[One Thousand Characters a Day] When Life Is Hard, It's Good to Start Studying <1>

Editor's NoteWhen your daily commute feels unbearably boring, when you can't sleep because you keep thinking about mistakes you made at work, when you keep forgetting and making the same errors... What can we do in moments when life becomes painful? Professor Park Chi-wook, a knowledge influencer with over 40,000 followers on Twitter and the first at Purdue University in the U.S. to win the 'Lecture of the Year Award' twice, advises, "Start studying first." Because while many problems in life have no answers, studying does. Professor Park himself believes that "everyday life is a library, and the world is a laboratory," and he studies daily across various fields as naturally as breathing. He researches even a single ramen packet as if it were a research paper, and one day, frustrated that the shell of a boiled egg wouldn't peel well, he spent four years studying how to boil eggs. He reveals the ingenious moments of study drawn from trivial daily life. Word count: 992.

When I think of unexpected variables, boiling eggs comes to mind. Boiled eggs are delicious on their own and also tasty when made into jangjorim (soy-braised eggs), but boiling eggs is not as simple as it seems. The common method is this: pour water, add eggs, heat until it boils, then reduce the heat and cook for about 10 more minutes before placing them in cold water to cool. Probably many people boil eggs this way. I did too.

The problem arises when peeling the shell. Sometimes it peels well, but other times it’s frustratingly difficult. If you forcefully tear it off piece by piece, the egg becomes completely ragged. Above all, when it sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t, someone like me who values reproducibility loses their mind. I simply cannot tolerate it! Why on earth! Why does it peel well sometimes and not others!

It’s because of a hidden variable. Although I thought I did everything the same, something was different. I had to find out what that something was. Was it the amount of water? The size of the pot? The heat intensity? The number of eggs? The cooling method? I considered all possible variables and standardized them to check for reproducibility. Once reproducibility was secured, I changed each variable one by one to find out which damn variable was causing the egg shell not to peel well. Then I had to discover a way to make sure that variable no longer played an important role. In other words, the ultimate method that never fails to peel the shell well regardless of the variable’s value.

(Omitted)

To conclude, I eventually found that damn hidden variable. Surprisingly, it was the freshness of the egg. If the egg is too fresh, the shell doesn’t peel well, but eggs kept in the refrigerator for 1 to 2 weeks peel well no matter what method is used. So it was naturally hard to find. How many people remember how long the eggs taken out of the refrigerator have been purchased? I only carefully checked the amount of water, heat intensity, and boiling time, but never thought to check how long ago the eggs were bought. Hidden variables are truly scary.

- Park Chi-wook, When Life Is Painful, It’s Good to Start Studying, Whale Books, 17,500 KRW