Problem Solving

On the Solving of Problems

If there is one area more than any other where my contribution has been greatest, it is in the solving of problems. This has applied to both my professional career and my private life, and has covered a variety of disciplines, both technical and non-technical.

Here are some of my beliefs about problems and their solutions:

All problems have a solution.
Some problems have many solutions.
One solution is usually clearly the best.
The first solution you think of is usually not the best solution. So it pays to keep on thinking for a while rather than to rush into implementing the first solution you thought of.
When you do think of the "right" solution, you will know it straight away. It will be immediately obvious that it is right and not just depend on the last decimal place of some detailed analysis.
Most problems have a simple solution.
The simplest solution is nearly always the best.
If a problem seems to have no simple solution, it can be split into two or more separate problems which do have a simple solution.
Simple solutions that are obviously best, are easiest to "sell" to other people.
Finding solutions to problems is a skill (or a gift?) which applies across disciplines. If you are good at solving problems in one discipline, you will also be good in any other discipline provided you ask enough questions to find out what is going on. (e.g. Feynman and the Challenger Disaster Enquiry).

As a personal example of several of these points, my biggest single contibution to the Oxford Medical business, was the addition of a simple ring of Water Colour Paper, to a slipping-clutch, which had been failing in use. Its importance was that it fixed a problem that had defeated us through several redesigns and was about to put us out of the recorder business. Yet the solution, once thought of, was incredibly simple to implement; it was immediately and obviously "right" and it was outside my normal electronics discipline.