(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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About a month ago, I gave a workshop in a Systems Engineering course at a large hi-tech company. The topic was:
creativity in problem solving. I started the class with an exercise. I presented a tender issued by the Ministry of Transport for the development of a portable instrument for measuring drivers’ response time. A strong correlation has been found between slow response time and presence of alcohol/drugs in the blood system. The instrument would be used when a police officer pulls over a driver suspected of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
Continue reading ‘Simple but not simpler’
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