Get good at research

I'm always surprised how few of my friends, who are all smart and educated, don't read on a regular basis.

I'm not even a heavy reader, but I probably go through a book per month.

This helps me with my writing and thinking and also gives me the fun party trick of being able to annoy others with miscellaneous facts that challenge their world view.

Similarly, I'm always a bit surprised by how little research government employees and contractors put into solving work problems.

This manifest in a few ways:

• Not understanding or even knowing about all the features their tools an deliver
• Not being able to find information about other agency efforts that might help them
• Not being able to find the right people to talk to about a particular problem

I understand that research takes effort which requires motivation. You have to be interested in solving the problem.

But if you like to do research and are an "ideas guy" like me, being able to research things is a super power.

The client may be trying to solve X, and then because you have done your research, you can go

• "Oh so-and-so over in this department has solved problem X. I set up a meeting to talk with him next week."
• "This tool can solve problem X. I'm working on implementing it."
• "This other government agency solved X last year. Here's what they did and how we can adopt their solution."

Get good at research. Your clients will thank you.

Want the full playbook? Check out Going 1099.