like, oh, yes, I do. And so I'm super excited to go ahead and sit down with people and try to solve problems. Cause I think the easy answer to everything really is, so well, that's the way we've always done it.

So we'll go the most comfortable route. And we'll try to get things done without really thinking about, gee, maybe there's a different approach. So a real good example is, I want a video for this. All right, well, it's going to be new, better, different when people are done watching the video.

And where are they going to watch the video? And how much time do they have to watch the video? And who's going to do the video? Maybe we only need to change one behavior.

Is the video the right way of doing that? all that kind of stuff, just an example. So I thought I'd just toss that out there. Problem solving, what are some things you're using or thinking about when it comes to solving problems?

Daniel (11:19.046) You know, like to listen, this goes all the way back to like our one of our very first episodes, like this do it all ID. And I think it's because like so much of building and deploying training is problem solving. You know, it's one of the things I love about the profession.

It's one of the things I that also drives me completely bonkers is, you know, because Scott Schuette (11:27.939) Yeah, yeah, yeah! Daniel (11:48.741) you get groups of people who are just, who are great at solving problems.

Like that really is like one of the strong suits that there are so many times where we get relied upon to just, just solve it, just figure it out. You know, like imagine looking at your IT guy and being like, don't know, just solve it, just figure it out. You know, hey, this doesn't work. I don't know, just solve it, just figure it out.

I know that happens, of course. As I said that I could just see, you know. hundreds of IT folks rolling their eyes at me because I think that literally is their job as well. yeah.

Yeah. But like, so often, like, you know, we'll get handed things, requests that are half done, half complete, sometimes half thought out and be like, all right, cool. Well, yeah, I don't know. Just fill in the details.

Just figure it out. Just figure it out. And Sam (12:20.322) Every IT person I have talked to, is literally their job.

Daniel (12:44.824) Again, part of the thrill of it is that and part of the part of the, know, the groan is that as well. Scott Schuette (12:55.355) Really?

Hey, don't you have, I'm sorry. I kind of find it fun to solve problems in new ways. I'm really into figuring new stuff out. Like even today I had to figure some stuff out.

Somebody asked me to do something that I didn't have time to do, or I didn't think I had the competencies to do. And I found out that I, I still didn't have the time to do it, but I grew some competencies in figuring it out. Right? Like, could you make an animated video for me in a half a day?

I'm like, Daniel (13:04.624) yeah! Daniel (13:19.357) Ha ha ha!

No, no, again, like I said, that's... Scott Schuette (13:27.707) I don't think I can, but I could be wrong. Yeah, I got it halfway done.

That's pretty good. I got it halfway done. Halfway done. Yeah.

Daniel (13:34.022) That's awesome. No, that's pretty good. Yeah, mean, to go from zero to 50 % is awesome.

I mean, like I said, it is part of the thrill. It is part of the thrill. It is part of the joy of it. You know, the thing that like, you know, I think keeps me and like many other people like in the profession is you wake up in the morning and you're like, okay, who's this new problem?

And you're like, oh, okay. Okay, cool. I think I know how to solve this. Let me jump in.

Scott Schuette (13:41.561) in a day. Right. Daniel (14:03.

472) But, you know, like I said, it is the thrill and the groan of it. Scott Schuette (14:09.221) Sam, how about you? Sam (14:11.

974) So I will say being a problem solver, especially with a problem that multiple people on a team are facing and being able to solve that problem is the closest that you can get to feeling like a superhero. And I will also say that being a problem solver, it like... highlights the highs and lows. you know, having a problem that no one can solve is incredibly frustrating.

But at the same time, being that person who can solve that incredibly frustrating problem makes you a hero. And like that's That's basically my opinion on that in a nutshell. Scott Schuette (14:57.275) You know what I found interesting?

No, I totally agree with you. In the not too recent past, for us to find out how to solve things would have taken... Maybe a couple hours worth of research, is that fair? Daniel (15:18.

982) Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's fair. Scott Schuette (15:20.005) Yeah. How long do you think it takes today?

Daniel (15:27.298) Man, know, I say I'm going to say, I think. I think the, like if, say, let's say we call like mastery a hundred percent, right? I think the zero to mastery journey is still the same amount of time, but I think the zero to 50 % journey is so much faster now.

You know what mean? Like, think, I think, obviously we're a podcast so people can't see what I'm about to say, so I try to best describe it. I think the, the path of like getting to mastery probably looked a lot more like a steady line in the past. And now I think it looks a lot more like a sharp up and then that shallower over just because I think, I think.

Scott Schuette (15:53.061) Yeah. Yep. Scott Schuette (16:19.

681) It's a hockey stick. It's a hockey stick. We've hockey sticked it. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. it begs a great, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. For me, my experience today, like normally I would have went to Google and say, well, how do I do this? And today we're going to get better answers from Google. But instead I went to my good friend chat, TTP and asked for some help.

And I got soft, I mean, solid help. Daniel (16:21.944) It's a hockey stick. Love that.

It's a hockey stick. Yep. Yeah, I think think there's a zero to 50 is so much shorter. Scott Schuette (16:46.

873) I mean, you know, and if you've got a pro account and you put it on thinking, cause I want it to give me a better answer than what the normal answer is. I'll wait five minutes and I, got solid guidance and that would have, that saved me. Hours of, okay. Right.

And I'm finding more and more that I use chat, GTP is my fart smart friend and he, and, and well, I say it's a he, my chat, GTP is a he, could be a she. I don't know right now it's just a he, but for me. I should name him. At any rate, I use it all the Like, I'm thinking about this.

What do you think? then together, helps me process stuff. Today, he helped me get solutions for my problem and to help me solve that problem. was great.

And he can even help me use other programs, too. Like, hey, I can write a prompt that can help me make this kind of an image on Bing. Daniel (17:18.822) Heh heh heh.

Scott Schuette (17:43.531) And because normally my prompting isn't as good as it needs to be. And that's a learning process too. I mean, it's just really, really cool.

So leveraging tools to help you leverage other tools to solve problems, great day. Super, super, super day on that. Yeah. Yeah.

Daniel (17:55.408) Yeah, yes. No, 100%. Sam (17:58.

865) So it probably has a name, so feel free to chime in to correct me on what it's called. Scott Schuette (18:04.442) I don't think I'm going to chime in on what ChatGTP's name is going to be for me. It should be a contest.

So we'll put that at the end. Sam (18:09.958) Oh, I mean, I mean, like, this is a, this is a, problem solving, like, tool I've seen people use. Well, they'll have, like, someone or an object and they'll, like, basically pretend to, like, explain it to them.

And in the process of explaining something in a simpler term, you can sometimes find the solution that way. I've heard this has been used in, like, know, some programming before. and stuff like that. think it has a specific name, but for the life of me I can't think of it.

you almost do the same thing coming up with prompts of chat GPT. Whereas you're trying to put something in very simple form so that chat GPT understands it. And while doing this sometimes, we're writing prompts for chat GPT, I'll get the solution I'm thinking of before I even hit enter. Scott Schuette (19:04.

473) Yeah. Well, I mean, that that's awesome. That's great. If that's part of your process, that's fantastic.

I think that's super cool. I think that's super cool. think that begs the question, two questions for our listeners moving forward in this somewhat short of an episode is, what are, how do you feel about some solving problems? What's your process for that?

And then number two, what should we name chat? GTP? And I'm not really married to any, any name. I'm not going to die on any Hill, but before we go, before we go.

Daniel (19:27.652) Hehehehehe Scott Schuette (19:34.673) and this is great to get back with everybody. We've got some longer episodes coming up.

We've got a really great one, but unfortunately Zeta can be here and it was her episode. So you didn't want to steal it. Are you guys ready? I've got, what's wave is this?

I'm not sure what wave this is. got my, I got, I get the, newest shipment in on, my Ben Cooper Halloween trick or treater action figures. Daniel (19:44.848) Yep, yep.

Daniel (20:01.798) I wanna see this, I wanna see this. Scott Schuette (20:06.225) Last wave, which I think was wave eight, had all the slasher villains that as we grew up didn't have Halloween costumes.

It would be like Michael Myers and Art the Clown and Pennywise. And it was great. That was super awesome. You guys can't see this, so I'll have to put them up one at a time.

I do believe that this actually was a costume in the 80s either by Collegeville. I've learned a lot about it. Halloween costumes, which is really sad at my age to know a lot about Halloween costumes from the 80s. Yesterday is super sad.

Ben Cooper and then Collegeville. I think this was a Collegeville costume. This is, I got Pee Herman. Daniel (20:39.

494) Nah, it's not sad. No, not. Daniel (20:50.454) that's awesome!

Scott Schuette (20:51.439) Yeah, yeah, Peewee Herman. And yeah, I think this was a real one that one had, you know, a full looks like Peewee. This one I know for sure was a costume back in the 80s.

And that's my this is one of my new favorites right here. Garfield, which I so love. Love Garfield. He's all in orange there.

Big mask. I'm sorry. I think it's cool. Sorry.

think it's This one, I think it was a college school, but I don't I don't necessarily know. Daniel (21:12.068) That is super cool. No, no, that's super cool.

Scott Schuette (21:20.591) Just based on the mask itself, I'm not quite sure if this is real or not. be in the spirit of, we have Alf, you guys big fans of Alf. Daniel (21:33.

326) Yeah! I got my kid the Complete Alf box set. Yes. Yes.

That and Columbo. That and Columbo. And it warmed my heart. Just because when I was a kid I'd sit and watch Columbo with my grandmother.

Scott Schuette (21:34.977) Okay. really? That is awesome.

I was not. Okay. Scott Schuette (21:51.57) Okay, and then they've got the last one, only four in this one, because one came as a San Diego Comic Con exclusive, which is the Tiki Hut guy, which I do have, and those are worth a lot of money.

I do have the Predator, which is great. This one, I don't think was a real costume in the 80s or 90s, mainly because it's got two masks. We've got the... predator without his face mask and then you got the face mask you can put on the predator.

Daniel (22:25.296) When we do the show notes, Scott, we gotta put a link to these guys so folks can see them. These guys, yeah, yeah, yeah. Scott Schuette (22:28.

505) i can put pictures of their son a problem but anyway favor of the four sam Scott Schuette (22:38.371) It's where Sam would tell me his favorite are the ones I just showed him. Daniel (22:41.51) I know.

He's really thinking, you've got it. I can, uh huh, uh huh. I can jump in, cause I'm ready. I mean, it's easy.

It's Alf. Duh. Yeah. Scott Schuette (22:45.

105) All right. Sam (22:45.538) One second, one second. Scott Schuette (22:47.

811) He's thinking about it. Do I have the? Yeah, no problem. Alf is your favorite.

Okay. Well, okay. Well, great. I think that's.

Sam (22:54.916) Really? Really? Um...

hmm... hmm... I might also go with... go with Alf.

I do... yeah. Scott Schuette (23:08.079) Really?

Daniel (23:10.352) Garfield was a close second, but I Elf. Scott Schuette (23:13.307) Garfield's my favorite of this line.

Although the Predator will go really nice next to the Alien one, which has not done really well. Although the Alien one was a real costume back in the 80s. So, all righty. That's it.

Hey, everybody. Again, be sure to answer our questions, like what should we name ChatGDP and how do you handle or what's your process for solving problems? Dan. Daniel (23:16.

356) The Garfield one is good! Sam (23:21.606) Mm-hmm. Sam (23:25.

83) Cool. Scott Schuette (23:40.507) Why don't you go ahead and tell everybody how they could connect with us. Daniel (23:40.

665) Yes, Scott. Daniel (23:44.454) Absolutely. This is where you're have to put a cut because I didn't have that up and ready so I am opening it right now.

No! it's not too bad. It's not too bad. Let me see here.

There we go. Alright, when you're ready I can hit the pickup. Scott Schuette (23:50.693) You don't have it memorized?

No, we'll have plenty of cuts this episode. Sam (23:51.056) Ha ha ha. Scott Schuette (23:59.

482) It's unique. Scott Schuette (24:05.692) Go for it. Daniel (24:08.

536) Alright party people, you guys know the drill. Email us at nerds at TheLearningNerds.com. This week we want to know 1.

What kind of learning problems are you having and 2. How are you solving them? As a follow up, also if you could tell us your favorite Halloween costume. It's a little early for this season, but it's never too early for Halloween if we're being honest.

If you're on Facebook you can find us at Learning Nerds, for all of our Instagram peeps, Fab Learning Nerds, and lastly for more information about us, what we do on updates. Scott Schuette (24:29.252) never. Daniel (24:36.

511) www.thelearningnerds.com. Scott, back at you.

Scott Schuette (24:41.169) Thanks, Dan. Thanks, Dan. Hey, everybody.

Do me a favor. Go ahead and hit that Like button. Hit that Subscribe button. Go ahead share this episode out with your friends, knowing that awesome new ones are going to be coming very, very soon.

And do me a favor. Go ahead and leave us a review. We'd love to hear how we're doing. We'd love to hear some feedback.

And you know what? It helps us get more information out to all of you. With that, I'm Scott. Daniel (25:02.

426) I'm Dan. Sam (25:04.494) I'm Sam. Scott Schuette (25:05.

74) We're your Fabulous Learning Nerds and we are out.