Problem Solving

Problems have multiple solutions at multiple levels.
- It's easier to solve a series of simple subproblems than it is to solve one big complex problem directly.
- Someone else might have already solved your problem or part of it!
The best thing that can be done to a problem is not to solve it but to dissolve it.
- A problem well stated is a problem half solved.
- Insight is best thought of as a change in problem representation. The way we frame problems makes them more or less difficult.
- All we do, all we ever do, is trade one set of problems for another.
Don't focus on a particular solution to a problem, instead, describe the problem itself. Always provide the full context of what you're trying to do when requesting help.
Humans get obsessed with solutions rather than first building an obsession with a problem. Obsess around problems, not solutions.
We don't even realize something is broken until someone else shows us a better way.
Most of the time problems already have solutions:
- The first group of people that encounter a problem don't know how to solve it.
- They figure out a way of doing it, and when they get to a solution that's good enough (not perfect, just good enough), that's what they settle on.
- The next time they encounter the problem, they use the same solution.
- That keeps happening until later people don't even think about how to do it. It's just how things are done.
There are usually a number of possibilities for solving a problem. The first would be any solution that quickly gets the job done yet not actually permanent while the second would be a proper solution – which unfortunately takes longer and costs more. Know when to choose each option. Nothing is more permanent than a temporary solution.
- Solve problems by fixing the environment that allowed them to occur.
Problem solving can be understood as a search problem. You start in some state, there's a set of neighbor states you can move to, and a final state that you would like to end up in.
- Experiment more. Solve problems in different ways.
- Focus on the changes you have to do between your state and the desired ones.
Taking breaks during working on a problem solving is called incubation. Incubation enhances problem solving ability.
Problems are not disciplinary in nature but are holistic.
- Is there something you could do about that problem in the next five minutes?
To improve problem solving, one should study solved problems, attack the problem while in different moods, and try explaining the problem to others. Explaining problems is good. Often in the process of laying out a problem, a solution will present itself.
What's standard practice in one field, is novel in another - all of the low hanging fruit in ideas is in connections.
Value functional decomposition. Functions are a powerful abstraction, not just for writing less code, but for thinking about problems.
Grossman's Law: Complex problems have simple, easy to understand wrong answers. Simple explanations are appealing even when they're wrong.
Aim for a Minimum Viable Solution. Start small and iterate. Fail early and learn from it. That allows you to explore, then exploit.
Break down large problems into smaller ones. Chart a course and then create incentives for people to act/solve on them. Coordination is the key part of solving these kind of problems.
When we have a problem, our instinct is to add a new habit or purchase a fix. But sometimes, you can improve your life by taking things away (Via Negativa). For example, the foods you avoid are more important than the foods you eat.
Your problems will tend to either be adaptive or technical. Adaptive problems require experimentation, novel strategies, or new ways of thinking and being; they're problems containing "unknown unknowns" and are often opaque in addition to being difficult. Technical problems may be equally difficult, but their difficulty lies in execution. Technical problems are those where the path to the solution is known or knowable and does not need to be discovered.
There's a kind of thinking you do without trying to. This type of thinking is not merely helpful in solving hard problems, but necessary. The tricky part is, you can only control it indirectly. Try to get yourself into situations where the most urgent problems are ones you want to think about.
If a problem has no solution, it may not be a problem, but a fact - not to be solved, but to be coped with over time.
Sometimes you can find the solution easier if you think about how not to solve the problem (Inversion Principle).
Keep the end goal in mind. Don't Shave That Yak!
The Copenhagen Interpretation of Ethics says that when you observe or interact with a problem in any way, you can be blamed for it. At the very least, you are to blame for not doing more. ^ec616e

Five Whys

Ask "why" 5 times, until you get to the root cause of your issue. Five Whys is a technique for getting to the root cause of a problem. Solutions solve for symptoms, and they might be short-term fixes; whereas countermeasures propose a preventative response to the problem — ensuring it doesn't recur in the long term.

The simple steps:

Define the problem.
Ask "Why do I have this problem? / What is causing this problem?".
Make the answer as concrete as possible.
Repeat steps 2 and 3 until you run out of more ideas. (Aim for at least five times.)
Brainstorm solutions to each answer. What specific action might resolve that problem?
Choose 2-3 solutions to test. If these are not sufficient, you can go back to test others.

Many problems have more than one root cause, so you may need to repeat the above for different starting questions.

Resources

Untools. Collection of thinking tools and frameworks to help you solve problems, make decisions and understand systems.