February 17, 2005
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Problem Solving
Them: Decide in haste, repent at leisure.
Me: But we don't have the luxury of time!
This conversation, distilled to its essence, was repeated in two entirely separate parts of my life in the last week. In each case, I saw a looming crisis and the other party saw a major decision requiring lengthy analysis. This is the kind of difference of opinion of which sound decisions are eventually made, of course, but it does give me personal pause.
Am I really a Chicken Little? Always dashing about in a panic, staring wide-eyed at the sky, rallying equally skittish fellows to my ill-considered cause?
I will say that the appropriate analogy for my standard approach to problem-solving is to ignore the instruction book and just start pushing buttons. Rapidly.
What's yours?
Comments (14)
it's the red button, right?
i am not a good panic person, even. i forget to push the buttons. or manage to push the wrong one at the first try.
with regard to problem-solving, i ignore the instruction book as well. only to come back to it when all the pieces have been irreparably twisted or forced into an unnatural configuration.
what button again?
My approach is to be highly skeptical of instruction books, and to wait for the buttons to tell me when they need to be pushed. The rationalist would insist that buttons don't talk, and therefore my approach is "highly irrational," which to a rationalist is the worst thing to be. But we don't have the luxury of time, not to follow instruction books that are written for preconceived situations, which is likely not our situation. "A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving." ~Lao Tzu
if you distilled me-n-bill's discussion over when-how-why to sell kraphaus, you'd get that exact same thing. i wanted to leave now!right now!who cares what it sells for as long as it sells! and bill wanted to research and test waters and think and aaaaaaaaaah come over here so i can strangle you with this faulty wiring!
in the end, we sold it fast, for a profit. and as utterly frustrating as it can be to actually try to work things out, the best compromises seem to come from those two opposite points of view.
I generally memorize the instruction book before hand, because I'm a control freak like that.
And here I thought you read everything... ((smiles))
I read the instructions. I make sure I know what goes where and why. Sometimes I have to rewrite the instructions. If any button-pushers start rushing in, I slap their hands. If that doesn't work, I have them escorted out of the control room. I don't want them to blow my ass away.
How do you decide which button to push first?
The way you make decisions is one of those dimensions of the Myers-Briggs test, but I forget which one. Maybe it's the Perceiver versus Judger. I guess everyone does have their own style of problem solving. I'm not really sure what mine is, though.
I never learned the meaning of the acronym RTFM. Just give me a keyboard and I'll push all the buttons and see which one works!
Pushing buttons is how I learned to use the computer. If I was reading the instructions, I would still be reading it. Both the best and worst things that have happened in my life are a result of this philosophy - what great and memorable lessons!!!
As the saying goes, I'd rather apologize than ask permission.
I wait until the fire that's lit under me actually starts my ass on fire...
that's my typical M.O.
i just start pressing buttons until something happens........
take the blue pill....... no, the red one......
hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....
I love your site!
I'd like to subscribe! I'm turning 49 in a few weeks and I loved my 40's (and accomplished more in them than any other decade).
Thanks for your words!
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