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ERIK DEMAINE: If a
student comes to me

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and they're getting really
stuck in solving their problem,

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then I would suggest to
them, collaborate more.

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But I find
collaboration is really

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the best way both to do
brainstorming because you get

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very quick feedback
and ideas, but also you

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get this kind of
compounding effect, where

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your ideas inspire the maybe
more experienced person to have

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some other idea, and oh, that
reminds me of this other paper.

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Maybe you should
go look at this.

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And so just talking with
people about your problem

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makes a huge impact.

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And maybe they join
in and help solve it,

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or maybe they just
give one idea that

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leads you down the right path.

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But I think if you work by
yourself for a long period,

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eventually you're
just going to get

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stuck because it's hard to
maintain that kind of momentum

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all by yourself.

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But when you feed off the
energy of other people,

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you can really go
much, much farther.

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And it's also more
fun because you

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get to be hanging out
while you're doing it.