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Problem solving is one of those
abilities that allegedly distinguishes human beings from other animals.
Though many critters can solve problems, and some even use tools, humans
are the only creatures that invent new technologies to solve problems.
For example, the problem of getting
from point A to point B faster than one can walk. For thousands of years
the only way humans could go anywhere was to walk. Then someone climbed on
a horse, and stayed on long enough to realize the horse ran faster than a
person, and could go somewhere pretty fast. But, the solution wasn't much
different than a flea hitching a ride on a cat to go somewhere faster. So
this wasn't a technological solution. But, one day someone decided horses had
certain limitations, such as an ill temper at times, and invented the
steam engine, and then the train. These were technological innovations to
the problem which then created the problem of trains running into school
buses at railroad crossings. Thus, with many other examples of
problem solutions creating more problems to solve, is created The First
Rule of Problem Solving: The solution to a problem will
create more new problems. The best example of The First Rule is
the automobile, which was created to replace the horse. We can go much
farther and faster in the car than on a horse, but we needed to spend huge
amounts of money building better roads for the cars, and created a vast
new opportunity for people to cheat each other in the selling and
repairing of the cars. When faced with a problem to solve, the
central issue is to identify all the other problems that will be created
with the solution. Rarely does anyone do this. Witness the invention of
the atomic bomb. The problem being solved at the time was how to drop 2
million tons of bombs on Japan using the least number of airplanes to
accomplish this goal. Prior to the atom bomb, it took 1,000 B-29s to drop
200,000 tons of munitions on a Japanese city. The atom bomb allowed one
airplane to do the work of 1,000. This was as far as the thinking went in
July of 1945 when the decision was made to nuke Hiroshima and three other
Japanese cities. Little did anyone consider that someday
atomic bombs could be put in a suitcase and delivered by Federal Express
to a city. The really proficient problem solver
will look at all of the potential extrapolations of his solution, and
identify some of the new problems that will be created with the solution.
Properly done, this forecasting of consequential problems will keep the
problem-solver fully employed for life, because the solution will simply
beget other problems to solve. The problem of only having two spaces
for the year in computers leading to the Y2K problem is a spectacular
example of solving one problem and creating vast employment opportunities
for people to solve the consequential problem of the end of civilization
as we know it. Thus, the second rule of problem
solving: The solution to a problem must
maximize employment. Probably the very first problem humans
faced, which generated the evolution of intelligence, was how to stay in
trees. The reason most of us have nightmares about falling is that our
ancestors fell out of trees a lot. We were the monkeys that weren't good
at sleeping on limbs. Thus we had to survive on the ground, with all those
nasty sabertooth tigers and such. The minute we realized we were stuck on
the ground, we faced the problem of surviving. Food, for example. How does
one kill a mammoth? A bunch of people chase the mammoth off a cliff.
Imagine some ancient problem solver trying to persuade his tribesmen to
chase after a critter many times their size? Ancient problems were easy to solve.
Need food? Bash something with a rock. Need shelter? Find a
cave. But as humans evolved, so did the
complexity of our problems. The more intelligent we became, the more
problems we were able to understand. What is unknown is which evolved
first...the intelligence to identify more problems, or the existence of
more problems which required the evolution of the intelligence to be aware
of them. Getting out of the rain or snow to
sleep evolved from finding a cave to buying a home in the right
neighborhood and getting a really good mortgage. And with the increasing number of
problems, also came the increasing number of alternate solutions. Thus,
choosing which solution to apply to the problem became the
problem. Consider the story of Adam and Eve.
This is a story about problem solving and intelligence. When Eve ate that
apple, she solved a problem and took a risk. The message here is not that
Eve ate the apple, but that the snake told her not to, and she did anyway.
Consider the snake as a metaphor for intelligence. Understanding the
consequences of one's action. Humans fell from the grace of animals who
don't think about the consequences of their actions, into sapience, where
we do. Or maybe we evolved beyond animals into consciousness where we
considered problems and alternative solutions. Ever ingenious, humans invented the
consultant to figure out not only what the problems are that need to be
solved, but which solution to apply to the problem. Obviously the cave men did not hire a
consultant to figure out how to kill a mammoth. But we cannot solve a
problem today without hiring the consultant to define the problem, all the
stakeholders in the problem, the environmental and social impacts of the
alternative solutions, and which solution is the best under an increasing
number of variables. Thus, an increasing number of humans
solve their problems of food and shelter by assisting other humans in
defining problems and analyzing alternative solutions. God must be amused
at this evolutionary progress. Then again the snake was probably the first
consultant. * * * HOW TO IDENTIFY A
PROBLEM One very essential step in figuring out
what a problem is involves identifying who is pissed off at something and
what that something is. For example, if your spouse is peeved at you
coming home at 3 in the morning, you can easily spot the who and
what. Another approach is to identify what is
not working right. For example, if you turn on the switch in your home and
you get no light, your problem is a lack of
electricity. Unfortunately, many people are unable
to spot the most simple definition of a problem. A problem is always defined as
the most obvious thing. With this approach: The best solution is always the
most obvious thing as well. This has been expressed as the KISS
principal--keep it simple and stupid. One of the most common problem/solution
situations humans face is finding lost objects. Keys, and most other objects obey the
law of gravity, meaning they will not move by themselves. Thus to get
lost, they must be carried to the point of being lost. I had a friend who lost a $20,000
cashiers check payable to bearer on demand. A serious problem if there
ever was one. So I suggested that the person go back to where they were
sure they had the check (the bank) and retrace their movement to the point
where they realized the check was lost. This took some argument. However,
once the person started in on the retracement, they found the check, which
had fallen out of a folder and was lying on the ground. Gravity.
Unfortunately, I didn't get a percentage of the check. Another friend, when faced with the
lostness of something, immediately jumps to the conclusion that someone
else is responsible. "My cleaning lady must have stolen my stamps." No.
The stamps are simply lost. When the location of the stamps were retraced
from the last point of possession they turned up exactly where they had
been put, and forgotten. No cleaning lady
participation. The losing of things consistently
identifies another problem...that one keeps losing things. There is an
obvious solution, put things away in the same place all the
time. Unless one has a really excellent
memory, the random placement of items such as one's car keys will
consistently produce the result of the keys being
"lost". However, the act of random placement of
things (which usually become lost), is the sort of problem for which only
a consultant will work. How many spouses have tried to tell their
counterparts this solution, to no avail? Which becomes another problem,
eventually leading to divorce. One must pay someone else to give this
advice. As one can see, the simple problem of
losing one's keys on a frequent basis results in another Rule of Problem
Solving: Solutions cascade into
conflict. Which brings us to the ultimate
question in problem solving....should the problem even be
solved? Knowing that the solutions to problems
create more problems, which cascade into conflict, one has to sit down and
decide whether or not to ignore the initial problem. This is extremely difficult to do,
since humans are hard-wired into identifying problems and then solving
them. That is why humans invented computer games which can be played on
Apples. Many people have spent thousands of
dollars learning an essential ingredient for a happy life....to say "its
not my problem." So your spouse is always forgetting
where he or she put the car keys. So what? Never, ever offer to help solve
this problem. It is not your problem. The only time to attempt to solve
someone else's problem is when they hire you to do it. Thus, the goal of
using problem solving to maximize employment. This is the highest form of
evolution of human intelligence. Or maybe the lowest, since this art is
usually practiced by government. INVENTORY YOUR
PROBLEMS A very useful thing to do is make a
list of your problems which you think need to be solved. Then decide in
each case...is it really your problem, or is it someone else's
problem. This is called Problem
Reduction. Using Problem Reduction decreases the
number of solutions you need. For the remaining problems, consider at
least two altertaive solutions. For example, if your problem is your
cost of living exceeds your income, there are two obvious
solutions....increase your income, or decrease your cost of
living. At this point, make a list of
alternative solutions for each solution. For example, for the "increase your
income" solution, you could: (A) Get a better
job (B) Rob a bank (C) Start an internet
company (D) Buy a lottery
ticket (E) Get a second
job You should try to come up with at least
10 possible solutions. Then, evaluate the probability of
success for each solution. For example, winning the lottery is about a 1
in 20 million chance. Low probability. Robbing a bank will probably land
you in jail. Eventually you may run out of high probability solutions,
which means you should either add some more solutions to the list, or go
to the other category...reduce your cost of living. In that category you could come up with
at least ten ways to reduce how much you spend. But then, consider the
probability of success of each. How many times have you disconnected your
cable service to save money, to only reinstate it when the next good fight
is on HBO? The problem with the problem here is
that eventually some bank will send you a credit card, and you will solve
your problem by running up more debt. Which will be solved when another bank
sends you a new credit card, so you can "balance transfer" the old card
debt to the new one. You could of course go bankrupt, which
is America's way of starting over, which the banks want to make harder to
do since everyone is using their credit cards to solve the problem of not
enough income to meet expenses. Imagine Eve reaching for a credit card
instead of an apple. CONCLUSION The ability to identify problems and
solve them started with a monkey who kept falling off a limb. What we have
accomplished in 2 million years of evolution in problem solving is to
invent new limbs to fall
from. |
Copyright 1999-2008 by Hugh A. Holub
