DAVID SETTLE
Life doesn’t
come with an
answer key.
You don’t have to know all the answers.
You need a way to figure it out.
TEDx SpeakerEntrepreneurEducatorAuthor
01 / THE BIG IDEA
FROM THE CLASSROOM. FOR REAL LIFE.Stop waiting
for certainty.
Start figuring it out.
We were taught the scientific method in school. Nobody told us we could use it on life.
Figure-It-Out-Ness takes that familiar way of thinking out of the classroom. Ask a better question. Test an idea. Learn something. Adjust. You don’t need certainty to take a useful next step.
Meet the method
Coming soon · The book
Turning
“I don’t know?”
into a way forward.
Figure-It-Out-Ness
What to Do When You Don’t Know What to Do
The thinking behind the TEDx talk, explored further. A practical approach to asking better questions, testing your assumptions, and finding your next step when the path isn’t obvious.
Read the Introduction & Chapter 1 (PDF)A little curiosity now. A new way forward next.
02 / BRING THE IDEA TO YOUR AUDIENCE
ONE FRAMEWORK. REAL-WORLD POSSIBILITIES.Something to think about.
Something to do with it.
A keynote that gives your audience more than a moment of inspiration: a practical way to approach the moments when they don’t know what comes next.
For the moments beyond the answer key.
Practice asking better questions, trying a next step, and learning from what happens. Uncertainty becomes a place to begin.
Take the thinking beyond the classroom.
Connect a familiar scientific process to the challenges students face every day—and give them language for working through the unknown.
An idea is a hypothesis. Go test it.
Turn assumptions into useful experiments. Use what you learn to make the next decision, without waiting for a perfect plan.
Build a shared way to move forward.
Ask clearer questions, separate evidence from assumptions, and make space for a team to test, learn, and adjust together.
03 / A WAY THROUGH THE UNKNOWN
CURIOSITY IN PRACTICELess “what if?”
More “let’s find out.”
- 01
Question
What don’t you know? What DO you know?
- 02
Research
Get curious. Look for credible information.
- 03
Hypothesize
If → Then → Because. Make a testable prediction.
- 04
Plan
Choose a useful next step. Decide what to measure.
- 05
Experiment
Take the shot. Change a variable. Try something.
- 06
Observe
Notice what happened. Let the results inform you.
- 07
Adjust
Revise the hypothesis, not your belief that you can learn.
- 08
Repeat
Go back to the drawing board—with more information.
Action produces information.
Information gives you a next step.
04 / THE PERSON BEHIND THE IDEA
David Settle.
Always a student.
“I’ve spent much of my life figuring things out.”
In a science classroom, David taught students how to ask questions and test their ideas. Across more than 20 years of building businesses, he kept finding reasons to use those same skills himself.
Education, entertainment, media, photography, technology. Different settings. The same willingness to get curious, try something, and learn along the way.
Now, he brings that thinking to the stage.
Bring David to your eventA GOOD NEXT STEP
Bring
Figure-It-
Out-Ness
to your audience.
Tell me who’s in the room.
Let’s figure out what’s possible.