A Ceramic Engineering Problem Unsolved for Years: Why Did a Seoul National University Professor Crack It in Three Weeks?

Some problems show no sign of a clue even after years of effort. What if someone solved one in just three weeks, and did it purely by changing the way they thought, without special equipment or help? Would you believe it? This is the true story of a Seoul National University professor, and if you look closely, it hides a principle anyone could try at least once.

A problem that should have taken years was solved in three weeks

The hero of this story is Professor Hwang Nong-mun, who spent many years in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Seoul National University. An engineer researching ceramic materials, he at some point found his own way of solving problems, and later turned that experience into a book that became a sensation in Korea: the steady seller Immersion (Mollip), which has sold hundreds of thousands of copies. What made the book special was that it was less a self-help book than a way of thinking proven in a real research setting.

Many people think of the word immersion lightly, as a moment of concentration, but the immersion he describes is a far deeper and more sustained state. It’s a state in which you hold a single problem in your mind for days or weeks without letting go, and by doing this he reportedly solved a ceramic engineering problem that had long resisted solution.

Let’s go through, in order, what the problem was and how it was solved. The result looks impressive, but inside it are concrete methods anyone can try.

The wall in ceramic engineering that seemed impossible to climb

During his years as a researcher, one task related to new ceramic materials reportedly kept holding him back. It was the kind of problem that typically wears researchers down: it looked possible in theory but wouldn’t produce the desired results in actual experiments. No matter how many papers and materials he searched, he could hardly find even a similar case, and as time passed he even began to wonder whether it simply couldn’t be done.

Usually, in a situation like this, researchers set the problem aside for a while or turn to other projects. When results don’t match the time invested, pressure within the organization grows too. But he made a different choice: rather than avoiding the problem, he decided to dig even deeper.

Why researchers were stuck for years

Problems in ceramic engineering take especially long because there are so many variables. Tiny differences in a material’s composition, temperature, pressure, even the order of processes all affect the result, so finding the answer through experiments alone isn’t easy. Closing the gap between theory and practice ultimately requires narrowing it with human thinking, and the problem was that this is much harder than it sounds.

It wasn’t the kind of problem that yields to a short burst of concentrated thought. If a day or two of hard thinking had produced a clue, other researchers would have solved it long ago. It also means it was a problem that required a long stretch of uninterrupted thought.

Instead of giving up, he chose “immersion”

The method he chose was simple: deliberately increasing the time spent thinking about that one problem alone. He reportedly trained himself to clear away stray thoughts and everyday worries as much as possible and to keep returning to the problem the whole time he was awake. For the first few days there was little progress, but as the time piled up, the very way he saw the problem gradually began to change.

What’s special about this approach is that he thought not hard but long, without interruption. Rather than rushing anxiously toward an answer, he chose to keep slowly chewing over the same problem. He later named this way of thinking “immersive thinking,” explaining that anyone can reach this state through training.

The answer that came after three weeks, and a turning point in his life

About three weeks after he began focusing on that single problem, the clue to a solution that had eluded him suddenly came to mind, according to accounts. A problem he hadn’t been able to crack after years of trying was solved at the end of three weeks of dense thinking. Even he reportedly reflected for a long time afterward on how intense the experience had been.

The experience shaped not only his life as a researcher but also his later career. He wanted to organize what he’d realized while solving the problem into a theory, and afterward, as a professor at Seoul National University, he began devoting his energy to teaching this way of thinking to students and the public.

The Seoul National University professor who became an evangelist for immersion

His book Immersion became a steady seller that’s consistently mentioned in the self-help section since its publication. It was praised as different in kind from other self-help books because it isn’t a simple motivational story but a thinking-training method based on his experience of solving a real engineering problem. That’s also why it resonated with a broad readership, from students preparing for exams to office workers and researchers.

Since then, he has introduced immersive thinking through many talks and interviews. The core idea is that it doesn’t take talent or a special environment: anyone can have a similar experience simply by training themselves to keep their thinking attached to a single problem. That point seems to have reached many people as both comfort and motivation.

Can I practice immersion too?

After reading his story, you naturally wonder whether you could do the same. The approach he emphasizes isn’t grand. Just start by choosing one problem or goal and building the habit of returning to it whenever you have a spare moment. Cut down the time you spend on your phone or drifting into other thoughts, and fill that space with the problem you were working on.

At first it may be hard to focus even for a few minutes. But keep this up for days or weeks, and at some point your thoughts will start turning to the problem on their own. That, he says, is the beginning of the state of immersion.

It doesn’t have to be something as grand as ceramic engineering. You can apply the same principle to everyday problems such as exam prep, planning at work or deciding your career path. What matters, his case shows, isn’t short and intense but the strength to hold on long and without interruption.

The story of solving in three weeks a problem that had resisted years of effort shows that, in the end, the answer has less to do with talent than with how long you held on. If you have a worry you can’t resolve right now, instead of stepping back for a while, it may be worth really holding on to it at least once.

If Professor Hwang Nong-mun’s story of immersion helped you, next time we’ll look at concrete methods for achieving immersion.

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