exemplar (n) something fit to be imitated; an ideal, a worthy model or role model: a desirable example.

My default approach to almost any unfamiliar problem is to look for exemplars I can imitate. They might be algorithms and data models in software development, techniques for managing my time and other resources, or role models for my personal and professional lives.

My default assumption is that an unfamiliar problem is merely unfamiliar to me, and that other people have already put thought and effort into solving it. Sometimes that’s true and sometimes it’s not, but looking for exemplars is always worthwhile. Adapting or imitating an exemplar helps you avoid obvious mistakes and build on proven strategies, eliminating wasted thought and effort. A role model can show you how to better embody your values, pursue your goals, and thrive.

Many people seem to approach unfamiliar problems as if the problems were unfamiliar to everyone. These people tend to extemporize sub-optimal solutions and recapitulate the mistakes of the past instead of considering alternatives that were not invented here.

The young and overconfident are particularly prone to this. In older people the same behavior is usually a sign of complacence. Ironically, the people who are best equipped to deviate from the tried-and-true are often the most reluctant to do so. People with experience, knowledge, skill, and talent want to spend their finite time doing creative work and making significant improvements on the status quo. Understanding the latter is a prerequisite.

Identifying exemplars involves a set of learnable skills. It starts with recognizing that a problem is unfamiliar to you. That often goes against our human tendency to take mental shortcuts. From there it’s an iterative process of understanding the problem and the space of solutions in order to identify an exemplar that’s fit to be imitated for that problem. There’s no one-size-fits-all.

Exemplars are not the same as precedents. It’s common for a problem to have solutions that aren’t worth imitating. Distinguishing those from exemplars requires a mental model of what’s possible and what a good solution looks like, and not just what exists.