The Art of Problem Solving : Mental Models
It depends.
I find myself using this expression increasingly in work and personal conversations. Kind of annoying, right? I know, but stay with me for a bit on this one. Most things in life have nuances that are often overlooked. There is a true danger in solving for the the wrong problems, or problems that are not well understood.
Several years ago, I began meditating on a daily (ok, frequent) basis, and I was totally blown away by the benefits it brought into my life! During a conversation with my father — a tough (secretly soft), disciplined military man who has always been involved in efforts on the ground to improve the overall economic situation in Pakistan — I mentioned that we should consider building a program to introduce meditation to the masses at scale, and quoted a number of studies showing positive results from similar programs around the world. He simply responded : for someone who doesn’t have the security of their next meal, or safety and shelter for themselves and their family, meditation is a luxury they simply cannot afford right now. Not that we shouldn’t try, but that we have to be realistic about our efforts, and the order of how and what we’re solving for.
“A problem well-stated is a problem half solved.”
- Charles Kettering
I realized in that moment how completely out of touch some of these ideas felt — not because they aren’t good ideas that truly have the potential to drive positive change, but because I failed to understand the full scope of the problem. A square peg into a round hole. The foundational forces are unmet, therefore too shaky for consistency to form, and this would be a wasted effort without getting to the core of the problem. My error was taking a copy/paste approach to solve for symptoms of a problem, without taking into account the nuances of circumstances involved.
Problem solving is absolutely thrilling to me! I get it wrong so many times, but I also get it right so many others. And that’s all part of the process.
I now have many favorite lessons on problem solving that I’ve learned from a lot of doing. I spent some time deeply thinking about it, and decided to break down some of my very abstract problem solving process and share what I have found most effective and helpful. Putting brain to keyboard to Medium — then turning that free flow writing draft into something that resembles a systematic process.
Observing my own behavior, I prefer to read articles within the 5–15min reading time range. So for the sake of brevity (working on it..) and more enjoyable reading, we’re going to break these out into a series that you can click on every week or so when I finish writing. Learning is a continuous, endless process, and so is this list (aka this list is far from complete). But we’ll start with a handful for now. Here we go :
- Zooming in, Zooming Out
Storytime : The NewsRun, Social Media - Deconstruct to Core Building Blocks
Storytime : Building Audio Ad Analytics, Analyzing Bots - Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
- Fluid Applicability, but Nuanced
- Hyper-curiosity
- Mindset of Abundance
- Learning, unlearning, and learning some more
- Whiteboard and brainstorm
These techniques are not meant to work in isolation, and the applicability will and should overlap in a lot of ways. You could consider some strategies repetitive, but it’s healthier to frame it as interconnected. To be honest, I hesitated writing this piece because I’d rather not try to over-intellectualize or create too much process around the methods of problem solving — it takes the fun out it! The reality is humans have shared, yet totally unique, experiences and circumstances, giving us our own perspectives and views of the world around us. Mental models and motivations that work for some may not work for others, and we all have our own methods of experiencing the world and thinking through complex problems.
Much more important is to work towards understanding the concepts and essence of the process, and continually practice the mental muscle until it becomes second nature.
We’ll start with Zooming in and Zooming Out, and take it from there. Stay tuned for more!
💡In the meantime, let’s do some crowdsourcing : What are some of your favorite problem solving techniques? Any life hacks and mental models that help you learn and problem solve better? How do you do quality checks on your thought process? Any “learners” or “thinkers” you admire and try to emulate?
Share your wisdom! 🙏🏼
