"Finding things" in this context is not about finding a job, or finding your true love. It's about finding things you have lost, like your car keys or the Scotch tape. You might start your search with a prayer to St. Anthony, the patron saint of lost things. Or you could start by swearing. Professor Solomon has worked out a system for finding things, based on experience, that starts with neither of those steps. Many of them don't even involve looking, because frantically searching only leads to frustration.
Each of the 12 principles have their own link. Here's the index, but each principle has a link to the next one. It's important to start with the first one and read in order. By the time you get to the 13th (yes, there are really 13), you should have found your item. -via Metafilter, where you'll find further discussion on lost objects.
Follow the gravity... often things fell to the ground...
Get a new one, and once you have a new one the lost one will usually magically appear within 24h after you could have returned the new one...