"The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible." -Arthur C. Clarke
Systematic Problem Solving: Introduction
So previously we talked a lot about the general idea of how we are going to develop a systematic approach to problem solving. This is not the same 3-step plan you may have seen on Lifehacker, which isn't generally very helpful, but an enjoyable read if you have time nonetheless. What we really want is a sturdy frame we can try to squeeze our problems in to in order to make them more manageable and to create a type of assembly line in your mind that will help you to build a solution. Let's go ahead and use this assembly line idea for a few minutes, shall we? Many of you probably don't have an extensive background in manufacturing, but the basic ideas are all we really need here. In a manufacturing assembly line, there is a process, always is there a process. The process begins way before any parts are actually put together also, in the hands of planning and engineering. Given product specifications, an engineer develops a plan, and figures out what may be needed to implement the plan to obtain the final product. This quite often will be a team of engineers of varying sizes, but let's say we just have one engineer building exploding tennis balls for the Acme company (thank you Warner Bros!). What they eventually come up with is a list of parts needed to make the tennis balls, and a list of instructions. The list is scheduled to be built, which starts the process of gathering all the parts needed and getting them to the point of assembly, along with the instructions. Here is where all the components of the process get put together, making the inside and outside parts, and then putting them together to produce one Acme exploding tennis ball. There's a couple of things we should really take notice of here. First, this is an awfully complex and expensive way to go about building just one tennis ball. The process becomes more and more effective after each successive ball is made however, and eventually the costs of engineering and scheduling are far outweighed in the savings gained over having someone figure out how to do it from scratch each time. Second, some parts of the order can be modified or moved around. Would it matter whether the inside or outside was done first if either way you still assemble them into a unit? Of course not. Some parts of the process could even be split into smaller portions to move them around too if we wanted. I hope you're really seeing how a systematic method of problem solving can help us to become much more successful and effective in finding solutions.
Our process, which we will start to unwrap in the next chapter, will wind up coming across very much like this. You'll see that we are going to build up a system that provides form for our exploration of problems, but also one that is modular and customizable, one that dynamically flexes and bends to fit around different categories of problems in vastly different fields being solved by vastly different individuals. Our process will also have a few boundaries in it, naturally, just like we saw at the Acme company. There the sections were divided by department, the engineering was done in one stage, the scheduling in another, and then lastly we had the actual product assembly. Our divisions will have different tasks, but will break down the work involved in a similar manner. Is there another way we could go about solving problems? Sure there is, we can try and come up with a system of solving each problem as it comes up. This might save time in the beginning, but just like we saw in out fictitious manufacturing facility, we can break down and streamline our process a bit to enhance the flow of work and nicely reduce the amount of work will have to go into each problem. I hope you're really getting excited about getting into some of the details of how to build the form of our system, because that's where we are heading next, and we will also begin to dig into our first example problem.
Enjoy your day!
Tristen
Our process, which we will start to unwrap in the next chapter, will wind up coming across very much like this. You'll see that we are going to build up a system that provides form for our exploration of problems, but also one that is modular and customizable, one that dynamically flexes and bends to fit around different categories of problems in vastly different fields being solved by vastly different individuals. Our process will also have a few boundaries in it, naturally, just like we saw at the Acme company. There the sections were divided by department, the engineering was done in one stage, the scheduling in another, and then lastly we had the actual product assembly. Our divisions will have different tasks, but will break down the work involved in a similar manner. Is there another way we could go about solving problems? Sure there is, we can try and come up with a system of solving each problem as it comes up. This might save time in the beginning, but just like we saw in out fictitious manufacturing facility, we can break down and streamline our process a bit to enhance the flow of work and nicely reduce the amount of work will have to go into each problem. I hope you're really getting excited about getting into some of the details of how to build the form of our system, because that's where we are heading next, and we will also begin to dig into our first example problem.
Enjoy your day!
Tristen