(Dedicated to my friend Gili, one of the few who truly understand…)
Friday morning, 6:45. I am just about to leave for my weekly cycling. I push the ‘on’ button on my computer to check e-mail. The computer starts up, but a couple of seconds later, instead of making the normal sounds of the operating system booting, it shuts down. My senses sharpen, adrenaline’s pumping. Like a wild animal sensing a threat, I enter troubleshooting mode.
Wearing my thinking cap, equipped with some experience and healthy logic, I apply rule number 1: “Perhaps the problem is not really a problem – confirm.” Naturally, I try to turn the computer on again. The same thing happens: I press the button, the computer starts running and 2-3 seconds after it shuts down.
Continue reading ‘The better you understand the problem, The better the solution’
Posted in Problem Solving categories |
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A man walks into a store. He selects a hat priced at $7 and gives the salesman a $10 bill. There is no change in the till, so
the salesman takes the bill over to the neighbor to break it. He comes back, gives the buyer the hat and $3 change. The next day the neighbor comes in and tells the salesman that the $10 bill he broke is counterfeit. The salesman takes a look at the bill and sees it is indeed a fake. He apologizes and gives the neighbor a new, genuine $10 bill. The question is: how much has the salesman lost in this triple transaction (assuming, for simplicity’s sake, that the price of the hat was equal to its cost)?
Continue reading ‘State analysis (sometimes, the problem is too easy to be easily solved)’
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In this post I’d like to discuss an intersting “Mental Block” we all suffer from.
Let’s begin with a simple puzzle:
One of the king’s servants presents him with a bottle and says, “I have in this bottle a magic substance that can dissolve any other substance”. How did the king know immediately that his servant was lying?
The answer is very simple:
If it can dissolve anything, how come it doesn’t dissolve the bottle?!
This is a simple puzzle, and yet many of us need to think a while before we come up with the answer. Why is that?
Continue reading ‘Spot your blind spot’
Posted in Fixednesses categories |
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Have you ever seen a policeman giving a ticket to someone honking their car horn in a no-honking zone or at 2 am? In all of my 37 years I have seen (and gotten) speeding, parking, j-walking (etc.) tickets switching hands from the policeman’s to the felon’s. Not once have I seen a driver getting a ticket for miss-honking.
©iStockphoto.com/divanir4a
As a “walker”, I find all this honking quite annoying. One thing is sitting in the car with your windows closed and radio on, another thing is standing next to a nervous wreck in the form of a driver in the rush hour, honking at cars failing to move 0.00001 seconds after the traffic light has turned green.
Now, this is, my friends - a problem. Not a “challenge”, not an “issue” and certainly not an “opportunity” but one big, annoying problem.
Continue reading ‘…and everything is honky dory’
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This is not a ‘check-out-this-cool-link’ post. It’s not a ‘I-need-to-pitch-a-sale-so-I’m-faking-a-
blog’ either. Not even a ‘I’m here I’m here’, post. It’s a simple ‘I-think-I-have-a-genuine-
insight-to-share-and-would-appreciate-your-thoughts’ post. The good old kind. Its probably my insight only because I was too lazy to look it up, or because I just didn’t share it with anyone to hear them say: Duh!
So for all it’s worth here it is. Enjoy!
© iStockphoto.com/Ljupco
They say that knowing the problem is half way to meeting the solution. I think, who ever said that was either grossly mistaken or had never met with a real problem :). Nevertheless, I must agree that ‘Knowing’ the problem, can be, instrumental for its resolution. But Knowing the problem can’t be a problem. Can it? Knowing is easy. The problem is a noisy pesky fellow, difficult to miss. So all we need is someone with a hefty creativity-out of the box-weapon, to blast it clear. We meet with experts, offering to help us find a creative solution to a problem, your problem, any problem. And as great as they are (and many times, they are!), they too often miss-shoot. Continue reading ‘Aiming at ghosts’
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